I only lasted 10 days with it..here's why..

I had my Mirena placed Friday, Nov 2. I decided it would be most convenient since I do not plan to have another child for at least a couple of years. The insertion was somewhat painful/ caused alot of cramping the first 12 hours or so to follow. When I awoke the next day, I felt better, besides a little bit of bloating, which I dismissed as my body "getting used to" this foreign object in it. I waited until the bleeding had stopped for awhile before I attempted to have sex with my boyfriend, which ended up causing bad cramping, so we decided to wait a couple more days and try again. Over the next week, I stayed fairly bloated and also noticed my back (upper and lower) was always in pain. I even had a massage the following Wednesday and the pain/tightness/stiffness came right back. I didn't associate this with the Mirena though; while I've never injured my back, my stress seems to build and reside there. It was a little excessive though on the pain level. I could never get comfortable sitting or laying down.
On Monday, Nov 12 I had a normal day with it, a little bloated, and of course the all-over back pain that I still wasn't associating with my IUD. That night while cooking dinner I became severly bloated, very rapidly, and also started having very strong cramping and sharp stabbing pains in my lower right abdomen. The stabbing pains were so intense that they would give me a "hot flash" when they happened. I decided to check for my strings, which I made 2 failed attempts at. I figured I just didn't know what I was looking for, so I took 3 ibuprofen and went to bed.
Once in bed, I started having a tingly-cooling sensation on my lower back. I rolled over and made sure I was under the covers and not cold a couple of times and it continued, so I sat up, wondering if I was somehow laying wrong. My boyfriend attempted to rub my back to see how it felt to me and it did really feel like it was going numb. I got out of bed and walked around to see if it would go away, only to feel a sharper pins-and-needles feeling on the heels and balls of my bare feet when they touched the floor.
At this point, I decided to call my OB to talk to a nurse on call. Once she called back I explained to her not being able to find strings and all of my symptoms, leading up to the one that made no sense to me but bothered me most - the numbing feeling going from my lower back down my legs. She told me that if the pain worsened to call back and to try to get some rest and call in the morning if I was still having issues. Rest? I can't rest when my legs are aching due to feeling like they are starting to go numb, or I'm worried why my body is going numb in the frist place.
I try to not read up on the internet about symptoms too much, so as to not tempt myself to self-diagnose, but I decided to google "mirena numbing legs", I think it was, and up came tons of blogs about how this had happeend to so many others. Most of the women either didn't connect it to Mirena or once they suspscted it, their doctors usually told them there was no possible way that the IUD was the culprit. This bothered me more and more as I read more counts of the same things I was feeling. One person said she only had it in for 2 weeks and still had residual/ recurring symptoms, especially around her monthly period. i then went back to my search results and found a link to livestrong.com saying that Sciatica is a potential side effect for some women who use Mirena. Not a blog, an actual medical site. That was it...I was going to drive myself to the ER and get it out of me right then!
My boyfriend woke up as I was dressing and told me there was no way I was driving myself, so off we went. About 1.5 hours later, the Dr decides to follow my wishes, do a pelvic exam, and then remove it for me. Only....HE can't find the strings either! That was so scary to me. A doctor with all of his equipment (and a much better view than myself), and knowledge of body parts cannot find it either? They did a urine test which said my white blood cell count was a little high, but not high enough for him to say I had an infection. I paid my $150 co-pay and was discharged. I knew I would call my doctor the moment they opened the next day and demand they take it out. I have seen where all of these doctors refused to remove it or told their patients to stick with it for 3 months or however long....but it's my body, it was my choice to purchase it and pay to have it put in, and it's also my choice to tell them to take it out. I was ready to put up a fight.
I went to my appointment at 11:15 am, told the nurse a little bit of background, and the PA came right in and said "so I hear you want your Mirena out? Well let's get it out, then." Easy as that! It did not hurt one bit and she barely asked any questions and removed it, and called in my rx for my Jolessa, which I had previously been on with absolutely no side effects at all.
Lesson learned - it's taking a pill once a day, none of us are too lazy to just do that...sure it seems more convenient not to have to worry about taking anything and know you're protected in 2 ways, but at what cost? If your current or past regime/ rx works, don't change it. Yes there are women who say that Mirena was wonderful for them, but there's also women who say that the birth control that's worked for you for years made them gain weight, have acne, and all sorts of other issues you may have never experienced. We all have a different chemical/ hormonal makeup, so no one solution is going to work the best for everyone. Tweet