Archive for women's health
Still Going
Well I still haven’t made any money recently in real estate so I haven’t been to acupuncture in forever. But I am still doing way better than I was before I ever started acupuncture. My main issue lately has been that I get a second wind late at night and don’t want to go to bed. Then I’m supposed to get up in the morning and I feel dead. The other day I fell back asleep after my alarm went off. Same old song and dance. But luckily I got up in time that no one at work noticed I was late.
I took a waitressing job 2 shifts a week to try to have some money coming in. And this is something I wouldn’t have done when all my symptoms were out of control.
Mainly lately I have been more focused on trying to figure out what to eat for my blood sugar. I’m going to go see a dietician on Tuesday. I’m interested to hear what she will say about wheat. I told my doctor that it seems I have experienced swelling & weight gain since eating wheat again. She said it is just because the gluten-free diet is so restrictive. But I have to disagree the more I think about it. Because it wasn’t as extreme as a no carb diet. I still ate banana bread muffins every morning that I had made with gluten free flour. I ate gluten-free crackers and cookies, pasta. I ate potatoes, rice, potato chips, corn chips (all bad for the blood sugar). And I was super thin. So I think it’s the wheat, not that’s it’s restrictive.
I also got sick of all the side effects of the various birth control pills I had tried to help manage my PCOS/endometriosis. I couldn’t find a happy medium. My dr. kept suggesting the Nuvaring and finally I gave in. Apparently it has the lowest dose of estrogen (and estrogen has had bad side effects for me). Well, I still felt sick like I had turned green or something during that special time of the month. I remembered that she had told me that she had endometriosis and she wore her Nuvaring continuously and just opted out of the periods. So I tried that last month and it worked.
And I just now realized that for once in my life I haven’t really been craving chocolate. Usually I think about it a lot and go to the drug store to buy different kinds. So that’s interesting. But I still feel rather dry & asexual so I don’t know what i will do in the long run. They can’t seem to offer me any explanations or other alternatives which is annoying. You would think that if they know what hormones you’re lacking and what you have too much of, that it could be easily made up for, but I guess not. Even when I was on the progesterone only pill I had some good side effects: (didn’t feel asexual or numb from the waist down. less facial hair) but the bad side effects of horrible cramping and not being able to cool off all day outweighed the good side effects.
blood sugars and hormones and heat – oh my!
I’m sorry I haven’t written in a while. I was in the midst of a job transition. And still am. I’m finally doing real estate full-time. Now when I get home I’m not usually as stressed out so I feel like I have free time and I need to get a life and socialize more. The weather has gotten much warmer and I am already freaked out by it. I’ve worn shorts the last 2 days and to me it’s on the edge of comfortable. I really don’t want it to get any hotter. But I know this is nothing compared to summer. And it’s weird because I used to be so unphased by the heat. In fact, I loved it. I remember laying on a hammock in the summer with a bath towel on top of me, sweating mildly and loving it. But now I can sweat when it’s not even humid out. But today wasn’t hot. It was comfortable. I’ve also realized that mentally I’m in a much better place with acupuncture, but I still need to be careful in terms of realizing that I can get overheated and dehydrated very easily.
I also finally purchased the Pines Wheatgrass Powder at my healthfood store. I like that it mixes in water pretty well. I’m not going to lie and say it tastes like a candybar. I mean it tastes like green. Grassy green stuff. But I’m excited about any product that will help me get more greens in my body. Plus, when I used to see the herbalist, part of her treatment plan for hyperthyroidism was me drinking chlorella, which is a freshwater algae from Japan. It’s supposed to detoxify the body. But this stuff didn’t mix into drinks at all so you had to blend it every time (and clean up the blender) and it was much fouler than the wheatgrass. You pretty much had to blend it with a banana and the milk of your choice just to get it down.
I went to my fertility specialist the other day to get her to let me try a different pill and see if she had any new thoughts on the yeast beast. Of course I’ve been using these tea tree suppositories so that made everything look perfect. So she still doesn’t know for sure if it even is yeast, so that was irritating. But she did ask me if I was diabetic. I said “I don’t think so, no one’s ever told me I was.” Then she asked more questions about my fasting blood sugar. I said “well, it’s always been normal. I first got diagnosed with having low sugar and I do have some high sugars after I eat, but the fasting is always fine.” Then she said that I may want to have a glucose tolerance test because I obviously have a problem and could be diabetic since I hadn’t had that test done.
