PCOS and Me

Here's a story of some medical stuff that's been going on in my life.

Back in July, after talking to my doctor, I stopped taking my birth control at the recommendation of a friend, who wanted to see the effects on my life without it. The pill (in all its many forms) has been linked to depression in some people, and that seemed to be the case with me (although that isn't positive, while I improved briefly after I ceased taking birth control, I eventually faded back to my "normal").

After stopping the pill I had my period as usual. That was the last time I had it.

Back when I was nineteen I started on birth control because I was having infrequent and irregular periods. At the time I thought it was connected to my antidepressants - which had given me some other hormonal side effects. Looking back, it looks like it was just random coincidence/chance. The birth control helped regulate my cycle, and every month I got my period when expected (until I started on Seasonale, which was awesome).

Back to now - after not having any sign of my period at all in three months I started to get a little concerned. Not much, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't sick or something. I also needed to see the doctor about some issues with sleep, which are still unanswered, and get a flu shot. I figured I may as well do everything at once.

My doctor told me that my symptoms - the lack of a period, some darkened hair growth on my belly and thighs - seemed to align with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), and she wanted to test for it. The test she recommended was a blood check to look for androgens.

I tested positive.

Testosterone: 91 ng/dL (normal: 14-76 ng/dL)

So I went back to the doctor a few days later to talk to her about my options for treatment, if any. She gave me some basic information about PCOS, and I've learned some more about it myself since, through research online and some paperwork she gave me. I've currently opted for no treatment. I'll explain why in a bit.

PCOS is likely hereditary, or genetic. My period having issues back when I was 19 was likely not due to my medication, but due to my body producing too much testosterone. The common symptoms are mostly cosmetic: hair darkening on my face, thighs, stomach, etc.; I may experience balding; increased acne (I have experienced some of this, mostly on my head. This could also be because I'm using shampoo again or some other reason);  and weight gain around my stomach (rather than my hips - and I am experiencing this. No wonder my pants feel all awkward these days). Medically I don't have a period - I may or may not even ovulate, and becoming pregnant may be difficult or downright impossible for me, if I eventually choose to have children; I may develop cysts on my ovaries, which might hurt but are unlikely to be dangerous to me; and I might develop diabetes, so I need to be on the lookout and protect myself against that (which honestly shouldn't be too hard - I've already cut down on the amount of refined sugars and grains in my diet almost completely).

I was tested for diabetes the day I returned to the doctor for my options. The bloodwork came back very good. I plan on getting tested yearly from now on, when I do other bloodwork. What's one more vial?

I decided against treatment for any of my symptoms. For the most part they're not bad and they don't bother me. I am on a ten-day run of progesterone to (possibly) get my period to start back up, but this isn't quite a treatment - or is a "one time" treatment. There isn't really a "treatment" for the weight gain aside from the typical treatments for weight gain - I'll just have to be aware that I'm going to gain weight, and it will be around my stomach.

The main treatment option is birth control or hormonal. I currently don't want to go back onto birth control, because I'm trying to figure out some of my depression issues, and hormones aren't helpful in that. Other than that there aren't many other options. There are creams that I could use for hair darkening, but again - it doesn't actually bother me.

It's going to be a bit of an adventure, but I'm not too worried. I figured I would let everyone know, though.

A Day At The Beach

On Sunday Tene and I went to the beach. Specifically we went to Natural Bridges State Beach, about an hour drive from our apartment.

The drive was nice - through the hills on a smallish freeway. It reminded me of a greener version of the Utah mountain roads (the trees here are so huge! and there are so many of them!)

This was the first time we went to any of the beaches around here since we moved to California. The reason we finally got around to going out was actually Tene's birthday, a month ago.

At the time we were busy and weren't able to do anything for him, so now that we had time I figured we should go have a picnic! Soon we're hoping to go to explore some of the redwood forests as well - something I've never done.

