It was nice having a night off, but I must admit, I fell asleep at like 10p! Keep in mind that I had been up since 3p the day before, so I was pretty whipped. But today, its back to the grind. I have a long week ahead of me. I work both jobs from today clear until next Wednesday! Boo!
Last night, I joined a PCOS group. For those of you that don't know, it stands for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. One girl commented on how inspirational and powerful it was and it made me wonder, why don't we talk about this stuff more? Why don't we let people in and make them aware of whats going on? When I found out, I was devistated, and thought I was alone. I know it would have been easier for me to cope if someone had just told me something to let me know I'm not alone, and that it wasn't my fault that this happened. I didn't do anything to get these diseases, and who wants to be stuck with something you had no choice in the matter. So I've decided to tell my story....
I have always had very irregular periods and I'm talking, a would bleed for 4 months straight then not have a period at all for 8 months. It was really weird but my doctor at the time kept telling me that it was just how my body was and I would get over it when it "adjusted." Well I went on vacation to see my grandma and she took me to the doc becuase she said "something just isn't right" and I found out that I had PCOS. I was taking meds for a while but when I flew back home I didn't follow up with MY doc so I stopped taking whatever she put me on back in WA.
3 years went by from DX to the next time I went to the doc for my periods and she tested me for thyroid problems- negative, ovary issues- negative, cervical cancer- ding ding ding! I had precancerous cells. So they did a procedure where they froze the cells and scraped them out...sounds terrible eh? Well I also have Type 2 diabetes, so I was controling that with diet and exercise. All this stuff is going on and how did I handle it? I shut down completely. I stopped taking my meds and my everything, my weight went sky high. Still I kept avoiding the doctors office.
Back in August 2009, I had been bleeding for 8 weeks straight, heavy uncontrolable bleeding, so I called a new gyno and set up an appointment to see him. He immediately wanted to run a bunch of tests, luckly my insurance covered 90% of it. I was literallly at the hospital in the lab getting ultrasounds and CTs done CONSTANTLY. I was getting blood drawn at least once a week. (Good thing I work downstairs) This went on for a couple weeks, PAP came back, doc tells me that I have PCOS and oh by the way, Jenn you have hypothyroidism. This made me cry of course because I guess I thought at age 15, that if I ignored it, it would go away. At this point I explained to the doctor everything that had happened and he did take pity on me thank goodness instead of yelling like I thought he would. He put me on Allyse(sp?) for a month to try and regulate my period, make it stop, ANYTHING! No such luck, I kept bleeding. Now when I say bleeding, it was HEAVY, as in, I was going through super plus tampons and a plus pad every HOUR. By week 11, I called and talked to the nurse, she called me in immediately. No better way to freak my shit out but by telling me its crucial I get to the docs office!
Doc put me on 1000mg of Metformin and lots of Iron. Now when I was younger, I had to take it for my diabetes and it TORE up my stomach. God I was in so much pain, couldn't eat, nothing. It felt like someone was ripping my insides out. So naturally I had stopped taking it. I was not real thrilled about taking the Metformin and the Synthroid all at once along with my vitamins and other supplements. I felt like a psych patient. I went in for a check up about 3 months ago, and the doc ran tests, told me I was very likely not going to have kids. How fucked up is that, at age 21, I'm told I can't have kids. Devistating! But ive grown used to the idea now actually, not happily of course.
Needless to say, it has been a rough road. SO please if anyone has managed to get through this long story, if you aren't sure, go get tested! I'm so serious, if you even have doubts, go get tested! If I had kept up with it, maybe kids would be in my future. I'm still hoping for a miracle baby when I meet the right guy though
Last night, I joined a PCOS group. For those of you that don't know, it stands for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. One girl commented on how inspirational and powerful it was and it made me wonder, why don't we talk about this stuff more? Why don't we let people in and make them aware of whats going on? When I found out, I was devistated, and thought I was alone. I know it would have been easier for me to cope if someone had just told me something to let me know I'm not alone, and that it wasn't my fault that this happened. I didn't do anything to get these diseases, and who wants to be stuck with something you had no choice in the matter. So I've decided to tell my story....
I have always had very irregular periods and I'm talking, a would bleed for 4 months straight then not have a period at all for 8 months. It was really weird but my doctor at the time kept telling me that it was just how my body was and I would get over it when it "adjusted." Well I went on vacation to see my grandma and she took me to the doc becuase she said "something just isn't right" and I found out that I had PCOS. I was taking meds for a while but when I flew back home I didn't follow up with MY doc so I stopped taking whatever she put me on back in WA.
3 years went by from DX to the next time I went to the doc for my periods and she tested me for thyroid problems- negative, ovary issues- negative, cervical cancer- ding ding ding! I had precancerous cells. So they did a procedure where they froze the cells and scraped them out...sounds terrible eh? Well I also have Type 2 diabetes, so I was controling that with diet and exercise. All this stuff is going on and how did I handle it? I shut down completely. I stopped taking my meds and my everything, my weight went sky high. Still I kept avoiding the doctors office.
Back in August 2009, I had been bleeding for 8 weeks straight, heavy uncontrolable bleeding, so I called a new gyno and set up an appointment to see him. He immediately wanted to run a bunch of tests, luckly my insurance covered 90% of it. I was literallly at the hospital in the lab getting ultrasounds and CTs done CONSTANTLY. I was getting blood drawn at least once a week. (Good thing I work downstairs) This went on for a couple weeks, PAP came back, doc tells me that I have PCOS and oh by the way, Jenn you have hypothyroidism. This made me cry of course because I guess I thought at age 15, that if I ignored it, it would go away. At this point I explained to the doctor everything that had happened and he did take pity on me thank goodness instead of yelling like I thought he would. He put me on Allyse(sp?) for a month to try and regulate my period, make it stop, ANYTHING! No such luck, I kept bleeding. Now when I say bleeding, it was HEAVY, as in, I was going through super plus tampons and a plus pad every HOUR. By week 11, I called and talked to the nurse, she called me in immediately. No better way to freak my shit out but by telling me its crucial I get to the docs office!
Doc put me on 1000mg of Metformin and lots of Iron. Now when I was younger, I had to take it for my diabetes and it TORE up my stomach. God I was in so much pain, couldn't eat, nothing. It felt like someone was ripping my insides out. So naturally I had stopped taking it. I was not real thrilled about taking the Metformin and the Synthroid all at once along with my vitamins and other supplements. I felt like a psych patient. I went in for a check up about 3 months ago, and the doc ran tests, told me I was very likely not going to have kids. How fucked up is that, at age 21, I'm told I can't have kids. Devistating! But ive grown used to the idea now actually, not happily of course.
Needless to say, it has been a rough road. SO please if anyone has managed to get through this long story, if you aren't sure, go get tested! I'm so serious, if you even have doubts, go get tested! If I had kept up with it, maybe kids would be in my future. I'm still hoping for a miracle baby when I meet the right guy though
VIEW 6 of 6 COMMENTS
priam:
That is great that you shared that!
jenilynne:
Thanks Nick! I really wish the nation spoke about this topic more and made these girls more aware of it. Its just as devistating as cancer or anything else for that matter. yet no one knows much about it!