She pointed out that thousands of people are diabetic and don’t know it. So that really freaked me out. I had figured from the way I felt that my body would go diabetic in maybe 10 years, but she made it out like it would be much sooner than that. I was shocked because I have a blood sugar tester and I didn’t think my numbers were bad enough, often enough to be diabetic. But I can see her point. If they make me drink a ton of sugar on an empty stomach, my sugar could go high enough for me to be called diabetic, because my body can’t control itself. I just didn’t know you could diagnose diabetes that way. I thought it was ONLY if you had a high fasting, meaning that you wake up with it already high. I think it will be a while before this test gets scheduled. Because I don’t have insurance so I will have to have her write a note that I need it. Then I will have to go get an appt with the city health people and see if they will give me permission to get it done. Then I may be waiting for a month to even get it scheduled. So who knows. Unless it’s not very expensive with her people.
Then that very day, I got home and ate a bowl of pasta and meat and ran around the block twice. By the end I could barely lift my legs up and then I felt really dizzy, shakey and like my vision was kind of blurry. So I figure it had something to do with the blood sugar. Maybe I burned through too much sugar too fast? I’m not sure, but it aroused my suspicions even more.
I also talked her into letting me try a progestin-only pill. And I’m not sure if that’s a good idea. She doesn’t think I will like it. But I had read that people with PCOS are lacking progesterone, not estrogen. And I also feel like the combination pill makes me kind of sexually numb from the waist down, to some extent. I also wonder if it has anything to do with me feeling dried out like an old lady and having this nonstop yeast beast. It does say in the package insert that it can cause yeast problems, so I figure may as well take it out of the scenario. But then I read up on progestin only pills and it said they can cause hair growth on the face and acne, 2 of the symptoms of pcos and too much male hormones. So I hope progestin is not derived from a male hormone. I’m pretty nervous about trying it. Even though I was on the shot for 2 years and loved it – even though a few endos told me it was horrible and to get off it asap. Oh well, I’ll keep you posted.
Extremely Interesting PCOS/Acupuncture study
A Swedish/Italian controlled study from the Biology of Reproduction Journal, (date): involved inducing a state of poly cystic ovaries in rats, with injections of estradiol valerate. Increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system resulted, followed by increased concentrations of nerve growth factor in ovaries, and the adrenal glands. Within 60 days the rats developed polycystic ovariess. The control group received no therapy and maintained features of PCOS. Those treated with acupuncture showed a reduction in the hyperactivity of the ovarian peripheral sympathetic nerve fibers, reduction of the increased nerve growth factor concentrations within the ovaries to normal and reduced the weight of the poly cystic ovaries. This group of doctors then set out with the aim of reproducing similar results in women with PCOS. The study concluded, “We have shown that repeated electroacupuncture treatments restore regular ovulations in the anovulatory women with PCOS. In addition, acupuncture influenced neruoendocrine and endocrine parameters indicative of PCOS, such as LH/FSH ratios, mean testosterone concentrations, and beta-endorphin concentrations, which reduced significantly.”
This study illustrates the hormonal origin of this disease process, and the fact that it can be induced artificially. The induction of this hormonal trauma produces a physiologic state of stress which raises the activity of the sympathetic nervous system, producing a disease syndrome. Acupuncture treatments were effective at resolving this pathologic process because it reduces the level of hypersympathetic nervous system response, relaxing the whole neuroendocrine system.
Source: http://www.easternharmonyclinic.com/medart/marl06.html
the latest
well, I went for a run a few days ago. I went even though my body didn’t really feel like it that day. so I learned a lesson too. If your body doesn’t feel like it, then don’t do it. I went to a local park, for some reason thinking it was a dirt trail. It was a paved trail, which made it feel so difficult to pick my feet up and keep going. I went the whole trail which only took 6 minutes, meaning it was probably a half mile. It was dissappointing that it was tough, but I knew the pavement & the fact that I hadn’t really felt like doing it had a lot to do with it. I can’t believe people voluntarily run on pavement. And this was new pavement. Some neighborhood streets have some bounce to them because they’re worn in. This did not.
The yeast beast is back with a vengeance. I am going to try tea tree oil suppositories. I hate to think that this is all blood sugar related when I’m not even diabetic. It’s not a good thought.
