What Not To Wear *In Your Vagina*
Posted by Rachel on August 6, 2007
Via a tip from the fabulous Ms. Becky, the New England Journal of Medicine has a disturbing new entry in their “Images in Clinical Medicine” series. The CT scan to your left reveals “large intraabdominal cystic lesion with variable density and a thick wall.” That would be the big circle you see at the top of the left image, and the white circle in the right photo. The image was taken of a 50-year-old woman who presented with abdominal tenderness, fever, and vaginal bleeding. On exam she had “necrosis of the upper wall of the vagina.”
When random things like this appear in medical images, exploratory surgery is often done, as was done in this case. What did they find? A plastic bag containing 80g of cocaine.
The patient subsequently acknowledged inserting the plastic bag, containing individual packets of cocaine, into the vagina 3 months earlier. The bag must have migrated through the vaginal wall into the abdominal cavity, where it was encapsulated.
Did you get that? She put a plastic bag of coke in her vagina. 3 months ago. And apparently lost track of it. And it migrated into her abdominal cavity. From her vagina. Meanwhile, her body tried to seal it up in gunk.
Bottom line: Don’t wear coke baggies anywhere in your person. In general, don’t use your body as a hiding place. If you put something in your vagina and never see it again, check on it before 3 months go by. Unless it’s a frat boy - then you should just let it go.
Excuse me while I rock back and forth and shudder for the rest of the afternoon.
August 6, 2007 at 4:46 pm
If you put something in your vagina and never see it again, check on it before 3 months go by. Unless it’s a frat boy - then you should just let it go.
Funniest thing I have read all day- and I have read a LOT of stuff today. Kudos!
August 6, 2007 at 4:58 pm
She forgot about 80g of cocaine? I mean, shoot, I worry about forgetting tampons up in there, but 80g of cocaine? And no offense, but didn’t someone want that? I mean, you’d think that’s not the kind of thing you could just lose without it being a problem (and not just medically).
August 6, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Thanks, Ivy!
B, I have no idea. Maybe she thought it fell out or was absorbed or something.
August 6, 2007 at 8:32 pm
That frat boy line was well worth suffering through all of the vagina talk.
BTW, 80g is close to 3 ounces. Not only is that pretty pricey, but that is also pretty big. (I mean, I am not intimidated or anything, but…
I am guessing she had to be a mule and their had to be much more than that initially.
August 6, 2007 at 8:39 pm
OK, Ivy and Jackson already said this, but, that is a LOT of cocaine to misplace. is it possible she forgot about it, or was she in incredible denial? I am opting for option B.
August 7, 2007 at 7:07 am
Jackson, you know how I like for you men to suffer through the vagina talk. You and Hilary are right that it’s pretty big, just from looking at the images. The story doesn’t say how much she might have started off with, but I’m thinking it had to be considerably more, for that much to be left after 3 months. Yikes.
August 7, 2007 at 7:56 am
Rachel, not that I’m going to become a drug mule, but I’m curious as all get-out. Is there some sense of how much a woman can stuff in her vagina and still be able to walk around? I mean, I know it can stretch out to accomidate a lot of stuff, but dang…
August 7, 2007 at 8:23 am
B, you crack me up. I’m reasonably certain there are no good studies of this.
You know, of course, that you now have me thinking of an experiment…
August 7, 2007 at 8:32 am
Rachel,
Do you know how to contact her? I lost a set of keys a while back. I thought I had looked everywhere, but I guess not.
August 7, 2007 at 8:33 am
Heh. Well, I once lost a whole ironing board, so if I track her down, maybe we’ll both come out ahead.
August 7, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Here’s my question: how did the cocaine eat through her vaginal wall without breaking the bag? They found it intact, right? I know cocaine can eat through mucous membranes (from TV, not that I have tried it myself; coke addicts always get bloody noses) but wouldn’t that mean it went through the plastic bag?
And here’s my even more pressing question: is that a TWIST TIE on the baggie?
August 7, 2007 at 4:09 pm
MC - They don’t explain it fully, but I’m guessing your average kitchen baggy can leak a fair amount when it’s in your body for 3 months and filled with coke. Apparently the large bag was filled with several smaller packets, so I’m assuming enough seeped out to damage the vaginal wall while otherwise remaining largely intact (enough so to retain 80g). I don’t know how you don’t notice that for 3 months, though - it must have migrated before she showed up at the ER.
Oy. Even on super duper zoom I cannot confirm or deny the presence of a twist tie, but it certainly seems that something is holding the top of the baggy together. I’m going to go shudder some more now.
August 9, 2007 at 11:18 am
I’m shuddering too. How can someone forget someone like that???? Love the frat boy line.
January 22, 2008 at 3:32 pm
[...] This. Not for the squeamish. [...]
February 23, 2008 at 1:32 pm
[...] previously mentioned stories of “lost” tampons and even a woman who forgot about a baggie of cocaine she forgot she was vaginally stashing. The blog Tales from Labor and Delivery has another story to [...]