I realized the other day that I’ve now had my Mirena IUD for over a year – I don’t remember the exact date I got it, just that it was sometime in January of 2017. A lot of my friends and coworkers have an IUD or are thinking about getting one, and I thought I would talk about it on my blog since I’ve mentioned that I have endometriosis in previous posts.
IUD + Endometriosis Back Story
Let’s start out in the beginning: when I first found out that I had endometriosis I was 14 or 15 (how has it been that long?!), and my family and I had absolutely no idea what that diagnosis meant. The months following my diagnosis were filled with countless doctor visits, ultra sounds, and even surgery, and finally a treatment plan. I was on birth control pills for about five years before my new gynecologist mentioned I should get an IUD, or at least read more about them.
From my understanding, IUD’s were only for women who had already had children, especially since my own mother had gotten one just a couple of years prior. After reading up on them, I realized many women my age – I was 20 at the time – were getting them and foregoing other birth control methods. I was interested, but after years of being poked and prodded, the last thing I wanted was to have a painful IUD insertion. Honestly, I’ve been in and out of the hospital so many times as a kid, so I’m generally a trooper, but if you have endometriosis, you understand that you can be in so much pain already so the thought of adding even more can be daunting.
The whole reason my doctor wanted me to switch to an IUD was because I get blind migraines, or aura migraines as they’re sometimes called. It basically means when I get migraines, all it looks like I can see is the classic “ant screen” on old TV’s – all gray and fuzzy. The first time I got one I was terrified I was going blind, but now I can recognize the warning signs and I’m able to get myself somewhere, hopefully my bed, and just sleep off the aura part.
Apparently this puts me at higher risk for strokes when on birth control pills, so my doctor really wanted me to switch to a different birth control method, like an IUD, to reduce that risk. Of course I wanted to be safe, so after a couple of months of thinking, I decided to give the IUD a shot.
I’m not going to lie, the insertion process was one of the worst experiences of my life. I was a baby and had to have my mom in the room with me to hold my hand, and asked the doctor for anti-anxiety medicine to help me calm down. My doctor was really sweet and talked me through the whole process, and continuously checked to make sure I was okay.
Honestly, the pain afterwards once the numbing gel wore off was the worst. I unfortunately cannot take ibuprofen because of a severe allergy, so tylenol was all I could have and it definitely wasn’t strong enough. I had extreme cramps for several days afterwards, and I’m wondering if it’s because I have endometriosis that I had such a terrible experience the entire week after I got the IUD put in. My friends who have IUD’s say that they only really had pain a day or two afterwards, but for me, I had cramping much longer than that.
My parents were absolute saints and made a ton of food for me to have for leftovers at my apartment, so the “healing” process was a little bit better. Like I said earlier, it took about a week to start to feel normal again, and for about 8 months I didn’t have a regular period cycle, just spotting every now and then.
In September, right in the middle of my vacation to Disneyland, actually, I got a full blown period. It came out of nowhere, and the cramps were awful. It lasted for about two weeks, and in October and November I had a two week period for each month, again with terrible cramps. In December and earlier this month, I had more of a “regular” period that lasted about 10 days, but still with terrible cramps. My doctor said this was all normal and probably just my body getting back on a regular cycle again. I honestly don’t mind the periods since I didn’t have one for about five years while on birth control pills. I guess we’ll see how February goes!
Looking Back on the Past Year
As far as how my IUD has affected my endometriosis, it’s helped a lot. I haven’t gotten any cysts that didn’t resolve themselves, they’ve all gone away with time. While I have had horrible cramps again (I had forgotten how bad mine are!), I’m used to it and my cycle seems to be getting more regular. It’s nice to not have to remember to take a pill at the same time everyday, something that I was terrible at before.
I am a bit of a paranoid person, so I went into my doctor’s office to get my IUD checked out when I started getting my period again. They did an ultrasound to make sure it was in place, and they found no problems with it. I check the strings every month, something I was initially scared to do, (I don’t know why) and it’s nice to have that reassurance that it’s still in place.
