I feel so broken, so defective

I went back to the doctor today. (TMI WARNING: the squeamish and anyone related to me should bail now)

Last month I mentioned that I was having problems with my periods, specifically that I got one only 16 days after the previous one. The doctor said that everything appeared normal, it might just be stress, and to keep an eye on my cycles for a while. The one after that was right on schedule if not a tad bit late, but it’s been going for about 20 days now nonstop. Also, I’ve had very sore breasts, and normally I get a little bit of that around my period but this is to the extent that I can’t sleep on my stomach.

Seriously, not fun.

He said that it was, of course, not normal, but that it could be attributed to any number of reasons: the fact that I was training for the marathon and then stopped; the diva cup, although that’s unlikely; stress; hormonal fluctuations; needing a new IUD. I told him that I didn’t want to be on birth control pills to regulate my hormones, which was one recommended course of treatment. He sent me for bloodwork and told me to go to an ob/gyn for further testing. They may need to do an endometrial biopsy, or go exploring in my uterus with a tiny little Utero-Cam, or possibly take out my IUD and give me a new one, and none of these options is anything I want to do because in my experience, any kind of medical-related jacking around up in there causes extreme crying-and-throwing-up style pain.

I will, however, be a good little patient and call for the ob/gyn consult.

The good news is that he said that it was unlikely to be cancer, which was of course the thing I am secretly terrified of (breast b/c of the soreness, and ovarian because of my family history).

On a side note, I had to see a different doctor because my regular doctor was having her baby today. I’ve always used female doctors; this is the first time I’ve had a male doctor fiddling around in my nethers. It was a bit odd, but not uncomfortable or anything. It’s his job, of course, and even though he WAS rather attractive the whole thing was very clinical. Which is exactly as it should be. I guess I’m only mentioning it because it was a first for me.

I also got my tetanus shot, minus the pertussis vaccine which I am allergic to. My shoulder is very sore right now, and I’ve felt hot and flushed all day. I wasn’t able to find “hot flashes” as a listed side effect anywhere online (the interwebs is THE source of all accurate information, of course!) but I don’t know what else it could be attributed to.

I’m really trying not to worry or freak out too much over this. It could be totally normal. I just feel so abnormal lately.