I started the new job and it is so much less stressful. There is a lot of accounting/data entry type things to do which I will have to focus to learn since my mind is very abstract, but it’s nice not to feel like I’m being talked down to like I’m the dumbest person in the world all day. Ahh, a normal environment again. Although I haven’t been sleeping much since I have to get up earlier. I’ve also been stressed out about this guy I’ve been involved with for almost a year now. I adore him and wish we could at least date, but he seems content to see me once on the weekend, if that and not call me or anything during the week. This upsets me since I went on tons of dates this summer looking for someone who would want to be at least a little more serious, but I was never attracted to the guys that wanted that. I really think it is something about this town since all my friends only find these sorts of characters too. This is weighing on me heavily.
I know I need to balance out my life and not stress out about things, but I think at this age you want everything to be perfect NOW. I”ve thought about moving to my own place again now that I will be working full-time, because it seemed like I was happier when I lived alone before. I think living with my parents has cost me some feeling of freedom perhaps.
Good Morning Starshine
here’s a picture of my wide eyes. you can see them struggling to look sideways. a face shown without the rest of the face looks really funny.
THE SINUSES
So at I almost cancelled my last acupuncture appt. because my sinuses were so clogged and I felt really run down that day. I would blow my nose nonstop. I got there and she stuck many needles around my nose. It made my eyes water. But afterwards on the drive home it felt easier to breathe. And it pretty much got rid of what was going on. I still blow my nose sometimes but I can breathe, I’m not congested.
TIREDNESS
well, it seems that I am not doing as well going every other week to acupuncture instead of every week. but I can’t even pay my bills! but this week I had trouble sleeping, as far as being wired late at night. it would be 2 am and I still didn’t really want to go to bed. then had to get up around 8. needless to say I am exhausted (but still don’t want to go to bed.) I have realized that I stress out about things that are beyond my control (men, jobs etc.) and this really does me no favors physically either. It definitely doesn’t help me wind down at night. I also would pee before I went to bed and feel like there was a tiny bit just sitting there that wouldn’t come out. This irritated me and kept me awake with my repeated trips to the bathroom. This has always been a hallmark of the graves with me. The little things that are like gnats bothering you. I just fell off the wagon in general this week. I noticed myself feeling weaker. And the winter depression from the lack of sunlight finally hit me. But since then I feel better.
THE RUN
I decided one day that I just had to get more sunlight to fight the winter blues I am prone to. So I went for a run in the park near the real estate office. I ran on pavement and I did have a hard time picking up my feet, but I felt like I pushed myself to go a little farther than usual. I could also breathe steadily and calmly which is nice. Then afterwards I felt a tightness in my lungs the rest of the night. Probably from running in the cold. It was weird though, almost like holding mental tension in there. It made me wonder if the run also got some energy blocked in there, but maybe that’s farfetched who knows. But the run did lift up my spirits from being outside in the light. It is very gray here in the winter.
THE YEAST
I have started taking hot baths again at night this week because it really calms me even though I’m sure it doesn’t help the nonstop yeast situation (which is back with a vengeance.) I take diflucan but I haven’t been able to shake this thing yet. The gyno said she sees this ongoing yeast issue in her diabetes patients and that I should try to cut down on carbs/sugar. I try to be careful with what I eat, but I live with my parents right now and I’m broke. They have a huge supply of all manner of sweets at all times. And that stuff fills me up if I’m running out the door, where an apple and spinach will not. So that’s on ongoing struggle. I feel like it’s militant to not be able to have a few cookies once in a while, when otherwise I eat very well. But the acupuncturist had said it is part of my heat issue so who knows what exactly is causing it. I guess a month of antibiotics last spring wasn’t good either. I’ll keep hammering away at it. Try different things.
THE JOB
I’m working on figuring out some other job I can do that will be less stressful than my current one. I’m also trying to do real estate part time and really want it to work out. So I need my main job to be something that doesn’t stress me out or weigh me down mentally.
Going Eastern in my head
Today I went to her office to get the herbs I had run out of. I do this because I am low on money all the time and I think having to drive all the way up there to see her on another day reinforces the treatment in my mind and maybe on some level it feels like a commitment to getting better.
While there I started talking to a lady in the waiting room. It was her first appointment and she seemed to need encouragement that it would work. She was there for menopausal symptoms and it was making her depressed too. She was trying to get her son to come for anxiety & insomnia but he was skeptical. She was asking me if I saw any difference and I said yes, this has actually given me hope that I can get better whereas when I was faced with the Western M.D.s not wanting to do much I felt like I had no hope – like they just wanted me to suffer. I told her about how I don’t have to take my sleep medicine anymore and how I’m trying to get back into running. How things just seem more clear. I also explained that my problem also involves too much heat in my body and one of the herbs she gave me helps with that. (When I first started going to acupuncture I never had her put the heater on in the room, but now sometimes I do.) The lady wanted to know how long I had been going and how long it would take me to get better. I didn’t even bring up my reproductive issues but said I think it may take me a while because I see it as her peeling back all the layers. It made me feel good to give someone else encouragement. When you think about it, there’s really not a lot that Western medicine can do for menopause. Hormones, with estrogen being linked to breast cancer. Lube. And that’s about it – it seems.