My IUD has been great in regulating my endometriosis, and I’m glad to have found a method that doesn’t put me at a higher risk for stroke, as many people I’m sure would be! If you have endometriosis, or just want a different birth control method, I highly recommend getting an IUD. While it sucks at first, and is really painful to get, the benefits far outweigh that part. I definitely do have a love hate relationship with it since I get pretty bad cramps again, but that also just comes with having endometriosis and is something I’m used to.
College can be a strange time in your life – it feels like you’re still a kid, but you’re also expected to take on adult responsibilities, while at the same time not treated like a full-fledged adult. Tricky, right?
It’s overwhelming to choose a major that will possibly affect your entire life, so it’s probably in your best interest to focus on yourself. Be selfish and do exactly what makes you happy; take solo travel trips, eat what you want, do yoga – spend your time how you want to. Whatever you feel is going to help you figure out your life and what you want is what’s best. It won’t be the same for every person, so don’t focus on what everyone else is doing.
Take classes that interest you in college, even if people say it won’t help you in the future. It’s also completely fine to take classes outside of your major if you’ve already decided on one. Maybe they won’t be applicable to your future career, but you’ll be learning something new about a topic that interests you, and that’s still helpful to your life. It’s just as important to foster our curiosity and spark creativity outside of what you’re used to. Some of my favorite classes have been outside of my majors and minors in college.
The truth is, none of us know completely what we’re doing. Even the most seemingly put together people can have no idea what they’re going to do in the future. That’s okay. Focus on what you’re doing now, and keep your options open for the future. Life is more fun when you aren’t following a concrete plan of what you want to do, and oftentimes those plans don’t pan out exactly how you would like them to.
Do what you want in college, and focus on what makes you happy. Be selfish and say no to people if you don’t want to do something, or say yes even if it terrifies you. Be adventurous, or don’t – it’s all up to you, and you don’t have to justify yourself to anyone.
While I was sitting down staring at my 2018 goals in my bullet journal, I noticed so many of my hopes for the year are related to mental health. I thought I would do a blog post about why it’s important to focus on your mental health in the new year, and why I’m glad I started focussing on it in the last couple years. Make sure to read my last post, Simple Ways to Stay Grateful in 2018, because staying grateful and thinking of everything that makes you happy helps with mental health, too!
Start the day doing something you love instead of reading or listening to the news
Go to sleep early(er)
Follow Twitter or Instagram accounts that make you happy
Talk it out
Go outside more
Don’t be afraid to be selfish
Staying on top of your mental health means something different for every single person, and it’s something that’s always a work in progress, so don’t get discouraged if you’re going through a rough patch. It’s just important to do what’s best for you, and there’s absolutely no shame in reaching out if you need help. In fact, it takes a lot of courage to do so.
When I was reflecting back on 2017, I wished I had somehow kept track of everything I was grateful of throughout the year, and everything that made me happy. Looking on Pinterest, I saw so many different people who had done this and all the posts they did when looking back at those memories, so I decided to do just that in 2018.
Over the summer, I did a small version of this, and it was great to think about all the positive things that happened, but I didn’t set one up for the fall because I was so busy, and I stopped intentionally thinking about the positive everyday. Since one of my goals for 2018 is to stay more positive, I am making it a point to reflect on things that make me happy, and all that I am grateful for. These past few months have been filled with too much negative both in my personal life and in the world around me, so I’m going to take my attitude into my own hands, and focus on the good. I realize this won’t ‘fix’ my bad days, but hopefully it’ll make them easier to handle.
Make a special page for it in your journal or planner
Fill a jar with little notes
Make notes in your phone
Take photos of happy memories
Happy 2018! I cannot believe 2017 is over – I think it’s the fastest year that’s gone by for me. It’s crazy that this is the year that I’m graduating from college.
Along with a new year came getting organized for it, which included cleaning my room (a work in progress) and setting up my bullet journal. I’ll have a video and post up about that setup soon, but first I wanted to have a reflection/review post of using the bullet journal system fro six months. First off, it’s crazy to think I’ve been using it for six months!
