My Journey to the Centre of the Earth March 24, 2010

It’s been a heck of a ride and thus my introduction here.

I guess it could be summed up like the Visa “Priceless” commercial

6 Miscarriages
8 Doctors
100+ Ultrasounds
1,000,000 Tears shed
2,000,000 Questions asked

1 Diagnosis of PCOS:  PRICELESS.

I’ve had erratic periods since I entered womanhood at the age of 14.  My first period lasted a month.  That was it for awhile and I put it down to my hormones settling into place.  Sadly that was not the case.  I would skip a few months between periods and each period I had made up for each one “missed.”  It made for some very embarrassing moments in school, which I was an outcast anyway because I was the new girl in this small town.

I got used to it, although didn’t like it, and in the summer of 1999 at the age of 22 I had my first (and fortunately last) ovarian cyst rupture.   I didn’t even know what it was I thought my appendix was rupturing.  I passed out from the pain and was taken to the hospital by ambulance.

Fortunately for me an ob-gyn was there wrapping up a delivery so looked at the ultrasound and said that I had 4 cysts rupture all at once.  He “unofficially” diagnosed me with PCOS and prescribed prometrium.  I took my first one a few weeks later while getting ready for bed.  Five minutes later I was on the floor unable to move.  Another trip to the ER and it was suggested that I stop taking it (they didn’t have to tell me that) right away.

That ended THAT and I continued to live with the erratic periods that were becoming even more erratic with me typically only getting a cycle twice a year.

I did try going on birth control to get a period every month, but I was so absentminded that I kept forgetting to take it.  So said screw it.

Fast forward to 2005.  I was rushed to the hospital with labour like pains and weak knees.  They gave me a pain shot but didn’t say anything about pregnancy.  I didn’t know what the heck it was.  I had to see my regular doctor and they reviewed the bloodwork and confirmed that I was pregnant and likely lost the baby.  I was speechless.  I had been told repeatedly that the chance of me being a biological mother was very slim (likely due to my erratic periods) and my boyfriend (now my husband) was told he had a better chance at winning the national lottery than getting a woman pregnant.  At least that was the case with his ex-wife (Divine Intervention??)  I phoned him at work and informed him of what happened.  He took over from there taking me to all the ultrasound appointments because my HCG levels were still elevated and since nothing was being seen in the ultrasound they were concerned about a possible tubal pregnancy even though my body aborted one.  Repeated blood tests finally showed the levels going down and I was on my “merry way.”  I was upset because I didn’t even know I was pregnant.  My Mother wondered…  but never said anything.  I apparently went to the bathroom more frequently but I didn’t even notice this.

5 more miscarriages between October and March the following year and two specialists later and they finally learned that I had a full length uterine septum that was preventing the fetus to attach to anything and would die.  A surgery was booked and performed.

Since then I have had zero pregnancies.  We tried for a year, but it was always hit and miss with the periods.  I was seriously wondering how in the world I was able to get pregnant 6 times before and then suddenly ZIP.

We went in October 2009 back to the specialist that diagnosed the septum and he ordered blood tests.  He saw my hirsuteness (on my face in the form of “side burns”) that I usually had waxed off and he started looking for the presence of PCOS.  It came back just screaming PCOS.  (How was I able to get pregnant before then??) and put me on Metformin.  The original idea was to work my way up to 3 a day.  No matter how I tried I couldn’t tolerate 3 so he dropped me down to 2 a day and I’m now functional again (my house is happy for it too) and pain free.

As I write, I have not had a period since January.  I was regular for maybe 3 months and that was it.

The current plan now is for me to get blood work and if it comes back negative for HCG, to start my first round of Clomid.

I hope to have good news soon.

Unlike many women who have the “obesity” from their PCOS, I seem to be one of the exceptions of the rule.  I did battle a thyroid issue several years ago in where my thyroid levels were extremely high.  I took eltroxin for awhile but it seemed to work itself out.  I did quit smoking in June of 2007 and gained 30 pounds putting me up to 160 pounds on a 5’6″ tall medium frame.  Weight, while I try to watch it for health reasons (heart issues and diabetes run rampant in my “more to love” family) matters little to my husband and I.

A little about me now that you know what’s going on “down south”….

I hail from a small Lake Huron Coastal town and listen to just about anything but rap.  I have 2 kitties that were part of the picture when I married my husband, my dream some day is to own a dog again.  I enjoy writing small stories (although haven’t worked on one in years), watching the birds that visit my feeders, taking pictures and spending time online.  I’m hard of hearing and wear two hearing aids (which makes for interesting conversations sometimes when I mishear something) and spend most of my “social time” online.  (That whole new girl in town experience in school made me become a hermit of sorts….)

I love hummingbirds (as you can tell in my username) and await their arrival every year.

Thanks for reading my experience and I hope it has helped even just one person out there who may be going through a similar experience.

Jenn

Becoming a Cyster March 21, 2010

As I said in my other post, I was diagnosed with PCOS at 17, but we suspected I had PCOS for a little over a year before that. What happened was, while we were living in Tennessee my mother discovered I wasn’t having periods. Now this had been going on for some time, and she really hadn’t noticed because I have three older sisters so all the female supplies were being used. When she found out I hadn’t had a period in more than a year she took me to the doctor. After asking a ton of questions the doctor handed my mom a single sheet of paper that had a brief description of PCOS as well as the suggested treatment options. Then the doctor scheduled an ultra-sound to see if I had cysts. This doctor didn’t order any blood work as far as I remember, just the ultra-sound. So I went and had it down and it showed no cysts. So the doctor decided, as 99.9% of doctors do in Tennessee for young women, that she would prescribe birth control and I’d be just fine. Didn’t do the blood tests that were mentioned on the sheet, didn’t talk about the other medications.

Well mom wasn’t exactly happy with this and since we knew we were going to be moving in about a year we waited. Well we moved to Iowa that summer in late June, early July. I started school, got a job, and was pretty much a hermit for the first half of the year. Then in February she made an appointment with a local family practitioner, Dr. Holsinger. We went in, got all the paperwork done to establish me as his patient and did the whole family history thing. Well when the doctor comes in to see me mom tells him what the doctor in Tennessee said and why we hadn’t gotten me treatment there. So he asks me all the same questions as the other doctor did and then he immediately puts me on birth control along with ordering blood tests to see what my hormone levels and other things were doing. He also explained that after the tests came back we’d decide on where to go next, he also wanted to see me in a month to make sure we didn’t need to change the birth control dose. Well about a week later we get a call about the tests, I was showing all the levels that pointed to PCOS (I can’t remember what all the tested). So after about a month we went back in, and he put me on Metformin. Again we waited a month and he ordered some more tests about a week before I was supposed to come in again to check my potassium levels along with my insulin levels. The showed normal so at the next visit he put me on Spironolactone. And again we waited another month. At the next visit he said he didn’t need to see me for another six months and that I’d lost weight. Over that summer I lost 21 pounds, and went from a size 20 womens to a size 18 regular. Then the weightloss stopped and I’ve stayed in the 230 pound range ever since.

So anyway, now I’m 21, and I still take all three of the medications and they’ve helped with my symptoms. Though when I moved out here to Montana I had a bit of trouble finding a decent doctor. And I still get questions from people who see what medications I take, “Are you diabetic?” No I have PCOS, “Oh is that like Borderline Diabetes?” Not really. Get’s a bit annoying when people haven’t heard of something that I know is becoming more and more common, or at least more and more recognized, in women.

Barbara