Woman reveals she left a tampon inside herself for two years and thought she had Lyme disease
>
A woman revealed that she kept a tampon in for two years and said she thought she had Lyme disease until she finally saw a gynecologist.
Melanie Galeaz, 22, of Massachusetts, first shared her shocking story in a now-viral Tik Tok video, which shows her lip-syncing to the lyrics of Lana Del Rey’s ‘Mariners Apartment Complex’.
“When I accidentally left a tampon in for two years, but I was literally just a teenager,” the “Just For Tonight” author wrote in on-screen text.
“Not my proudest moment,” he added in the caption.
Melanie Galeaz, 22, of Massachusetts, revealed in a now-viral TikTok video that she accidentally left a tampon in for two years as a teenager.
The short clip has garnered more than 16.2 million views and 28,000 comments since it was posted on December 8.
Many TikTok users were taken aback by his confession and questioned how she did not contract toxic shock syndrome (TSS), a very dangerous bacterial infection.
‘YOU SHOULD CHANGE THEM EVERY 2 HOURS, NOT EVERY 2 YEARS,’ one person commented, while another asked: ‘How did you NOT have toxic shock?’
Galeaz shared the full story in a follow-up video, admitting that she spent years thinking her gynecological problems 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 bit unclear as to whether or not she had it.”
Galeaz explained in a follow-up video that she spent years thinking her gynecological problems were related to Lyme disease because a deer tick bit her as a child.
Galeaz said doctors gave him medication to treat his symptoms and that he was “fine” until his sophomore year of high school.
“I started getting all these pains in my body and some really disgusting things were happening down south,” he recalled. “I went to the doctor, but I didn’t really mention the problems going on in the south, which I know was my fault.
‘But the doctor was really ignoring me, and he was being mean. He was really embarrassed. He was like 14 years old and this was really disgusting and embarrassing so I just didn’t want to deal with it,” he continued.
“I was just hoping that maybe it was something related to Lyme disease and that I could ignore it with medication and it would go away.”
Galeaz said the medication she was given helped with the pain, but there was no improvement in her gynecological symptoms.
Galeaz said she began experiencing pain and “problems down south” at age 14, but was embarrassed and never told her doctor all of her symptoms.
Galeaz ignored the symptoms for another two years until she finally went to see a gynecologist. She remembered how the doctor gasped after finding the tampon stuck inside her.
‘When I get stressed about something, I ignore it, so I don’t have to deal with it until it goes away,” she explained. ‘[That] it never works, especially in this case.’
Two years later, I was a senior in college and still struggling. This time, he chose to see a gynecologist.
She added that there was a period where she had a total of three tampons inside herself as a teenager.
“She opens me up, looks in and gasps,” he recalled. “I’m like, ‘Well, that’s not what you want to hear.’ You don’t want to hear someone gasp when she’s looking into you.
And then it says, “You have a tampon stuck horizontally below your cervix.” And I’m like, “What? What did you just say?”
“Let’s just say pulling it out hurt because it was dissolving inside of me so it kept breaking down and it was such an unpleasant experience.”
Galeaz noted that the gynecologist did not believe her when she said that the tampon had been inside her for two years.
She said, “This wasn’t stuck inside you for two years.” I’m like, “Well, I’ve had these problems for two years, so I don’t know what to tell you,” she explained.
‘Not believing me is fair. Honestly, I have no proof. The tampon and I have since parted ways,” 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 puzzled by his confession and questioned how he did not contract Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS), a very dangerous bacterial infection.
The doctors think I had some kind of infection in my body from the tampon, which makes sense. That was just my body’s reaction.
‘For everyone asking about the smell… I [come] from a family that would have absolutely destroyed me by the smell if it had smelled. It wasn’t like that,” she insisted.
“Sometimes it smelled really bad, and I was really sad thinking that it smelled like that naturally, so I figured out ways to mask it and it worked.”
If the story wasn’t shocking enough, she shared that there was a period where she had a total of three tampons inside herself as a teenager.
“During that two-year period, I took one out and another one came out with it, and I have no idea which one it was,” he said. So I had one inside me for two years, one inside me for an unknown length of time, and one inside me for about eight hours.
That is the history. Please be kind to me. It was stupid, but I’m sensitive. Don’t be mean,’ she pleaded at the end of the video.