The water was so cold! Tene wanted to get a shot of me in the water with waves crashing behind me.

I refused to stay in the water long enough for that to happen, it was so cold and the waves were high. I kept losing my balance every time they crested.

There were some people at the beach - most of them were staying out of the water, or doing what I was doing - betting their feet wet and nothing else. Two guys were wakeboarding, but they also had full-body wet suits.

The beach itself, the scenery and waterscape, was just beautiful. The natural bridge was interesting, and had tons of birds on it - I wish I knew what kind they were. I thought seagulls initially, but they were darker than all the others around the area. There was also a pelican out in the sea.

We explored some tidal pools near the beach, another first for me! Mostly they had some type of mussel (or some shelled-creature, they were black and everywhere!), and not much else - but one that I found had a crab in it, and a few had some varying sized anemones.

It was a good, fun day. I learned a couple of things about picnics on the beach (individual lunch boxes are better than a shared one, for example, and sand gets everywhere), and it was nice to spend the time with Tene outside of our apartment.

I can't wait for the next adventure!

Shopping

So, Tene and I have been on a Paleo/Primal inspired diet for the last six months or so, and I thought I would talk about it.

I typically shop once a week, spending over $100 maybe every other week. The last time I went shopping (On Monday, July 4) I spent about $170, mainly on fruits, vegetables, and meat, between two stores - Trader Joe's and Safeway.

Last time I went to Trader Joe's I got green onions, six pounds of sweet potatoes (these will be gone within a week), garlic, plums, a 24 oz box of blueberries (already about half gone), mushrooms, bell peppers, bananas, 2 pounds strawberries, and nectarines (four of them, two are gone now). I love Trader Joe's. Everything there is organic, and it's a lot more affordable than, say, Whole Foods.

Then there's Safeway, where I got two dozen eggs (one dozen gone! I make waffles almost every morning, and for two waffles it takes four eggs ... so ... ), As well as eight pounds of frozen chicken breast, steak, asparagus, and Brussel's sprouts. I also got my non-Paleo/Primal food at Safeway: two types of hot cocoa, Nutella, a ton of olive oil, vanilla creamer, and vanilla extract.

In all, most of the food - especially the meat - will last us for a week and a half to two weeks, if not longer (the olive oil, for example, should last us a couple of months).

I think we eat pretty healthy around here. We try to eat mostly, if not completely, whole foods. It's not perfect, for example when I was sick over the last two weeks, and as a result I kind of let everything go. We ate out most days, usually at Chipotle (which isn't horrible, as far as "eating out" goes), and a lot of our fresh food went bad (which is another reason that my most recent shopping excursion cost so much). Also we obviously eat some not-as-healthy-as-could-be-foods (Nutella, hot cocoa, etc). But I think we do really well, over all.

Plants!

Not much has been happening in our lives lately, things have been pretty quiet.

But my plants are growing! So I figured I would share them with you!

Sweet peas!

This is my second try at sweet peas, the first batch blossomed a tiny bit and then died. The soil they were in was seriously lacking nutrients, and they were thin and really weak vines.

This batch, on the other hand, looks great! They're a good healthy green color, the stems are thick and they're growing well :)

Next on my list are my hanging pots.

Sweet peas and morning glory

I got these off of Amazon and I really like them. They're kind of chintzy, but they're cute, they were cheap, and I'm not too worried about them breaking or anything. I have more sweet peas growing in two of them (sweet peas grow fast, I never really noticed before) and morning glory in the other two. My thought, since those are both vine/climbing plants, is that they'll climb down, instead of up, making a cute vine-trail that spills out of the pots and such.

I'm really considering buying a second set of those pots, maybe hanging them on the other side of the balcony ...

After those is my poor basil plant

Mr Cecil Basil, the strongest of basil plants

I somehow ended up killing most of the basil plants I bought, no idea how. But I have one stem left. You can see the wilted, dead basil in there too. I have no idea how I ended up being a murderer of basil. I took care of all of the plants I got exactly the same, so I don't know how one branch of them survived while the others all died off.

