On Wednesday last week I talked to my man about the pain I had in my Achilles tendon on my left leg. I basically just told him that once the 30 days are over I will have to run every other day, because it hurts so bad that I can barely walk, but I managed (it was also not bad at all when I ran). He said that this is not normal and we googled what it could be and found: Achilles Tendinitis. Being double jointed and having weak tendons, this is not uncommon. I put ice on it and it started to feel better immediately. Jaac warned me in the other update that this could happen, and sadly it did.
I took Thursday off from running and in hindsight it was probably the best thing I could do - my tendon feels much better and even after I ran today they're fine!
Yesterday I had my ob/gyn exam and my doctor found out that I have PCO (polycystic ovary) syndrome - this means I have cysts around my ovaries that produce too many male hormones and cause insulin immunity. This condition makes me more prone to being diabetic, grow hair / lose hair like men do, have acne, gain weight uncontrollably and the worst part: ovulate less often, which can, and according to my doctor, will make it hard for me to get pregnant in the future. Now this was a shock.
All my life I wanted to find a good man and have kids with him - at least two and now that I found my man, who is on the same page when it comes to kids, I find out that it might not work. It was horrible and I cried all the way towards the library after I left the doctor - I didn't find a book on this, but I read a little on the internet about it.
My future sister-in-law has the same condition and I saw how awful it makes her feel and how desperate her husband is - he basically gave up on the idea of ever having kids. Thinking about these two made this even worse. I really want to have kids in the future and knowing that this might just not work is hard to swallow. Breaking these news to my man was hard, because I feared he would be extremely disappointed, but of course he handled it very well and has been nothing but supportive - I really am lucky to have such a good man.
The good thing however is: I discovered this years before we actually want to try for children! I read that overweight women can help reduce the risk by losing weight. 10% weight loss can have a big impact - what a coincidence that I started running just a week before I found this out?
Eating right and being mindful of your sugar levels can prevent diabetes. I usually have a blood test every year and so far, even when I was 210lbs, I was not diabetic, not even close. So if I keep doing what I do and be careful, I should be able to stay away from diabetes.
Taking birth control is a treatment for this condition as well. So far I have only taken birth control when we were together, 1) because it is expensive and I need to save everything I can for moving and the wedding, 2) because I didn't see a reason to waste money on something that is not beneficial to me at all. Now when I think back, 2 is not really true. When I was with my man for the last 2 visits for 3 months each I took birth control and it has improved my acne immensely, I had no struggle losing weight what so ever and I didn't gain it back. We agreed that I will start taking it while I am not with him to act precautionary. My doctor put me on a cheaper pill and gave me a free sample, so there really is no reason not to.
Next week I have two more tests - one to find out how prone I am to diabetes and to see if I have to start taking medication for it right away and one to find out my hormone levels and see if I have to start taking hormone pills, other than birth control.
I am feeling better and more proactive about it. If losing weight can help, then I want to try it. There is a lot of mediation that can help and if all fails there is still surgery. Not all is lost and it's not 100% sure I won't have kids in the future. Gotta stay positive.
I also have PCOS. Although I've never had a proper exam or anything, I fit all the symptoms including high testosterone. I actually found out because at 16 I was only having 3 periods a year and since I started at 11, that wasn't normal. I've been on the pill since then (except for the last 3 or 4 months) and have seen a difference with my weight. I didn't lose much, but I did stop gaining without changing my lifestyle. I've even noticed in the last week and a half that I've been back on the pill that my acne has totally cleared up. I could do without the regular periods though. I mean, it is nice to know exactly what day it's coming, as opposed to not even knowing what month, but still. To go from 3 painless periods a year to painful ones every month is a horribly unwelcome change lol. :P
The thing with kids scares me too, but I know a lot of women who have this and most of them have kids. If you do have problems, then like you said, there's still hope because there's medication and a lot of things you can do yourself.