Re: Hi Everybody I'm brand new to your forum. Thanks so much for being here : ) !!!
From: =?iso-8859-2?q?Zalányi Sámuel?= (anonymous@obgyn.net)
Tue, 1 May 2001 16:14:27 +0100 (MET DST)
Hi Jacqui,
Let's try glucophage 3x250 mg first, have it with foods. If it doesn't help, you may try imodium.
Sam
> Hi Gang,
>
> I'm Jacqui, I just found you. I contacted my kind chapter person via
> e-mail, tried to pay my $40.00 dues (it didn't work for some reason so I
> E-mailed the webmistress) and joined the mailing list. I've been
> reading transcripts and threads and am so grateful. Thank you so much
> for being here.
>
> I thought I should introduce myself and check in with my story which of
> course sounds like everyone else's, it's sure good to find a home. I'm
> thirty-eight. I have one son who is eleven. I was recently diagnosed
> with PCOS and am IR. I have high levels of the male hormone whose name
> is escaping me, ack, testosterone? I also have ADD, also recently
> diagnosed so please to bear with my challenged communication skills. I
> have had acne all of my life. I am very overweight, (I hate the word
> obese, would rather be called fat, and have very low thyroid,
> Hashimoto's Syndrome. I also have Interstitial Cystitis and cystic
> breasts. (I'm just a cyst queen I guess, there just has to be some kind
> of link between all of this cystyness.)
>
> My periods started getting really weird about six years ago, after I had
> been taking the dread phen/fen combination for two years! I wonder what
> role that may have played in all of this. I just remember flushing a
> lot, getting an incredible increase of acne, especially around the sides
> of my face by my ears and under my chin, which someone told me was
> considered hormonally related. My periods started becoming incredibly
> heavy, and would run one into another, then they'd go away for a month
> or two and then start running into each other again. Big baby that I
> was at the time I simply called my doctor and ignored the whole thing.
> Meanwhile I was putting on weight like crazy.
>
> Weight wise I was thin and full of energy as a child and then when I hit
> puberty I started to put on weight and craved carbs and sweets and it's
> been one big weight gain/climb since then, with every diet and program
> tried along the way.
>
> No one ever mentioned the possibility of PCOS to me, not any of my
> doctors, until one day I was shopping in Lane Bryant and a woman who
> worked there, out of the blue started telling me about how she had
> discovered she had it, then was put on Met/Glucophage and birth control
> pills, was very sick with side affects for a while, then got better and
> in the process lost eighty pounds, got rid of the cysts and went off the
> birth control pills but had to keep taking the Met. I remember thinking
> at the time, "Wow I wish I had that problem, then all of this would make
> sense and all I'd have to do is take a pill." Sigh. anyway i tucked
> that little bit of information away and didn't act on it until one day
> again by extreme chance I was giving a reference for a housekeeper I had
> once had, to a woman who happened to be a nutritionist, (Mary
> Donkersloot in Beverly Hills, I'm going to see her for the first time
> this Tuesday,) and we started chatting and when I told her how
> overweight I am she said, "Oh you poor thing, has anyone ever checked to
> see if you might be polycistic?" Well, that was it, two totally
> unrelated people had mentioned this to me so taking it as a sign I went
> to see the gynecologist and low and behold, da da da da, cysts on my
> ovaries.
>
> My gynecologist said she thought I had PCOS and ran blood tests and told
> me she would put me on birth control pills. She never mentioned Met or
> any meds but gave me the name of the doctor who performed the gastro
> bypass on Carnie Wilson. When my tests came back with abnormal liver
> enzymes I had to go to my regular doctor. The next step involved my GP,
> who doesn't really believe in PCOS, (she's extremely conservative)
> taking more blood and sending me to a doctor for ultrasounds of my
> liver, gallbladder and breasts, (might as well get that mammogram done
> at the same time). I had a lovely moment of terror there when I saw my
> breast X-rays and there were big round dark circles, but luckily they
> turned out to be cysts. I don't remember why I had a big CAT Scan but
> we did that as well. After all of that and a glucose fasting test, my
> doctor reluctantly agreed that I might have PCOS, but that I definitely
> had IR, and put me on Glucophage at 500 mg once a day to start. i felt
> terrible for the first two days, didn't want to eat, mostly slept, and
> then after that I perked up and thought ,"Hey this is great, is this how
> normal people feel around food?" Sweets and carby things didn't hold the
> same appeal at all, and my appetite dropped.
>
> After two weeks I went to see my doctor, who was thrilled at the outcome
> and we upped the Glucophage to 500 mg 2x per day. Here is where I've
> run into trouble. It's been over a week now and I haven;t bounced back
> like the last time. I am exhausted. I think I'm imagining that my
> hands and feet feel kind of swollen and numb. My sex drive has
> disappeared but whose wouldn't really with all of this going on. I'm
> exhausted all of the time. I want to sleep all day, and the slightest
> amount of physical exertion makes me weak and sweaty. Of course I'm
> making myself walk and as I mentioned before I'm going to see the
> nutritionist this week. I'm a vegetarian which further complicates
> things protein wise.
>
> I'm adopted so I can't get too much info. from my birth family. I
> contacted my Mother but she is totally shut down, selfish and non
> cooperative. The most I could ferret out of her is that she too gained
> a lot of weight in her thirties that she hasn't been able to lose. I
> had a grandmother who had type 2 diabetes, so this supports the belief
> that this is an inherited condition, and my Birth Mother was unable to
> conceive for something like ten years after she had me in her early
> twenties. Then in her thirties she went on to have three more children.
>
> Well, that's about it, my big long story. I'm not too good at brevity
> but I guess you've figured that out by now, heh. If you want to know
> anything more about me I keep an online journal in real time. I update
> it daily and sometimes several times a day. I'll probably include this
> there. You're welcome to come by and see. Thanks for reading this and
> I welcome any comments or suggestions and look forward to being able to
> return the support.
>
> Big huge hopeful hugs,
> Jacqui
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