I used to do the same thing with pads. I was SOOOOOOOOO grateful to eventually move to tampons (once I got up the courage to try them). Used to have this problem with tampax because they would expand lengthways instead of widthways (go figure) so they had a tendency to leak down one side and get really uncomfortable. I wasn't so happy about moving from the applicator to no applicator but the school nurse praised the virtues of widthways expansion and she was right!

Ew. I didn't know that there was such a contraption (with respect to the second half of your post). I'd heard of that but I guess I thought it was a doing word (for the activity) and I didn't know there were implements (so I guess I just learned something new)