I survived the IUD swap procedure

Had to take 25 mg of hydroxyzine for my anxiety, and 1,000 mg of acetaminophen + 800 mg ibuprofen just to tolerate the pain.

It was still painful enough to make me scream, but at least it was faster than the first time. She actually knew what she was doing, it seemed like, but I don't think she anticipated how much pain I'd be in.

Also! I think I might be allergic to benzocaine! The topical anaesthetic she used burned like hell.

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the way IUDs are handled feels like the standards of care and best practices were directly pulled from the 1950s without a single alteration
i'm sorry 💔

when i got my last one removed i cried and the doctor laughed at me

Glad you got it over with, and sorry it always hurts so much. Wishing you a speedy recovery comrade.
- Thanks. I'm awake again after a 26-hour mini-coma and have had some cookie dough and fruit juice. I'm gonna play Minecraft now.

If you didn't, you might want to mention that pain with the benzocaine to the doc. I don't have those "parts" but I can imagine some stranger opening up my uretha and jaming objects around in there isn't pleasant at all. Hope you recover quickly and give yourself some excuse for comfort food and a feel good movie to cozy with
- Yeah, while the cervix isn't 1:1 with a urethra, the idea of cramming objects into a tiny hole that was never meant to have objects inside it works well to compare them. I've had a catheter put in before prior to a surgery (they wanted to do a pregnancy test "just in case" even as my appendix was about to burst) and imo the IUD insertion was much worse.

God that sounds awful comrade, major hugs to you

Getting an IUD placed is on up there with most unpleasant experiences of my life. At least it was quick, the doctor who did it was clearly very practiced, and I'd had a valium and some pretty strong ibuprofen beforehand, so that helped, but my god was it awful! I'm just really glad I got my uterus removed so I never have to get another IUD. It's a special kind of pain, having stuff shoved through your cervix, that's for sure.
I'm sorry you had to go through it, hopefully you can take some time to recover and won't have to do it again for several years!
- Several years ago I had to have a catheter put in prior to an appendectomy (they decided that testing to see if I was pregnant first was more important than scanning to see what was going on with my appendix, but I was in too much pain to urinate on my own) and yeah the IUD insertion was worse

My lidocaine injections always burn, but I was told to expect it. Idk about benzocaine though. I'm surprised they use that instead of lidocaine, isn't it less effective?
- I have no idea. She used the topical spray.

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