PCOS Update

Happy Weekend Everyone!

Back in February I talked about how after 4 useless doctors, 1 semi-helpful doctor and nearly 10 years I finally found a miracle doctor that actually knows what PCOS is and how to effectively treat it.  A couple of weeks ago I had my three month follow up with Miracle Doctor.

In three months time I have lost a total of 21 lbs.  From my heaviest weight about 2 years ago, I was down 31 lbs.  Personally, I was amazed by this as it has actually been super easy, and prior to seeing this doctor it would have taken me well over a year to lose that first 20 lbs.  I felt as though I'd been doing really well with the program.  I take my meds every day when I'm supposed to, and I follow my diet very strictly except when I'm on vacation (doctor's orders...he doesn't believe in trying to diet on vacation...one reason on a long list of reasons why I love him!).  That being said, I was still nervous to find out what he thought about my progress with our program.

To my great relief, he was just as thrilled with my progress as I was, if not more so.  He says I'm right on track for where he thinks I should be.  I've actually lost more weight than he had estimated I would in the first three months.  He's very impressed with my will power and ability to stick with the diet (I guess most of his patients aren't as ridiculously stubborn as I am!).  In fact, I'm doing well enough that he wants to change our follow ups to every six months rather than every three.  I'll see him again in January, and I fully intend on impressing him once again.

I'm still shocked that I've finally found a doctor who knows how to treat me.  I'm blessed to have found him when I did, because mentally I was in pretty dire straights by that time.  I'd spent years fighting my body's chemistry.  Doing everything I could think of to try and lose the weight that I shouldn't have gained in the first place.  My body image was the most negative it's ever been, and I was so close to just giving up and giving in to it.  I felt like I was never going to find anyone that could help.  It's miserable feeling like you're trapped in your own skin.  When most of the time the way you see yourself in your minds eye is nothing like the way you look in the mirror.  You start avoiding mirrors...especially full length ones...because you're still shocked every time you see that gross heavy person looking back at you.

Things are different now.  I was telling a friend just today that I am finally starting to see the difference in the mirror.  For weeks now I've noticed the difference in my clothes (I had to stop wearing all of my work slacks because they are ridiculously large and look super stupid on me), but it's really just been in the last week or so that I really see the difference when I look in the mirror.  This is the best I've felt about myself in years, and I can't even fathom at this point how I feel when this process is finally done.

For anyone out there that might be in a similar situation, DON'T GIVE UP!  I've always believed that everything happens for a reason.  It took this long, and I had to go through what I went through in order to get to this point and finally find Miracle Doctor.  Keep at it.  It will all work out the way it should in the end.  Hopefully for the better.  If nothing else, take comfort in knowing you aren't alone, and that others have gone through what you're going through right now.

Thanks for listening, and have a fabulous weekend everyone!

6th Time's a Charm

So...as we learned in a previous post, I was "diagnosed" with PCOS about 4 years ago.  I use quotes because I found out last week that while it's likely that I have PCOS, I was improperly diagnosed.  I can't really say that I'm surprised by that though.  Last week I had a consultation with the endocrinologist that I was referred to.  He's the 6th doctor I've seen in the last four years, and he actually knows what he's talking about!

The consultation took about an hour and a half.  He was really attentive and explained everything to me in length using notes and diagrams (someone must have debriefed him on my personality prior to my arrival!), and we set up our plan of action as far as treatment goes.  The first part of treatment is officially diagnosing my disorder.  Previously, I was told that I had PCOS, but none of the other doctors bothered to actually go through the steps necessary to officially diagnose me.  In order to this, some unlucky phlebotomist is going to get to suck my blood.  That will happen in about a month after we've given my body some time to filter out the medication I was taking prior to my appointment last week.  Once the blood work is done and has been analyzed I'll start a new drug regimen and a new diet.

I'm mostly excited about having a diet that will work.  He created this diet with PCOS patients in mind (he's writing a book about it currently!), but says he's used it and he makes all of his friends use it as well.  He also said that every woman he's put on it who has stuck with it has lost all of the weight they needed to lose to be healthy again.  Also, he says the weight loss happens pretty quickly as well.  It will definitely be nice to not be carrying around all of this extra weight...both physically and mentally.

Overall, I'm so grateful to have been referred to this doctor.  So far I think he's amazing, and I'm excited to finally start getting everything worked out.  I'll keep you posted as I get more into everything.  Maybe when it's lab work time I'll treat you to the story of how I hate needles and phlebotomists hate me.  It should be a fun read!