As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been heavily relying on my bullet journal to stay organized and it’s definitely been a life saver for school. Finals week for fall quarter of 2017 was probably the most organized one I’ve had because I had my bullet journal to stay on track with studying and due dates.
I’ve decided to break up the review into different categories so it’s easier to understand what it’s all about, and see all my thoughts about it!
Functionality
This is definitely the most important part – to me – of a bullet journal, or any planner for that matter. Before I started bullet journaling I was using regular planners that I bought from Target or Nordstrom to stay organized, and they worked just fine. I wanted the ability to personalize it more, though, and be creative while staying organized.
I have found the bullet journal system to be very efficient. The “guidelines” are just that: advice on how to stay organized instead of strict rules that make you adhere to the system fully. You can change up the symbols, not use all of them, or stick to the pre-made ones. I more or less stuck to the set symbols of the bullet journal system (read more about those here) and I found them to fit into my planner pretty seamlessly, and they were easy to get used to.
As for the monthly and weekly spreads, you have a lot of freedom to be as detailed as you want. If you want extensive layouts for the week, or different trackers and various pages for the month, you can definitely do that, but if you want to stay more simple that’s perfectly fine. I found myself switching between detailed and simple a lot depending on how much time I had to make the spread, and how much space I thought I would need for busier or calmer weeks. During school I have more detailed spreads, but over the summer when it was just work I could do some more simple spreads. Over winter break I didn’t bother to have weekly spreads because I was pretty much just working out, sleeping, or watching Harry Potter.
I love the freedom the BuJo’s give you for organizing your life, and it makes them very functional. The fact that it also serves as a journal, cost/health/habit tracker, random idea journal, and whatever else you want it to be, really makes it special and convenient.
Personalization
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| One of my favorite monthly themes and cover page! |
There’s a lot of structure to pre-made planners, but with bullet journals you can organize your weeks however you want, and like I said earlier, use it for things like journal entries or lists. I’ve done this with packing lists before and it’s nice to have it cataloged for future use, and it’s also nice to have a quick written reflection on months.
Quality
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| This was all watercolor, and the pages held up really well! |
The pages are also thick enough that I haven’t had any pens bleed through, only a couple of my water-based lettering pens when I go over a spot too many times with the color. They also work nicely with watercolor, which I use occasionally for monthly cover pages. The dots on the pages are pretty standard, and I don’t know if there’s much variation between journals that different companies make.
There’s also nice folders in the back to put loose paper in the journal, and a couple bookmarks attached so you can keep your place, or mark an important page.
Overall, I’m really satisfied with how this journal has lasted for the last six months!
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| Another watercolor heavy page that held up just fine! |
Cost
Mental health is a hot topic among college students – mainly because so many struggle with keeping up with it. College is a super exciting time, but it’s easy to get overwhelmed when it starts to get busy. In order to avoid all of that, here are…
….five tips to get the year started right and stay on top of your mental health!
1. Make sure you have a planner or organizational system that works for you
2. Get enough sleep!
3. Have a relaxing outlet
4. Spend time with people who make you happy
5. Get outside
Succeeding in college isn’t only about getting good grades, studying for tests, and doing homework; it’s also important to make sure you’re staying creative and living holistically. It’s easy to get stuck in the rut of studying for classes and getting stressed out, and not having a creative outlet to destress. Personally, I think it’s really important to remain creative throughout college to give yourself a break from all of the busyness, but when you make it a priority it gets easier.
Here are 5 tips on how to be creative in college:
1. Prioritize your time so you have plenty of it to be creative
2. Have a couple of art supplies with you at all times
3. Give an artistic flare to your notes
4. Make art with friends
5. Keep an eye out on Groupon for art classes
I remember one of the scariest parts before leaving for college freshman year was making sure I had everything I needed. I made multiple lists, pinned a ton, and still ended up forgetting things. My mom is the ultimate packer, though, and got the things I forgot (thanks mom!) luckily. My dad, of course, gave me such a hard time about having a lot of stuff, but hey I was prepared for anything. The feeling of forgetting something doesn’t ever go away from me, but once I made a master list of all that I would need for my dorm, I felt a lot better.