I think either my hormones are a hot mess or the Graves is just heating up and drying out my whole system. I talked to my gyno on the phone and she thinks my yeast issues are drying me out. Which could be true. I’m just afraid it’s the PCOS itself. The hormonal problems. Or I thought it might be the pill throwing me off since I never had this problem before I was on the pill. She doesn’t think the pill would cause that. But she is gung ho for people taking all manner of hormones. She said if the yeast is completely gone and the dryness persists then I can always do Nuva Ring. I guess it dampens everything. My problem with this is that I don’t like having to rely on something like that for a problem that I shouldn’t be having until I’m 50! This is just crazy to me. I am obsessed with getting to the root of the problem, not just trying to smooth over them the way Western medicine does. Maybe I have gone completely eastern or holistic in my head. I’m not sure. But it’s hard to relate to the way these thing are thought of.
In other news I am still waiting on the CAT scan for the kidney stones. I am on a city health plan so I am having to wait a long time. I hope it happens soon.
I went to the company christmas dinner tonight and I felt like I was being made fun of for not drinking. I have a sensitive stomach and don’t like alcohol with food. And the dr. told me no bubbly drinks with kidney stones and wine would have me too tipsy. They were also laughing that I was actually eating the blooming onion. ( I don’t eat a lot of fast food). Then at some point someone was asking me about my dip for my catfish and I was saying a little goes a long way and I didn’t want to go overboard with it. Then my boss said “Do you ever go overboard? You seem really conservative to me” which I took as a huge insult. I guess I just hate that people act like I’m a prude about food without knowing why I eat the way I do. And at the job they’re always yelling at me for one thing or another and I feel on edge so I never really let loose. The whole thing just annoyed me. I know that place is bogging me down, spiritually. I feel like I can’t be myself there.
Prevention Article
I found an article about acupuncture that was published in Prevention. There are grammar mistakes on this website but I thought it did a good job of explaining things for people who don’t understand it.
that acupuncturist knows what she’s doing
The pain on my lower left side of my back went away so I don’t know if it was stone or not. Meanwhile the battle of the neverending yeast infection rages on. I just started taking acidophilus to see if that would help. I really hope I won’t be battling this the rest of my life. It’s insane. And I also realized it’s either my hormones are off or one of my meds but I am dryer than the grand canyon down there and I’m way too young for that. I really want to figure out what is causing that. I’m now on the pill so I don’t know how that factors in. But I do know I never had this problem before I was on the pill or when I was on the shot (which is just progesterone I guess). I also have done some reading recently that suggests that people with PCOS aren’t producing progesterone like they should, but have enough estrogen. I don’t know if too much estrogen would be a bad thing down there. I also had a dr. tell me once that it might be my beta blocker, but this started before I was on that. I just hope to God it’s not some correlation to me not being on Glucophage (aka insulin regulating med that ties you to the toilet 24/7 + sends you to the hospital with dehydration)
I have been pretty tired/lazy this week. I still have the bad habit of not going to bed early when I’m extra tired. Last night I was starting to go back to how I used to be. I was exhausted around 6-7 pm then got through that, drank a cup of white tea and was majorly hyped up, not wanting to go to bed. I felt like my whole body was buzzing all over again just like before. I had started thinking that I had been doing better on the original herb the acupuncturist gave me which she said was for excess heat and thirst in the body. Funnily enough I ran out of the current herb I was taking and went back to her office to get more. I didn’t mention that I thought the first herb had been better. She just out and gave me that one along with another one. It was like she subconsciously knew somehow, or maybe from observing me. My face got it’s red splotchy look on it today to go along with how I was feeling. Edgy, weak, my blood sugar went low at work and made everything look like I was in a parallel universe etc. I couldn’t go to lunch because the other lady had already gone and I had to stay put. I’m pretty sure that in chinese medicine a red spread over the cheeks is a sign of fire in the body. So I’m wondering if she knew just from that. I am fascinated either way though.
