tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14379490604754144342012-02-16T17:09:39.018-08:00Aerelnoreply@blogger.comBlogger11100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1437949060475414434.post-69532648577393564032011-10-22T09:23:00.001-07:002011-10-22T09:47:53.696-07:00All my life I have had problems with roller-coaster emotions, mood swings, depression, being overweight and irregular periods. When I was a little girl, around 6, I went through a sudden and extreme growth spurt where I put on weight and height in a crazy short amount of time. My mom had taken me to the doctor only to be told this was normal for girls reaching puberty age.<div><br />As I got older the issues got worse. I started my period at 11 and struggled with the inconsistency of when it would come, how much would come, and embarrassment of accidents. I remember being in elementary school and calling my mom, crying, to come get me on several occasions.</div><div><br /></div><div>The excess weight become a constant sore point. I was teased and tormented by my classmates, felt constantly awkward and out of place in my own body. Nothing I did to curb my eating or exercise seemed to make a difference. I was a pretty active kid playing soccer and swimming but the weight was not only not going away it was still getting put on. My mom continued to take me to doctors, have tests run but nothing was ever found, we were reassured that it was normal, just bad periods and I needed to exercise more, diet more, and be healthier.</div><div><br /></div><div>As I got into junior high and high school I started to give up, my thinking changed to that there was something wrong with <i>me</i>. My emotion whirlwinds were my fault as my inability to cope with life and I was fat because I ate my feelings. I started to hate myself. For years I struggled with depression.</div><div><br /></div><div>When I moved out of my parents house and started college things improved, I was able to feel proud of my achievements and make close friends who accepted me for me. When I graduated school I started work immediately and began looking for my life partner.</div><div><br /></div><div>Dating started me on a new path of self-discovery, and not a good one. I discovered that I am too emotional, would freak out over small things, which would lead to insecurities and eventually the relationship would end. I went through a series of boyfriends until last year I decided I had to stop. I wasn't going to find the right person until I could better understand myself and deal with my emotional problems.</div><div><br /></div><div>The timing for this was serendipitous in that I suddenly started to have extreme blood loss during my period. Three times I had an incident where I would have a large gush of blood at once, more than could be controlled. The third time it happened I didn't stop bleeding and so went to urgent care.</div><div><br /></div><div>The doctor at the hospital told me I had a build up of uterine lining, it was completely normal and typical. I'd had enough. I'd had doctors telling me my entire life that there was nothing physically wrong with me but you can't tell me to live a life where at any moment you may suddenly have extreme blood loss was acceptable.</div><div><br /></div><div>I tracked down a doctor between work and home, who was opening a new clinic. I explained my entire history to her, had a physical and was sent for blood work and ultrasounds.</div><div><br /></div><div>I had two ultrasounds, both which showed large cysts on my ovaries, and fluid built up in one of my fallopian tubes. But the ultrasound couldn't give a good enough picture to see how many cysts there were, if it was many or one large one.</div><div><br /></div><div>So I was sent for an MRI. The MRI showed both my ovaries are riddled with cysts and so my doctor sent me to a gynecologist.</div><div><br /></div><div>Last week I saw the gyno and she explained to me what PCOS is, how they determine if you have it (which I do), about insulin resistance and has sent me for further blood tests.</div><div><br /></div><div>I won't go into PCOS in detail in my blog. If you want to know more about it there is a ton of information on the web. I'm currently reading PCOS for Dummies and the Low GI Diet for PCOS. </div><div><br /></div><div>Rather I want to record my progress with managing PCOS and insulin resistance. I plan to start the low GI diet as soon as possible and determine a schedule for working out. Much of what I've read about PCOS is helping me understand myself better and how I can move forward.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1437949060475414434-6953264857739356403?l=surviving20s.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Aerelnoreply@blogger.com0