Since I found the list so helpful, I decided to make a digital copy for you guys, so you can use it yourselves! I found packing lists on Pinterest to be really useful, but I wanted to make one with all the things I know that I ended up using after Freshman year. Now a senior, I feel like I have the packing thing down pretty well and know what I’ll end up needing!
Below is both a photo and PDF version of the list I made – print it out and use it how you’d like!
I didn’t want to stop there, though, and wanted to give you some tips on moving in, since a lot of people will be doing that soon and are feeling the stress that moving brings! College honestly just feels like a constant state of moving, and I actually just moved myself into my friend’s apartment for the summer, and I’ll be moving into my new apartment in September. Yay moving!!! (I’ve come to hate it so much). Since I’ve been moving so much these past couple of years – in and out of dorms, and my family moved about a year and a half ago – I want to share what really helps me.
1. This may sound obvious, but make sure you stay well hydrated and fed.
Moving is already terrible enough – add in thirst and hunger and you have a recipe for disaster. I will be the first to admit that I get hangry, so for the sake of my family I try and have snacks available so no one (me) starts getting unnecessarily angry. It’s also the worst when you’re super thirsty and having to do a bunch of manual labor (moving is hard!), so make sure you have plenty of water. If anyone is helping you move, it’s also nice to make sure they have food and water!
2. Wear comfortable clothes and shoes.
While moving, you are going to get hot and sweaty. There’s really no getting around that, unfortunately. To help with this, make sure you wear clothes that will let your skin breath, and won’t be super uncomfortable when you’re having to bend down a lot and pick up boxes and move random things. I also can’t stress how important it is to wear comfy shoes! I made the mistake of wearing a newer pair of sandals that I thought were really comfortable but ended up being a little bit too big, so once my feet started getting a little sweaty (hey, it happens), I got a blister on my heal from the friction. By the end of the day, my feet were absolutely killing me, and all I wanted to do was soak them in hot water.
3. Enlist help
Beg, plead, and bribe your friends and family to help you move. It’s hard work, and you’ll be glad you have the help. Like I said earlier, offer to buy them pizza, coffee, or their favorite food to get them to help you. My parents and boyfriend are the sweetest and graciously helped me move, and I know a lot of my friends ask their family to help, too.
4. Start packing well before the move.
I try and not procrastinate on things, but since I hate packing and moving so much I always wait too long to do so. I packed up my apartment a couple of days before I moved, and ended up staying up till, like, three in the morning and moved the next day. Don’t do this! Learn from my mistakes! Start packing a week or two in advance, depending on how much stuff you want to bring to your dorm. Try and make it as easy as possible on yourself, even if you hate packing like I do. I’ve definitely learned my lesson, and since I know I’ll be moving again soon, I haven’t unpacked a ton of my boxes because I know I’ll just have to pack up all of the stuff again.
5. To help with packing, go through your stuff and get rid of anything you don’t use.
I still need to do this, because as I was packing I realized I have a lot of junk that I really don’t need. I especially need to go through my closet, but being at college is weird because you have some stuff at home, and some stuff at your closet at school, and it’s all kind of a jumbled mess. To lessen the load, though, it really helps to go through your stuff and get rid of unnecessary items that you know you won’t be using at your dorm. You can donate the stuff to places like Goodwill, and someone down the road will use it!
6. Label what’s in your boxes, with a lot of detail.
I like to label my boxes with as much detail as possible, and list a lot of what’s in the box. Oftentimes I’ll label bigger items that are in there so I’ll hopefully remember what all I ended up putting in the box. This really helps for the unpacking process so you know where to put which boxes, and so you don’t end up losing anything. Also, it’s really helpful to know if you won’t need to open a box as soon as you get to your dorm, so you can save some time unpacking and spend it getting to know people on your floor, instead.
