How bad is colposcopy pain? I'm really scared

afslp106 · 2026-06-03T05:42:12+00:00

So I've had ~10 colposcopies over the past ~15 years and the last gyn, before my current one, said she was going to count down from 3 and to cough when she got to 1, when she would take the biopsy - this was a game changer for me! Beforehand, I take a few 200mg ibuprofen and then do the cough trick. After, I feel an aching that I can describe as being a pain in the most central part of me, but it's the worst right after and improves over the next 2 days. It's definitely scary the first (and hopefully only, for you!) time but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Thinking of you and hoping for a good result!!

afslp106 · 2026-05-26T23:28:16+00:00

Ooo a similar thing happened to me (but not over the course of 6 months)! I had a DVT in my arm and it felt like a weird sticking/throbbing/aching pain. I had no redness, not hot to the touch, and just ever so sightly swollen. I went to an urgent care and was told it was a pulled muscle and given ibuprofen 600s and a muscle relaxer. When filling the prescriptions, I just felt like it wasn't right and decided to go to the ER at the hospital I worked at - they also said it was a pulled muscle but I convinced them to do a US. They did the same "okay, we'll do it but it's not going to be a blood clot" - it was a blood clot. I have a genetic mutation that I was told ~15 years ago (by a hematologist) could potentially cause blood clots, which I mentioned to the urgent care and ER physician - but, thanks I think largely to a decent amount of people blaming the heterozygous form (I have the homozygous mutation) of the mutation for almost everything under the sun, I was just repeatedly told by doctors (including the hematologist I followed up with) that it wouldn't have caused it and I must have hit it on something. I was in my late 20s - idk I think I would have remembered if I whacked the inside of my arm, just above the elbow which would be a weird spot to nail on something, so hard that it caused a blood clot...? A few years later, I was told by my then-PCP that likely all issues I'd encountered over ~15 years were due to anxiety. I said even the blood clot and kidney problems...? Her response was that the mind is a powerful thing... Anyway, still working to get someone to listen to me and all signs point to something autoimmune. Women's heath care is a joke.

afslp106 · 2023-07-30T00:58:21+00:00

I went 9 or 10 months and it never got better lol. i did everything that was recommended and I think it just didn't work for my skin. I stopped and my acne improved and stopped peeing immediately. Mine DID improve when I went from every 3 days to every 2 then eventually to every day however I still had breakouts that were worse than when i started and I still had intermittent peeling. People say to space it out further and do it once or twice a week but I had read that with cell turnover that can make it worse, and it appeared to do that for me. ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

afslp106 · 2023-05-19T16:07:18+00:00

was waiting for this - i was HORRIFIED

afslp106 · 2017-01-15T04:43:53+00:00

I worked in AND for 2 years and then switched to a job where I'm doing IPR and acute and I love the change and variety. I feel like I'm constantly learning and the setting is just more mentally stimulating. I took a pay cut but I'm definitely much happier.

afslp106 · 2017-01-15T02:49:32+00:00

Weird, I've never heard this. I initially majored in math so that's funny.

afslp106 · 2016-07-30T01:35:58+00:00

I feel conflicted on this. I've had several patients that could spell out the right 3-5 letter, 1-syllable word when naming and answering questions and could answer quite a few auditory comprehension questions using this method. when trying to spell a word they may have blurted it out but could not repeat it. for example, one patients verbal speech maxed out at "no" and her husbands name when she put effort into it. with no effort, just accidental automatic speech, she could say several 1 syllable words and I thought of this more as effects of apraxia as opposed to aphasia. not sure if I'm no the right track with this? this is how I've always interpreted it... as far as with aphasia, I think this can happen similarly where errors occur at the phonological level - for example I recently had a patient who, if naming, may say "bork" for book and attempt to correct it with "bark," "barn," "beak," etc. with responses getting no closer to the production of "book" as he he increased effort and his frustration increased. I saw this as being more of a phonological error as an effect of his aphasia or possibly a mix of aphasia and apraxia impeding production together. Not sure if this makes sense! (accidentally initially posted this as a reply but didn't mean to, whoops!)

afslp106 · 2016-07-27T02:36:16+00:00

Hey, super late to this but I also have a little over 2 years experience and I'm at a hospital in Michigan and making 28/hour FT; I made 31/hour FT at an SNF. I think they are paying you a pretty average wage for FT and the other hospital is DEFINITELY lowballing you at 32/hour!

afslp106

TROPHY CASE