I almost bled to death from my period.
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3 years ago, I had been bleeding heavy for 6 months. Birth control pills took the edge off but didn't fix the problem. I was pretty much bed-ridden. D&C was the only thing my gynecologist wanted to do - I knew this wouldn't be the best fix, or it could possible make it worse. But what choice did I have?
Through the course of what seemed like an eternity waiting for D&C, I kept bleeding. One day I woke up with a buzzing in my ears and a faint feeling every time I moved. The night before I had pains in my heart before I went to sleep.
I went to the ER, turns out my BLOOD COUNT WAS IN HALF. Read that again. It took 2 bags of blood to get me back to almost normal. Buzzing in your ears happens when you're close to the end from blood loss, so are heart pains.
That gynecologist was out the door. I found a new lifesaver, she is wonderful. We inserted a Mirena IUD and I'm happy to say I've been alive and well since. My living nightmare was finally over. But we never found a cause - just hormones, my age (36 at the time) and the fact I'd never had children.
I'm lucky to be alive. Surprisingly, I don't feel that way. I'm filled with PTSD, nightmares, horrible mood swings and the feeling of dread for what happens when I take the IUD out. If this makes any sense I never really wanted children but am upset at the fact that I probably can't.
If you've gotten this far thanks for hearing me out. Sometimes it makes you feel better just to get it out.
I'm living proof that if heavy periods go untreated, it can kill you. I was so close. Please don't ignore the signs.
1 like, 1 reply
june94694 ButterflyHMW
Posted
My situation was like yours down to the T. I am also 36 years old and have not had children yet. The only difference is that my bleeding was 1. caused by a liver detox supplement and 2. that I never followed the advice to implant an IUD. I bled for 5 months nonstop after taking the supplement and experienced gushing blood every hour and clots would come out size of fists and looked like fresh cow liver. No hospitals could help me. Only gave me tranexamic clotting meds which would only work for an hour and then the torrential bleeding would start all over. When that didn't work the Gyno put me on high dose BCP at 6 pills a day and I went absolutely mentally insane on them with hot flashes from hell. It was toxic to my body. Still the bleeding continued and to this day, the mental symptoms (felt like drug withdrawal symptoms) took a year to recover from.
One night 5 months in..I lay in bed at peace that I was going to be taken from this life. Still bleeding through and I could feel my heart slowing down and I closed my eyes ready. Unfortunately i fell asleep and woke up in an hour to the same living nightmare. My hemoglobin and ferritin were practically nil but I refused to go to some hospital to be hopped up on any further medication, ones that can be potentially toxic. Miraculously the next day, my mom implored me to go to her acupuncturist. I obliged because I couldn't lose more than I have already. She finally stopped my bleeding. She put needles in the soft knuckle between first finger and middle finger on right hand, and two needles on the side of thumb on left hand. Next session she would alternate the hands. Great..bleeding stopped! Only problem was when aunt flow showed up at some random time, bleeding was still heavy. So I went back each month to stop the bleeding for that week.
Eventually my cycles normalized and were able to stop on their own after 7 days, albeit still too heavy to be functional in society and zaps every bit of energy out of me. Fast forward to now, 18 months later I am doing better and not bleeding to death but periods are still too heavy and I'm changing full overnight pads every 3 hours. Only difference is, I found out what was wrong with me in a strange way. I went to a dentist 2 months ago and the dentist nicked my gums when putting a crown over my filled cavity. He asked if I was on blood thinners and I said no. He stated that he put a strong clotter on my cut and I still continued to bleed. I was thrilled with the information. This meant I had a clotting issue and not a hormone issue. Someone once told me long ago that she took vitamin K to clot her blood. Upon research I found out that the initial detox supplement somehow impaired the production of vitamin k in my liver. It is also produced in gut. This was strange since all my blood clotting tests (INR) came back normal. So last month I started vitamin k and my monthly period improved by 30% considering it hasn't improved much in almost 2 years since the incident. Now I'm taking alfalfa powder to get my vitamin k naturally. I balance this with magnesium and vitamin D. Sorry for the long story but I want to share every detail to possibly help you. I hope you find answers soon!