Bellflowers

Then I have these bellflowers that I got from Trader Joe's on a whim. Most of the flowers have died off (I kept them in their original pot too long, I think, and they wilted - but they're coming back, see?) but they seem to be reinvigorated by a slightly larger pot with some fertilizer. Slowly they're becoming more green than dead, and they're blooming again too!

After the bellflowers come my three pots of mystery plants.

What's growing?

I bought some (horribly overpriced) seed bombs from Anthropologie a while ago, and I finally decided to plant them. I had bought two bags of the West Coast flowers (West Coast: includes cornflower, Shasta daisy, farewell-to-spring, garland chrysanthemum, Sweet William, mountain phlox and California poppy) and one of the herbs (Herbs: includes, basil, dill, cilantro, chives and parsely).

Who knows?

I pretty much just crumbled up the "bombs" of two of the bags (herbs and one of the West Coast bags) and layered them in the pots. I have no idea what'll come out of it, if anything (although I have to admit: I'm really hoping they bloom).

So mysterious!

They're all growing really well (to be expected, I suppose, that's part of the point of seed bombs, after all), and I have to admit that I'm really excited to see what sprouts up from them.



After those come my strawberries.

So delicious!

While we've had one strawberry make it all the way into being delicious, that's all we've achieved from these plants. Now they're more protected (there's metal mesh underneath a thin layer of soil. to keep the squirrels from digging them up), but I suspect it might take another season or two before we get any more strawberries. I guess they need to be more established or something.


Then there's the indoor plants.

Upstairs live these three - Ghosty, Heffalump, and Rose, or Graptopetalum paraguayense, Portulacaria afra, and ... a type of succulent I can't remember the name of at this point. These three are really cute and are in our bedroom window. They're doing a lot better than they were before I moved them.

Then there's Mr Tentacles, my octopus plant (Drosera capensis) who is doing really poorly. I can't figure out how to help him, and I don't know if I'm going to be able to keep it alive. I'm hoping to get a bigger container really soon, and maybe that will help.

Finally is the newest addition, Zebra. Zebra is a Hawthoria fasciata, and the first plant I actually did my research on. I only bought him once I knew he would survive in a partial shade/low light environment. He currently lives in the window by my computer desk.


Well, those are all of them. I really like taking care of my plants - I like having green things around, and I like keeping them alive.

Midna's Passing

On Monday night, around 10, I went to go check on the girls. Most came to greet me, and I noticed that Midna, usually one of the first to come say "hi", was nowhere to be seen. I started worrying, but not too much.

Then I found her hiding under the liner I made for the cage. She was extremely thin, mostly unresponsive, and seemed to be doing overall poorly. I tried to make her comfortable, and tried to get some water and food into her. I don't know how long she went without eating.

Two hours later, after getting some advice from some always helpful rat-based pet care forums (and doing personal reading and research on the Rat Health Guide) I ran to the grocery store to pick up some Ensure, Pedialyte, and baby food to try to coax Midna to get some sustenance into her. Unfortunately by the time I got home, it was too late, and Midna had passed away.

I did some research afterwards, and have come to the conclusion that her symptoms most closely match her having suffered congestive heart failure, leading to her death. I don't know exactly what happened - maybe she wasn't feeling quite as well, and she started taking in less food and water, compounding the problem, or perhaps she just simply wasted away in two days. I'll probably never know.

I knew when I rescued Midna, Freya, and Lilith that they would not be in this world long - and I knew they would likely be here for a shorter amount of time than any of my other girls. Just by virtue of their birth circumstances. But I had expected to have them for much longer than a sparse four months and some change.

Midna, my fastest rat, I will always remember you. I hope you will rest in peace, enjoying yourself among the vast running fields on the other side of the rainbow bridge.