WARNING THIS POST IS ABOUT HEAVY PERIODS.
I can't spell it, I can't even say it! 'Menorrhagia' or what became known as 'what a bloody mess - half my life!
I have been battling whether IT really was heavy? How do we know? Because I'm knackered and drained and miserable, that's how! So I measured my loss with a Mooncup. Gross to some, but so easy to use, and at least I knew how much loss there was. 90ml is considered heavy. Ok tick. I kept a diary, including ml lost each day and a note of number of days.
After our third son was born I was sterilised. Then together with that and age it started.
I saw my Doctor, she told me about Mirena an IUD or coil. Alarm bells rang. It just didn't sit comfortably with me. I had scans and checks to check nothing else was going on. I went away and read all the stories and decided I had to try something. I was planning a summer on the road! My other option was hormone therapy, so I took tablets that stopped it all completely. I felt great, had more energy, felt human, happy. For the first six weeks.
After the six weeks I was booked in for the FITTING. OK it was a little uncomfortable but not bad at all. Over and done with and ready for my next six weeks on the road. For me it was not good. But it takes time. So I gave it time. For six weeks I bled. I continued to gain weight. Then other things happened. I developed acne, bad acne. I got joint pain. I have always suffered with back pain, but never before knees, elbows, ankles and shoulders!!! And I still bled, a little less but for half the month still.
I know it can be amazing for some people. Next more blood tests for Rheumatoid Arthritis and other things. It sounded like rheumatoid arthritis. I had stopped eating meat and done other things to help like taking supplements.
I turned into an old woman, I had a job getting up from a chair. I'd seize up, have headaches and pain. I was living on pain killers. I asked the Dr if it linked with the fitting of the IUD.
The results came back yes, on the rheumatoid arthritis scale, but presently no inflammatory indicators.
There and then my Dr booked me in to take it out. The results were immediate for me. My head fog cleared, headache lifted. Within a week my wrists and ankles stopped hurting. A month later, energy levels rising, knees, elbow, shoulder and wrist pain all gone. I have started to lose some of the weight. It will take a while for hormone levels to change back. My periods are yet to stabilise.
Personally, I think I began to develop rheumatoid arthritis as a result of my body fighting this foreign body in my body. It was doing what our body does naturally to fight off bugs and illnesses.
A month on and even my back pain has eased. I am on the road to health and will be looking at other ways to help menorrhagia, if it returns.
I realised, I was scared, scared that I would never be able to run again. The fear of losing my mobility. I am continuing on the vegetarian, active path and have started WeightWatchers to get to a healthy weight again. I want to be able to run again in 2012 and not hurt my joints in the process, and raise my energy levels. I hadn't even realised I missed running. But not having the choice to, made me want to. A similar thing happened when my husband was ill 3 years ago. Within 6 weeks of his aneurysm he raced our eldest son across a field. Physical health is so important to our happiness.
Here's to great health, happiness and wealth in 2012.
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Re-reading this I must point out a few changes...I now prefer walking to running, I stopped WeightWatchers and I began eating meat again. I've also read a lot of research and books since this post but particularly Dr Christiane Northrup's Women's Bodies, Women's Health and Dr Sara Gottfried's The Hormone Cure.
Getting my Health Back Update - Part 2 coming soon
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