A woman has revealed she left a tampon inside of herself for two years, saying she thought she had Lyme disease until she finally saw a gynecologist.
Melanie Galeaz, 22, from Massachusetts, first shared her shocking story in a now-viral TikTok video, which shows her syncing the lyrics to Lana Del Rey’s “Mariners Apartment Complex.”
“When I accidentally left a tampon for two years when I was literally just a teenager,” the ‘Just for Tonight’ author wrote in the on-screen text.
“Not my proudest moment,” she added in the caption.
Melanie Galeaz, 22, from Massachusetts, revealed in a now-viral TikTok video that she accidentally left a tampon inside of herself for two years when she was a teenager
The short clip has garnered over 16.2 million views and 28,000 comments since it was posted on December 8.
Many TikTok users were left baffled by his confession and wondered how. she did not contract toxic shock syndrome (TSS) – a very dangerous bacterial infection.
“YOU NEED TO CHANGE THEM EVERY 2 HOURS, NOT EVERY 2 YEARS,” one person commented, while another asked, “How did you not get toxic shock?
Galeaz shared the whole story in a follow-up video, admitting she spent years thinking her gynecological issues were related to Lyme disease.
“When I was little, I was bitten by a deer tick and had all the symptoms of Lyme disease,” she explained. “But the tests were a little confusing whether I had it or not.”
Galeaz explained in a follow-up video that she spent years thinking her gynecological issues were Lyme disease-related because she was bitten by a deer tick as a child.
Galeaz said doctors gave her medication to treat her symptoms and she was doing “fine” until her second year of high school.
“I started having all these pains in my body and there was some really gross stuff going on down south,” she recalled. “I went to the doctor, but didn’t really mention the issues that are happening down south, which I know was my fault.
“But the doctor was really neglecting me and he was mean. It was really embarrassing. I was about 14, and it was really gross and embarrassing, so I just didn’t want to deal with it,” she continued.
“I was just hoping maybe it was something related to Lyme disease and that I could just ignore it with the meds and it would go away.”
Galeaz said the medications she received helped ease the pain, but there was no improvement in her gynecological symptoms.
Galeaz said she started experiencing pain and “problems down south” at age 14, but was embarrassed and never revealed all of her symptoms to her doctor.
Galeaz ignored the symptoms for another two years until she finally went to see a gynecologist. She recalled how the doctor gasped after finding the tampon stuck inside her
‘When I’m stressed about something, I’m ignoring it, so I don’t have to deal with it until it goes away,” she explained. ‘[That] never works, especially in this case.
Two years later, she was a senior in college and still having problems. This time, she chose to see a gynecologist.
She added that there was a period when she had a total of three tampons inside of herself as a teenager.
“She opens me up, looks inside and she gasps,” she recalled. ‘I’m like, ‘Well, that’s not what you want to hear. You don’t want to hear someone gasp when they look inside you.
“And then she says, ‘You have a tampon stuck horizontally under your cervix. And I say, “What? What did you just say?”
“Let’s just say pulling it out hurt me because it was dissolving inside of me, so it kept breaking and it was such an unpleasant experience.”
Galeaz noted that the gynecologist didn’t believe her when she said the tampon had been in her for two years.
‘She said to me, ‘It hasn’t been stuck in you for two years. I’m like, ‘Well, I’ve had these issues for two years, so I don’t know what to tell you,’ she explained.
‘Not believing me is right. Honestly, I have no proof. Me and the tampon have since separated,” she continued. ‘All the pain in my body, it wasn’t Lyme disease. I don’t even think I have Lyme disease…
Many TikTok users were baffled by her confession and wondered how she hadn’t contracted Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) – a very dangerous bacterial infection.
“Doctors think I got some sort of infection in my body from the tampon, which makes sense. It was just my body’s reaction.
‘For anyone asking about the smell…I [come] from a family that would have absolutely destroyed me for the smell if they could. This is not the case,” she insisted.
“Sometimes it smelled really bad, and I was very sad to think that I smelled like that naturally, so I found ways to mask it and it worked.”
If the story wasn’t shocking enough, she shared that there was a time when she had a total of three tampons inside of herself as a teenager.
“During that two-year period, I put one out and another came out with it, and I have no idea there was one,” she said. “So I had one in me for two years, one in me for an unknown amount of time, and one in me for about eight hours.”
‘It’s history. Please be nice to me. It was stupid, but I’m sensitive. Don’t be mean,” she pleaded at the end of the video.
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