CODE RED

When Victoria Lang, 31, from Banton, North Lanarkshire, experienced a period that was a cause of concern she never thought it would reveal something far more disturbing…

- ELLIE FAWCETT & ANAIS SEELY

Bracing myself for a sharp scratch, it wasn’t long before a cotton ball was placed over the incision point.

‘Just sit yourself down for 15 minutes before you go home,’ the nurse insisted.

Working as a community pharmacist throughout lockdown, keeping on top of my Covid vaccinations was necessary, so taking myself to get my booster on 9 March 2021, I didn’t batter an eyelid.

Experiencing the usual side effects the first time round, the idea of having another jab didn’t bother me – it was just something I needed to do.

‘How did it go?’ my husband Jordon, now 31, asked when I got home later that evening.

‘All good,’ I replied.

Only, as I settled down for the evening, I found myself reaching for both the max amount of paracetamol and ibuprofen that I could take.

And it wasn’t until I got ready in the morning that I realised how much the jab had actually affected me.

It didn’t feel this bad last time around, I thought.

So, dosing myself up once again, I grinned and bared it, hoping that the pain would fade by the end of the day.

That’s all I need, I thought as I felt a familiar feeling later on that afternoon – my period.

Coming off the pill at the beginning of 2021, my body was slowly getting used to a regular cycle again, but going to the toilet this time around was a whole different story.

Instead of my usual dark, clotty and sticky period, the water in the loo was bright red.

It was as if someone had turned a tap on and thin blood was gushing out of me – nothing I had ever experienced in the past.

Maybe it’s because of the vaccine, I thought.