I like being a woman, but my period never seems to come at a convenient time. Last week when you posted this thread, Hilder, I was due at the hospital early the next morning for a minimally invasive surgical procedure to fix my heart rhythm problem. I knew my period would start for real the next morning, just about the time I was due on the procedure table, but one of the preliminaries of the procedure is that you receive a huge injection of a powerful blood thinner before they begin inserting catheters. I was going to hide the tampon string and try to slip onto the table without telling anyone I was on my cycle, but my husband informed my cardio-electrician when I was in the bathroom that I had started my period, and they arranged to give me something at the end of the procedure to reverse the action of the heparin.

Anyway, long story short? When I woke up after 7 1/2 hours of anesthesia and five subsequent hours flat on my back waiting for the catheter sites to seal sufficiently closed, even with the reversal of the heparin, it looked like someone had shot a deer in my bed. Then I had two days of cramps in the hospital after that. Not fun. No one in hospitals wants anyone wearing tampons with all the nasty bacteria that are rampant in those places and the added risk of sepsis. So I got to enjoy pads that whole time, too. I've been in hospitals three times in the last six months. Each time, I've had my period. This makes me look forward to menopause. Except, with my medical luck, it'll come and then I'll need a hysterectomy for some reason.