Just What the Doctor Ordered

Remember to follow all of your surgeon's discharge instructions. I had to lift Kooper today, he is definitely more then 5lbs., I have an abdominal hernia. Does not feel too good. I did decide to go to my family reunion today. I am amazed at the recovery time!!! Heck 5 days ago I got major surgery, today I am hanging out with the extended Harper clan. Of course I am not near 100%, but I am not chained to the couch either. I have had lots of help with the kids since Reid is back to work. It is way too soon for him to get any vacation time, heck we won't even take the chance to ask. We have wonderful friends and family and are so grateful!!! The liquid diet is getting old quick, but I keep reminding myself it is only 2 weeks of the rest of my life!!! I enjoy the smoothies, but could pass on the broths, especially vegetable!

Mission Complete

Surgery is completed, happened without any big complication. My mom went with me, Marcia (MNL) and Reid manned the homefront and kids. I have been making freezer meals for almost a month now, so our freezer is stocked. Also we are fortunate enough to have my mom's group providing meals for us for 2 weeks, and then neighbors and friends after that. I am hoping to not have to cook until at least September (at least not for the family).

Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life. I cleaned the house like crazy, stocked the cupboards, and got plenty of ingredients for my two week liquid diet and two week pureed food diet. This will be interesting. I had to stop eating yesterday at 11pm, today is all clear liquids. We are heading out tonight. I am nervous, but excited too. I am going to miss the kids sooooo much. This is the longest I will have ever been away, except for my honeymoon (Addison was 8 months old).

Here is some history on my PCOS diagnosis and weight struggles. I tend to ramble, so read at your own discretion!!!!

My weight has been a constant struggle for me since I was a child. I started getting chubby during my parents divorce. My mom had me in Weight Watchers at age 12. I was very successful at the weight loss, but had to work so hard on it, eat so little to keep it off. I gained some weight back, but by 16 I was about average size. I think starting a job and joining dutch dance kicked my metabolism into gear. So I slowly started gaining and by 20 I was quite a chunker. I then again decided to join Weight Watchers and lost the weight very easily by dieting and exercising. Taebo was my savior. When I met Reid I was a size 4/6, but within a year I was bigger then I had ever been. Of course I was blissfully in love and happier then I had ever been, well except for the weight.

So during all this time I always had infrequent menstrual cycles, referred to as Amenorrhea. Got my first cycle at 12, never got it again until I was 16. I had spoken to my Dr. about this at 16, he put me on the pill, and I got Aunt Flo every 28 days like clockwork. Never really thought anything of it until at 21 I decided to quit the pill, mostly because of the side effects. At that point my period did not come, so at 6 months out I wondered why? I figured I was lucky to not have to deal with it every month and left it at that. So my best friend is getting married, we are at the hair salon gettin our hair done. I am under the dryer reading a magazine and the article I am reading sounds like me. i know it sounds crazy, unreal, but it was SO real. I am flabbergasted by what I am reading and excited. I know I am going to take this information to my doctor. It was an article about PCOS. All the syptoms were me, I thought finally an explanation on my weight struggles and lack of periods. So I asked the hair stylist to make me a copy, I tucked it in my purse and continued celebrating Amy's day (It was beautiful and awesome)!!!

Come the following Monday I call and schedule an appointment with my Dr., in the mean time I do all kinds of research on PCOS, and talk to my mom all about it. Finally the day comes to see my Dr., actualy I saw the Nurse Practitioner. She was very understanding, but remained optimistic. They had heard almost nothing about PCOS, but she told me she would talk to the Dr., and if he agreed she would run the test for proper diagnosis. She called me a few days later. She said the Dr. was extremely hesitant to run these tests, but she made the final push to get him to agree. Of course I did them ASAP, and the results answered my questions. I had PCOS!!! Of course it may seem I was excited to be diagnosed, I was not happy to have PCOS, but to finally have an "answer". My Dr. prescribed me metaformin to control my hormone levels, and spirlactone for hair growth (I never mentioned I had battled facial hair, which is a side effect). I started this regimen of meds daily for quite some time. I had improvements in the hair growth, but the menstural cycles were still very spiradic, and the weight troubles were still present. I went back to my Dr., with extreme frustations, at that point they referred me to an endocronoligist.

Specialist usually take a while to get into, so 4 months later I finally went to the endo, he changed my meds completely. Within 6 months I was getting my period about every 3 months, and doing well with the weight. Sometime in there I met Reid, and after awhile kids became a topic of conversation. When I was originally diagnosed my Dr. said I would probably never have children. Based on the research I continued to do I felt that there were ways I could have children. So I went back to my endo., talked to him and he said that I could probably have kids, with help of medications. I had started struggling with my weight more, contributing it to me being happy and not limiting myself so much. He ran some tests and decided to increase my metformin. The increase of the metformin caused me to get my period every month. I t was amazing!!! That alone get me excited, opening the door to children, but not anytime soon.

Of course mother nature had other plans. After the 4th month of a monthy cycle my period did not come. I started to experience heartburn (I never had it before), and other symptoms. Of course I never really thought anything of it until Reid's mom said, oh no I bet you are pregnant. I laughed and said, no way. Well the symptoms increased so we bought a pregnancy test, actually 6 of them. Wow they were all positive. I was scheduled to have my tonsils removed in 3 days, and did I mentioned our wedding was 6 months away? Of course all things happen for a reason and Addison was the best surprise we ever got!!! I got my tonsils out the following year and we pushed the wedding out a year. It was neat because Addison got to be our Flower Girl.

We decided to have a second child. I did not take metformin while pregnant with Addison, but started back up after breast feeding. We started trying for a baby and nothing happened. I was tracking my cycles, doing the basal body tempetures. After many months of nothing I went back to my specialist (Who I see twice yearly for followups and testing). He recommended clomid, being that people with PCOS can have issues even if they have had a successful pregnancy already. He wrote a recomendation to my Dr. I saw my Dr., and he made me an appointment for a month out. He said if I still was not pregnant we would start colmid. Of course I was excited, and mother nature was too. I became pregnant 4 days before I was to start clomid. I do believe in miracles!!! This time I stayed on my metformin during the entire pregnancy. It seemed to help a bunch with lots of side effects and so forth.

My cycles started back when Kendall was 5 months old. I knew my cycles so well, we got pregnant with Kooper the first month. I also think staying on the metformin kept things constsant, making it easier to get pregnant.