For Now

Couple of things to cover in today's post the first will be the final and temporary option my doctor gave me to deal with my heavy flow and cramping and then I am going to touch on the anemia again.

Hormones/birth control pills was the last option that my doctor gave me. By going on hormones it would help control some of my bleeding issues, decrease the severity of cramping and help with PMS/PMDD (the next blog post topic). We decided to go with YAZ because it is the only pill that has proven repeatedly to help with symptoms of severe PMS/PMDD. I decided, after talking with her a lot and talking with Joel, to go with this option for the time being. I pretty much knew at this point that I was really leaning towards the hysterectomy but wanted to give myself time to really think it through.

I started taking YAZ about six months ago and it has helped. The PMS/PMDD has leveled out a bit, the bleeding has waned and the cramping isn't as severe. It's all still there and still causing me problems but it just seems more manageable now. HOWEVER, it has created an entirely new set of problems, albeit not as severe but still not ideal. For example, one possible side effect of YAZ is nausea. I got that one and for about a week to ten days at the start of a new pack I feel like I did when I had morning sickness with the boys. A constant nagging nauseous feeling. Unfortunately, this causes me to snack on high carb, tummy soothing things like crackers, toast, rice, pasta, etc. and in turn this has caused more weight gain.

I'm going to veer off here a little, then come back to the YAZ, so I mentioned weight gain. This has also been a problem over the past 2-3 years. The worse things got the less exercise I did. And I'm not just talking about the get up and go to the gym kind of exercise. The lack of iron causing the anemia meant symptoms like (taken from this website):

Symptoms common to many types of anemia include the following:

* Easy fatigue and loss of energy
* Unusually rapid heart beat, particularly with exercise
* Shortness of breath and headache, particularly with exercise
* Difficulty concentrating
* Dizziness
* Pale skin
* Leg cramps
* Insomnia

Other symptoms are associated with specific forms of anemia.
Anemia caused by iron deficiency:

* Hunger for strange substances such as paper, ice, or dirt (a condition called pica).

I, over the past 2-3 years have experienced all of the above symptoms in one form another, including the hunger for ice! Seriously, I cannot get enough ice, it is an odd compulsive thing. If there is ice in the room, I will find it and chew on it. Anyway, with the above symptoms even things like simply going for a walk with the boys, at times, seemed (still seems) like an impossible task. The added insomnia to my already short nights of sleep has not helped with the loss of energy or fatigue either. Needless to say, my weight has crept up there and I feel as if I have totally lost control of that part of my life. Poor Oliver has had to put up with a lot of my energy issues and I'll come back to that again in one my PMS post. Noah being older, hasn't noticed as much, mainly because he'd rather be down in the cul-de-sac playing with his friends!

Back to the YAZ...along with the nausea, I've also experienced breakthrough bleeding or bleeding at times other than when your cycle should be and some mild diarrhea. The later being not that big of a deal because the extra iron I am taking can cause constipation so they kind of balance each other out. Because as you've all read, I'm supposed to be avoiding constipation so I don't have more issues with the prolapse. Oh the wicked web my body weaves! The breakthrough bleeding, however, has been more of an issue. The month before last, I bleed for 27 days straight in one way or another...spotting, staining, a pad's worth, etc. add that to my, normal for me right now, cycle. Yeah, that was fun and didn't affect my life in anyway (said seeping with sarcasm).

Even with the side effects though, it has helped and I can function a little bit more these days.

I'll touch on the YAZ a little bit again tomorrow in the PMS post but for now, I'm going to go lay down.