#toomanyissues

As I mentioned in the last post, I have too many issues, This is the run down.

I started puberty quite late (16, for those who are nosey), due to my ex-friend Ana, but thankfully am well recovered now. In that aaspect I am very lucky, Because It turns out that I have extremely painful period cramps, fairly heavy bleeding, and nausea at that time of the month. I managed to put up with it, with hospital strength painkillers and anti-nausea tablets. Going in to “halls”, my periods soon became very, very irregular (like being a week early and the next month being 10 days late, some months having 3 periods, some have none for 2 or 3). At the beginning of this year, I went to the doctors about it properly, sat down had a talk to them about my options, and so started my battle with birth control. The first one was the most common one in NZ, which I was on for three months, the minimum time I was supposed to be on it before I could change. During that three months, the bleeding and pain were amazing, it was such a relief, apart from the inevitable effect of pumping your body full of hormones, the mood swings. I was ripping apart friendships left right and centre, and looking back at it now, I’m so glad I had strong friends who stuck around. At the end of that three months, I asked to be changed to a different one (again, not being afraid to tell drs something isnt right, is something positive that came out of my brothers disability) and they were quite happy to. However, That turned out to be what my boyfriend and I call my “hell pill”. Within the first week of it, my mood swings where gone, and the apathy came in instead. I still cant decide which of those is worse, they led to the same amounts of fights anyway. Along with that, The pain came back, along with the irregularity. Within the first month, I had 3 periods, which were abnormally heavy and excrutiatingly painful. It was during that month that i ended up seeing the dr 6 times telling them, begging them, to switch me to something, read anything, else. at the end of that first month, when nothing was getting better, and my mental and physical health were suffering, they gave in and switched me to my current pill, Which is a complete god-send. I have been on this one now for a month and a half, hardly any pain, and everything is the way it should be. Hopefully it stays this way.

Through the month of the hell pill, my Dr started to search for why it is so painful for me, and finished with the likely prognosis of endometriosis, or ovarain cysts. However noether has been confirmed or denied yet, still on the waiting list for an ultrasound. She also took several blood tests, which didnt show anything to do with the pain. But it came back with elevated Thyroid stimulating hormone, and sub-par Thyroid (T4) hormone, pointing to boarderline hypothyroidism, which is easy enough to treat, but is not confirmed.Around the same time as I started the pill, I had a blood test done for the fact that I had extreme fatigue, with out a cause (2 hours awake made me need a 15hr sleep for a idea). These blood tests came back inconclusive, However, now having seen the results there should have been a follow up, as only my T4 levels were measured. Hypothyroidism is known to cause high levels of fatigue, hair fall and breakage without any cause, a low heart rate and Blood pressure, all things I had hallmarks for. So I’m still waiting for confirmatory tests before treatment.

Through all this, I also got diagonosed with seasonal asthma, and severe hayfever, although the asthma is defintely worse for living in a cold flat this year. As well as having 1 chest infection (pneumonia, 3 months ago), and another probable case just starting again.

All together, this has resulted in upwards of 40 drs appointments over the last 6 months, so i am very glad it is subsidised by the university ($6.50 visits for a dr, rather than between 45 and $80 for a Dr through most other clinics).

I hope noone takes this as complaining.