Monday, April 4, 2011

P.C.Ohhh.S.

I have PCOS. That is Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. You can read more about it here and here, but here's a very quick run-down...(in a bulleted list, cause that's how I roll...)
  • Hormonal problems.
  • Insulin Resistance.
  • May or may not have multiple cysts on ovaries.
  • Crazy, if any menstrual periods.
  • Excess hair growth. (like on your freaking face!)
  • Rapid weight gain. (especially around the middle/belly)
  • Difficulty loosing weight.
  • Acne
  • Fertility problems.
Depressed yet? UGH. I know. I have PCOS. I also have all of those "symptoms".  I was diagnosed in 1998. My mom saw an article in Woman's Day magazine about a gal who had a "mystery disease" and mom imediately noticed the gal looked just like me in shape/size. That article changed my life. It was not a fix, as there is no real fix. What it did was allow us to figure out what was wrong and to at least understand it.

Let's take a brief look at each symptom. I am doing this for informational purposes, not to provide myself with excuses, but it dang sure looks like I have a lot stacked against me.

In no particular order:

Fertility problems/Crazy periods: One miscarriage and one precious child later, it's hard to say if I actually have any fertility issues. Things happen. I have maybe one period a year, but Dr. B says that that does not mean you are not ovulating.... sooooo, we planned carefully, and there you go! No drugs, no nothing. Just a bit of heartache that friends/family/GOD got us through and then along comes Miss B and her awesome little self!

Acne: ehh. Not really ever struggled too much with this one. Every now and then I get a whopper on my chin!

Excess hair growth: Oh Yeah. After about the third time my little neice asked why I was growing a beard (ouch), I headed to Sona MedSpa in Greensboro and spent over $1500 for laser-hair-removal on my entire face! Now, that being said, it was not a end-all-complete-fix. I still have PCOS. The hair comes back. BUT the lasering did solve about 80% of the problem. I can go anytime and get a "touch up" for about $75. I still have to tweeze a lot of those pesky hairs, but not often, and I am certainly not spending 45 minutes a NIGHT like I used to. Seriously, I kept a 10x magnification mirror next to the bed with my high dollar tweezers... and every night I'd go to bed, turn on my lamp, and get to tweezing. Yep, in a year's time that's 16,020 minutes, or 267 hours, or over 11 days a year pulling hairs!

Rapid weight gain: Check! My junior/senior year (1998-1999ish) I started gaining weight. At one point, I gained about 80 pounds. I was never small like the other girls, but adding a lot of weight on top of my already-bigger-frame... well, that was not good.

Difficulty losing weight: Do I really even have to go here? LOL. A lot of this ties in with the Insulin Resistance factor, as well as the Hormonal problems. It is all one vicious cycle for me. I plan to do several posts that go into more detail about these things and how they are all related.

Sooo...

I will say this, my obesity is mine. I cannot completely blame it on anyone or anything. I would say that PCOS is about 75% to blame, the rest is me and what I eat. Maybe 80%/20%. I do not eat that unhealthy. Any of you that know me, know that I am a foodie and that I love food. I love lots of food.

I do not love donuts and pies and all that crap. I still eat them sometimes, but I prefer a good "gourmet" recipe. I ADORE fresh fruits and veggies. I do not mean just your run-of-the-mill iceburg lettuce and  red-delicious apples. I mean arugula and endive, beets, mushrooms, figs, clementines, starfruit, raspberries, honeycrisp apples, avocados, cherokee purple tomatoes, etc. I love garlic and spices. I love cooking.

So what gives? Sometimes I debate on going vegetarian for a while to see how I like it. Unfortunately the fruits tend to send my insulin/sugar levels sky-high, resulting in a high, then a crash, then a craving for more sugar. (more on insulin resistance later... as I think that's my biggest problem) Here's the kicker and another "bad" for me... I love bread. I love pasta. I love white potatoes. I love cereal. All of these things cause bad things to go on inside my body. How do you give things up completely though?!

Before I start rambling too far off my main subject, let me pull myself back in.

PCOS sucks.





No comments:

Post a Comment