7. If you can, use a cart or dolly of some sort to move boxes.
Again, this is fairly obvious, but sometimes you have to reserve a moving cart or dolly in advance, so it’s important to keep in mind! Having one of these is really useful and makes the unloading part of moving go a lot smoother and quicker. Alternatively, if you or someone you know has a dolly, definitely ask if you can use it because it makes it easier to move boxes around quickly, and they’re of course a lot lighter to move.
8. Keep your clothes on the hanger and just bag them up.
This is super nice because you can quickly hang them back up in your dorm closet, and you don’t have to waste time folding and unfolding clothes. I did this my freshman year, and I’ve been doing it ever since!
9. Coordinate with your roommate(s) about move-in dates.
If you aren’t already assigned a move-in date and time, make sure you talk to your future roommate and ask them when they’ll be moving in. This is just nice so you know if you should go earlier or later to avoid two people trying to move in at once, each with a ton of boxes. My roommate was assigned an earlier move-in time, so it was really nice to not have to worry about running into someone else moving boxes at the same time.
10. Keep any decorations you’ll want to use soon handy.
I didn’t do this my freshman year, and I really wish I had at least kept my photos handy. I ended up feeling really homesick the first couple of days so it would’ve been really nice to have photos of my friends and family handy. If you know what sort of decorations you want to put in your dorm, make sure to keep them on the top of a box, or somewhere that’s really easy to get to so you can start making the place feel like home! It’s important to do this soon, especially if you’re a person who gets homesick really easily.
Alright, those are my tips on moving into your college dorm, and a packing list! I hope this post was helpful, and that it eases your nerves just a little bit. I remember how I felt freshman year, and it really helped to know I was prepared to move in. It’s crazy that it’s already August, and that people are going to start moving into their dorms soon!
Also, check out the video I did of this below!
For the month of August I did a cacti/succulent theme, and was oddly inspired by my sheets! I got them from Target and they’re covered in really cute cacti. Having a desert theme also seemed perfect because we are having such hot weather in Seattle right now. It definitely feels like a desert here!
You can watch the video version of my plan with me below! It was oddly satisfying watching it come together, and seeing how my monthly spread looked like in a time lapse. I’m a sucker for a good time lapse!
Here’s how the cover photo turned out!
I hadn’t known that bullet journals were not only planners, but actual journals as well – silly, I know. I personally have (or had, now) a planner, a separate journal for my thoughts, and another journal for goals/ideas. Obviously I couldn’t carry around all three, so I’d usually just carry my planner around with me. My phone is full of notes and ideas since I didn’t always have my “ideas” journal with me, so it would result in a lot of lists later that I couldn’t really make sense of.
With my bullet journal, I can have designated pages that are solely for lists and ideas, or anything else I’d like to put in there. I really like the creative freedom you can have with bullet journals, and that you can follow the system loosely and make up your own rules. I’ve found it’s been great to sit down on Sunday afternoon and figure out the week ahead, and see what all I have to do. It’s quickly become a part of my weekly and daily routine to set up the week on Sunday and get ready, and then come back after work and update my journal.
Another part I love about bullet journaling are the different “trackers.” Currently I have a habit tracker and mood tracker, and I think next month I’ll add in an expense tracker, too. Visually checking in with my goals for the month and year has been helping so much in keeping myself accountable, and it’s cool to see them fill in. I love filling in those little boxes, so it keeps me motivated, too! This has also been great in setting realistic goals, and also seeing where I can push a little more to set a higher goal.
So far I’ve been keeping my journal relatively simple, but I’m excited to become more creative in the future. I love drawing and painting, so my bullet journal will be a great place to be able to do that in, since I don’t have a whole lot of time to dedicate to that. I really love how you can get super creative and elaborate with bullet journals or keep it simple if you like!
The future log is really important for your bullet journal, because it allows you to see the year at a glance and write in important events. So far I’ve mainly written down birthday’s and holiday’s, but as time goes on there’s more and more to put in the log. I added little doodles for each month to give it some personality, too!
Put in any yearly logs you want, or anything else you’ll want to come back to a lot
These are some of the supplies I’ve been using
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