Links Round Up: Week Ending 16 August 2013

[barrelofrain.livejournal.com]

For folks who don't know, the LRU is a compilation of items from the past week that may be of interest to VPers and is intended to broaden the kinds of conversations we have here. (We're experimenting with moving the LRU to Fridays at the moment.)

To submit articles for next week's round-up, e-mail vpteam@vaginapagina.com. If you have additional articles you'd like folks to know about this week, feel free to comment directly to this post.

As a reminder, in lieu of trigger warnings, I use keywords describing the themes of the piece. Please skim these before deciding to read the excerpt or click through for the full article. Outside sources are not safe spaces, and mainstream source's comments should almost always be avoided. The links I highlight don't necessarily reflect VP's views, or even my own, for that matter.

This week's round-up includes: a breakdown of fertility awareness, questioning "rules" about certain restrictions during pregnancy, informed decisions about the care of extreme preemies, new ideas about the anatomy of the clitoris, "the talk," and public nudity.

( Read more... )

Thoughts on any of these stories? Also, what have you been reading (or writing!) this week?

Period + post-tonsillectomy diet = problems?

[celery-soda.livejournal.com]

I had a tonsillectomy one week ago today. I have had a fairly difficult recover -- I am still on a liquid/soft foods diet. Since "soft foods" isn't precise terminology, I'll expand: the most solid pieces of food I can eat are the chunks in cottage cheese and the mushroom bits in cream of mushroom soup.

I will be on this diet until at least Wednesday, because I am in quite a bit of pain and have had enough post-operative bleeding that my doctor cautioned against moving onto more solid foods until then. On top of all this, I started my period today. (Is period the right term? Breakthrough bleeding?)

I am on Depo-Provera, so I bleed for quite a long time. It raanges between a regular flow to spotting, usually more towards the spotting/light flow side. I cannot really predict how it will act when. This is only the bleed from my third shot, so no pattern has been established long term yet, but the short term pattern of bleeding I got from the first two shots is this:

1. Bleeding roughly in the middle of the shot's effectiveness -- this one started three weeks into the shot, which is a bit early.
2. The bleeding from the second bleed was lighter than that of the first.
3. I was bad and didn't keep track of how long I bled exactly, but it was three or four weeks the first time. I got a separate calendar and started marking it this time around!

So, I assume this bleeding will be lighter, but am still worried about bleeding on top of trying to heal from surgery on top of not being well-nourished. I cannot take vitamin supplements because I cannot swallow them.

Any advice on keeping healthy while all this is going on?

(Also, I request that people don't comment on my choice to use Depo-Provera. Even if you're just trying help by pointing out its potential side effects, or the fact that spotting for a month is really annoying. It has enough benefits for me that the destroyed panties are NBD to me.)

Got my IUD out this week! A little about the procedure

[brigittefires.livejournal.com]

I got my Mirena IUD installed May 2009. So it has only been 4 years and 3 months. But I have had a lot of body changes that have not had any clear causes. More and more I have thought they were related to my IUD, partially just listening to my own body but then also because over the last 18 months I have seen more and more accounts from other people having had the same symptoms I'm having.

( cut for: discussion of weight without specifics but I can't speak to the comments; TMI related to bowel symptoms; and because I use the f word when I write LJ Novellas. )

Summary: IUD removal was fast, fairly painless, though a bit uncomfortable. Concern about getting pregnant is entertainingly strange and yet familiar after 4 years of relative security. Costco condoms are a joke.