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome....Yuck!

First, before I get started, mom and I will be doing our first co-blog on Friday.  I've already read her post, and it's just as witty as one would expect!  So now I have to live up to that....good luck to me!  I can promise it will be interesting to see two very different perspectives on the same topic.  So be sure to tune in on Friday for that!

Ok, on to today's post.  This was mostly sparked by the fact that I made a doctor's appointment with a new doctor today.  So, here's a little back story.  I'm currently very over-weight.  I didn't always used to be over-weight.  After going through pictures I figure that I really started to gain weight my senior year of high school.  I was really active in high school.  Not only was I in the marching band and constantly moving (it takes more athleticism than one would think....clearly it's no football work out, but we were never sitting around doing nothing!), but I also had a gym membership throughout most of high school.  A gym membership that I actually used on average of 5 days a week.  I may not have been eating perfectly, but I don't think that I was eating poorly enough to completely cancel out my workouts or to really explain how much I ballooned.  At the end of my junior year I think I was wearing a size 12 or 13 in juniors pants.  By the time I started college I was a size 16 in women's pants.  It was only downhill from there.  I continued to gain weight through college and into recent years.  I'm now a size 20/22.  Let me tell you...it's really difficult and very expensive to shop for clothing now.  I shop at 3 stores...Old Navy, Lane Bryant and Dress Barn.  Plus I feel like crap....physically and emotionally.

Turns out, there was actually a reason for the weight gain.  Granted, in college I helped myself gain some of that weight, and I accept full responsibility for making a bad situation worse, but there's not much I can do about it now.  Anyway...in the summer of 2008 I was getting ready to move to Washington, DC and decided it would be best to get all of my doctor's appointments out of the way before I went.  I got my new contacts and glasses, and got my teeth cleaned, and made my first visit to a lady doctor.  I'd never been previously as I'd really had no need to go, or so I thought.  After going through a long list of complaints (facial hair growth, extreme cramping, weight gain etc...) the doctor decided I had Polycystic Ovary Syndrome.  I encourage you to visit the site to learn more, but it basically comes with a whole slew of really obnoxious symptoms.  I have almost all of them.  It's painful....it's frustrating....and it's hard to find a doctor that knows how to treat it.

That first doctor wrote me a couple of prescriptions for things she thought would help, and then told me to lose weight.  Then in DC the first doctor I went to told me I was likely misdiagnosed, but she didn't feel the need to go back through the symptoms with me or try to help, so I dumped her.  I finally found a doctor that I liked.  Unfortunately, she didn't specialize in PCOS (99% of the very few that did specialize in it back there are fertility specialists...not something I was looking for then, or now for that matter), but she was a wonderful person.  She did research, and tried to help me find a diet that might help spark the weight loss, all the while being sympathetic to the fact that I had a disorder that causes me to gain weight and simultaneously makes it ridiculously hard to lose it.  She was fabulous, and I lost 20 lbs while seeing her.

Now I'm back in Arizona, and was facing having to find yet another doctor.  Preferably someone who knows something about PCOS, and would be willing to do a full work up on me to figure out how severe it is, and actually treat it.  Let me tell you, it was not something I was looking forward to doing...at all.  Lucky for me, my mom spends her days talking to doctor's offices on the phone.  She's found a doctor that she assures me is amazing, and gave me a secret phone number to get a hold of the woman she knows at the office so I'd be sure to get in (how awesome is she?!).  I have an appointment with said doctor next week, so fingers crossed we can start to really figure this nastiness out and try and get rid of it.

I know this has been a long, less than uplifting, post, but it's something I struggle with daily and will likely blog about numerous times in the future.  I'm really determined to get better.  I'm currently uncomfortable in my own skin.  Literally.  I'm never fully comfortable.  I'm also in pain pretty frequently.  I know some of you may be thinking, "So you gained some weight, deal with it.  At least it's not cancer or some other awful terminal illness."  Believe me, I fully agree with you.  I have family members and friends who have battled cancer.  I have a friend with Crohn's disease.  I know that compared to what they've gone through, what I have is really minor, but that doesn't mean it doesn't suck.  So yeah, that's the reader's digest version of my battle with PCOS.

That's all for now.....come back on Friday for a much lighter post about cooking!  My first co-blog with mom.