The Pill That Got Away

So, yesterday I griped about complications after missing a birth control pill, and it struck me that the incident itself was slightly entertaining due to its mindlessness, and I felt like sharing.

So we were at a BBQ at M's family's house on Saturday, and I had just finished eating. (One upside to the skinny Other Girlfriend being there was that she complained about the food options, something I wasn't brave enough to do, so we did end up having Boca burgers as well). I went over to discretely get the pill from my purse, taking my paper plate with me.

I realized that I didn't have water, so I put the eensy white pill on my plate and went into the kitchen for a drink. Those pills are so tiny that I don't really need water with them, but it's a habit and I'm usually thirsty anyway. I took the last strawberry from my plate and ate it on the way to the kitchen.

I stepped into the kitchen and M's uncle started up a conversation with me. I focused on fielding his questions, very much in Make a Good First Impression on the Family mode, and without even thinking I tossed my plate in the garbage. I left the kitchen and went back to sit down next to Match.

About 3 minutes later I realized that I had no memory of taking the pill. But on the other hand, I didn't have a distinct memory of *not* taking it. Does that make sense? I didn't remember either way. I could have popped it into my mouth when I ate the strawberry. Or I could have left it on the plate. I had totally just blanked out/automatized and had no idea. Kind of like those times when you're driving, maybe you have a lot on your mind, and boom, all of the sudden it's 15 miles later and you have no distinct memory of covering that ground? I am telling you as a biologist: Humans are scary, spacey-brained critters.

I told Match what had happened, and he offered to go check the trash, since my plate was still probably on top. I told him he didn't have to do that, but he assured me that his family "has definitely seen me do weirder things than that." LOL I heart him, you know?

So Match proceeds to go sift through the hamburgery paper plates and beer cans in the kitchen trash can. He didn't find the pill; the plate had tipped, and it was like trying to find the proverbial needle in a rather slimy haystack. Which is probably a good thing because even if he had found it I would have been hesitant to take it after it was in there.

But the conundrum remained: I had no evidence that I had or had not taken the pill. I could have taken the next one in my pack, but if I had indeed mindlessly swallowed the original, I would have been ultra-nauseous from the double dose, and I didn't want to drown my body in hormones when I still had some challenging situations ahead the next day.

So I decided to bank on the fact that I either had taken it or that just missing one day wouldn't be enough to throw my body too out of whack. I'd forgotten that my system appears to be totally hormone-poor without pharmaceutical intervention. It probably didn't help that I skipped my last placebo week (I am still new at the this menstruation thing and I am NOT a fan, so I wimped out and decided to avoid it), so my body was ready to jump at a signal that it was time for a cycle. Thanks for the advice I got in feedback from yesterday's mention of the issue! I called my doctor today just to check with her about it, and she said to double dose myself, which was recommended in my blog comments, but I wasn't sure if it was too late to do it this many days later. So anyway, big ole batch of TMI for you readers tonight, apologies!

And that be the the long story of the long lost Pill.