You don't want to see a picture of this! The unglamorous side of pregnancy....

The female body goes through a tremendous period of growth and change during pregnancy. I expected the obvious discomforts: back pain, indigestion, leg cramps, slowing down, sore hips, edema etc. And up until last month my chief complaint was just lower back pain.

Then in December, my hormones took over my body and a strange strange thing happened. I got a little bump in my mouth. It didn’t hurt or really even bother me. It was just something I never had before. After this bump had been around a few days I scraped it while brushing my teeth and my bathroom turned into what looked like a murder scene. Blood gushed out of my mouth for at least five minutes. Again, there was no pain, but now with this bleeding issue I was going to have to call up the dentist. My dentist wasn’t sure what it was, so he referred me to an oral surgeon to get a conclusive diagnosis.

My oral surgeon looked at my small bump, which had now grown into a not so small bump, and without hesitation he said it was a pyogenic granuloma, AKA a “pregnancy tumor.” Although completely benign, it can grow larger if left untreated. Who knew? It seems the main causes are a trauma to the mouth, a change in hormones, or lack of dental care. I am definitely in the one category of hormonal change so it was an easy diagnosis.

My surgeon recommended having it removed. As I left for the procedure, I planned to go to the gym afterward, clean out some boxes of old stuff, and do some errands. After all, this was only a short laser procedure. Ha! This little granuloma was so persistent in bleeding that I also needed several stitches. I was sent home with gauze, ice packs, a recommendation not to workout for three days or brush my teeth for a day, no spitting, swishing, sucking, no citrus or soda, and only mild, soft foods. With a throbbing mouth and face, my husband drove me home where I had to lie down the entire day. This was a much bigger deal than I imagined. Again, who knew? Pregnancy really does incite unpredictable and odd things to occur in one’s body.