Well, I usually keep my personal information to myself (OK, that's sort of a lie, I tell my fiance everything...but this is something that he'd never understand). But this concerns me and I don't know exactly what to do. I don't have health insurance (I will soon hopefully, but not now), so I can't go to a doctor about it.
I got my last period on the 18th this month. It lasted until about the 23rd-24th. Then today I started to really bleed again. And for the past few days I've had some excruciating pain down there. I slept in the fetal position because the pains were waking me up last night.
Then this morning I woke up and felt fine. Then about 20 minutes later, I felt like my face was on FIRE and I became so light headed. I ran to the bathroom and looked in the mirror and my face was so pale and my lips were blue. And my face was cold to the touch. Then I dry-heaved (I had just woken up and nothing was in my stomach) for a few minutes. For about 3 hours I felt this face-burning feeling, even though I was like an icicle to the touch, and the lightheaded feeling. Then it stopped. I've had a headache all day (despite some OTC meds I've taken) and still have really bad pains down there.
I don't know if the morning light-headed feeling, the fire-face feeling, and the pains down there are related at all, but I wrote it in case it rings a bell for any of you out there. But I'm really concerned, because this has never happened to me. I've missed periods, but I've never gotten more than one in a week's time. Is this a sign of something? And these pains are really bad. I've had ovarian cysts in the past and this pain is comparable to that pain. It's just making me miserable and I don't know what's wrong. Does anyone have any insight? Anything would be of help, and would be so greatly appreciated.
Hey girl, i know what it is like to be without health insurance. I know it really sucks. The first thing to come to my mind was for you to talk to someone @ planned parenthood, (or a clinic that is similar they will have different names) I looked up the info from KY and posted below. They were always very helpful, and although they might not be open on Sunday, you may reach someone on the phone.
Unfoutunatly, I can't really offer any advise for your specific problem, other then guesses, but that won't help you.
I know sometimes our bodies act in different ways than we expect, and we can let it get us worked up. Best of luck.
Not sure if you know this but hospitals have funds that help pay for people who have no insurance. You can go to the emergency room. When the bill comes call the billing department. They will help you get in touch with their department that helps pay for bills. I have a friend that just went thru the same kind of thing, needed medical attention but no insurance. The hospital ended up absorbing 3/4 of her bill.
When I was about 14 I had a period that lasted (heavily) for 6 weeks, and at the time I was too scared to tell my mom until I was on the verge of collapse. I remember having bad pain and headaches at some points, no energy, slept most all the time I wasn't at school, and I had really bad anxiety because I was so worried about what was wrong with me...I was in the hospital a week with severe anemia..the doctors never really told me what caused the long term bleeding, but they put me on BC to regulate the bleeding and iron to combat the anemia and I have been fine since. I still take the iron on occasion if I start feeling weak.
Dunno if it helps, but I can relate.
Last edited by sockmonkey70; 12-30-2007 at 03:53 AM.
A common cause of heavy bleeding is uterine fibroids -- many women have them, but only about half ever experience symptoms. But there could be a number of other issues as well. Even without insurance, I'd suggest going to a clinic or emergency room and have them examine you. You can make a plan to pay back money, but a serious health issue isn't something you want to avoid dealing with due to lack of insurance.
I second going to a clinic or emergency room. I know it's expensive--but as the other poster said, sometimes part of the cost gets covered, and you can also make a payment plan for the rest. I did that with a gall bladder operation when I didn't have insurance--it took me a couple of years to pay it off, but I did.
Your symptoms are troubling, and you need to be seen by medical people. You could have an infection, and that isn't likely to go away on its own. I urge you to go see a clinic or hospital ASAP.
You need to be seen by a doctor, if you haven't already done so. You can always work out some kind of a repayment plan, but see a doctor today, go to ER or a walkin clinic, but do it now.
You need to go to the ER ASAP. It's worrisome that you had an unusually heavy period and so much pain. But I worry more about the oral cyanosis, the pale face and the burning sensation along with the dry heaves. It sounds like those parts of you body for some reason weren't getting enough oxygen, maybe due to a clot somewhere. Please hurry to the ER and don't worry about the cost. Hospitals have social workers who help with insurance and as previous posters have said, the hospitals will absorb some of the cost and create a payment plan for you. Don't worry about the money--it's not as important as your life.
It may be expensive, but the clincher is that it may be MORE expensive NOT to be seen...NOW. If you let it go and it's serious enough, and getting worse, the costs could run even higher, PLUS the costs to your health could be irreversible. As someone mentioned, hospitals have financial aid depts. to help for low income. There are also clinics that base services on your income, and some hospitals offer call-in services. They'll of course tell you that you need to come in, and you should. But if you're getting insurance soon, as in a couple weeks, and they know that this sounds like something that isn't going to get any worse, it may help you with the decision as to whether you can put it off a short time or not.
Please go to the ER IMMEDIATELY. I don't mean to be alarmist or scare you, but I know 2 women who recently had ectopic pregnancies. Their symptoms included bleeding at what they thought was in between menstrual cycles and the type of pain you're describing. Though as Midwife says, that's only one of a whole bunch of possibilities. But one of the women lost an enormous amount of blood & the dr. said if she didn't get there when she did, she might have died. Also, certain conditions can affect your future fertility if they're not taken care of promptly. If you & your fiance are planning to have a family, that's something to take into account too.
Hopefully it's nothing life threatening, but don't hesitate to get it checked out, just to be on the safe side. Let us know how you're doing.
Thank you all so much for your input and concern, it's really wonderful that you all care this much.
I was planning on going to the ER, I had to work though. I haven't been in horrible pain (just light menstrual cramps-like pain) recently so I knew I could make it through my shift fine. Since that one day I've been doing better and better. I was planning on going, but I was feeling better. So I thought "Well, if I get bad pains again or really heavy bleeding, lightheaded, or that burning face feeling, I'll go IMMEDIATELY." But it hasn't happened since. So, I'm assuming that it's not really life threatening.
But, I didn't take it lightly. I did go right ahead and made an appointment with a personal care provider to be seen immediately. I'll let them know all the symptoms I experienced and my concerns. And we'll see if I need tests done then. If between now and that appointment my symptoms come back or get worse, I'll go to the ER.
I was planning on going to the ER, but like I said, my symptoms sort of subsided and I don't feel as though my life is danger any longer. My appointment is really soon though, so no worries, I will get taken care of. =]
Again, thank you all so much for your concern, it's wonderful to know that people out there are really as worried about my health as I am! Thank you so so sooo much!
glad to hear you are feeling better...but please be careful. Hopefully its nothing. But those symptoms are definately probematic sounding...glad to hear you are good.
Sort of a Hard Topic for Me to Talk About...
