Medical Breakthrough

I had an appointment with my endocrinologist yesterday. It's been a year since I started thyroid medication and overall my health has greatly improved. But, there are still some things that I think could be better, so I took a list with me yesterday so I wouldn't forget what I wanted to discuss. My thryroid levels were right where they should be, meaning that I should be feeling good, so I pulled out my list.

First on my list was how pregnancy affected my thyroid levels. The short amount of time I was pregnant, my thyroid was thrown way off. She said that some doctors will just up your dose the minute a pregnancy is confirmed, others will wait for blood work to show the levels being off. She said some people have no effects in pregnancy and others have to double or triple their dose of thyroid medication when they are pregnant, especially during the first trimester. She said that with the way my body reacted with this latest pregnancy, that she will probably just up the dose as soon as I know I'm pregnant, and then follow up with blood work from there.

The next thing on my list was my arms falling asleep at night. Every night several times a night, I will wake up with my left arm totally asleep past my shoulder. I assumed the poor circulation went hand in hand with my being cold all the time (you have cold hands/feet because of poor circulation). She said that next time I do blood work, she wants to check me for a B12 deficiency (which causes numbness). She said that because I have one autoimmune disorder (Hashimoto's), it opens me up to a bunch of other autoimmune disorders (one of which manifests in a B12 deficiency). So, we'll see what comes of that. She also said that I could just have poor circulation because my blood pressure is consistently low (yesterday it was 100/60). Low blood pressure means your heart doesn't pump as hard, which can effect circulation.

The last thing on my list was weight loss. I feel like this is always my complaint when I go into my appointments, but it's a big deal to me. I live in a town where there is A LOT of emphasis on how you look. I also married into a family where I am painfully aware of how much bigger I am than them. So I do everything I possibly can to try and lose weight, with very little success. I explained to my doctor that I was running 45 minutes a day three days a week and then doing long runs (10 plus miles) on Saturdays--I'm doing A LOT of running. In all my other time I am running around taking care of 5 kids and a big house. I get a lot of exercise. And I'm eating nearly nothing. If I eat 1400 calories I maintain my weight. If I eat any more, I gain weight. In order to lose weight, I have to cut back to 1000 calories, which I can't sustain for very long because my body is starving. I only allow myself dessert once a week. And my idea of a snack is 6 plain almonds and a glass of water. I just don't get it. I don't understand how my thyroid level can be right on and I still am having such a hard time losing weight. All of a sudden, something clicked with my doctor. She said, "Wait, you were diagnosed with PCOS, weren't you?". Then she threw her hands in the air excitedly and said, "That's it! I've got it!". She asked if I'd ever been on Metformin. I said I hadn't. "Ok," she said, "I'm almost certain this is the answer." As she started to explain, everything started to come back to me. I was diagnosed with PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) 10 years ago. At the time, I did extensive research about it. People with PCOS are at a greater risk of developing diabetes and have an extremely hard time losing weight, essentially making it a double edge sword--in order to fight off diabetes, you need to lose weight, but it's nearly impossible to lose weight. At the time, my biggest concern was the fact that PCOS makes it very difficult to get pregnant, and at the time we were struggling with trying to have our first baby. Over the past 10 years, I've given the diagnosis very little thought--till now. She explained that people with PCOS can have what is very similar to "pre-diabetes" where their body can't process insulin, causing a build up of extra insulin, which then turns to fat. She said it's nearly impossible to loose weight when that happens. She said that Metformin is a diabetic drug which aids in the breakdown of insulin. She said they use it with PCOS patients also. She's pretty sure this is going to be the key to my weight loss struggles. It should also help with trying to get pregnant. She said that for some reason, in PCOS patients, it increases fertility (it doesn't in diabetic patients). After trying to get pregnant for almost a year now, that sounds like a wonderful side effect. The drug information page that came from the pharmacy with my prescriptions lists the following under "other uses--It is also used in women with certain disease of the ovaries (polycystic ovarian syndrome). By helping your body to respond better to insulin, metformin may decrease the risk of diabetes, make menstrual cycles more regular, and increase fertility".

I came home from the appointment so excited and hopeful. I'm pretty sure Scott is a little tired of hearing just how excited and hopeful I am. Now I just have to wait and see if it works.