Thursday, March 4, 2004

Looks like I will not be able to see The Producers or Proof this week or next. I have to save up money for my NY trip and I have a lot of medical bills to pay.

I have to pay the half of my mammogram exam that my insurance didn't pick up. I had it done because I had a breast cancer scare. Which I now see as ridiculous. I don’t smoke. You see it all started last year when my 21 year old niece was diagnosed with it. In retrospect my niece smokes like a chimney. I suppose I’m a bit of a hypochondriac. Heck, I am a hypochondriac!

I take nearly 20 pills a day. 17 are vitamins the other three are via prescription. I’m surprised no one at work has took me aside and said “Gail, why the hell are you taking all those pills?! Are you really that screwed up?”

The vitamins I take daily are: 1 multi-vitamin, 8 St. Johns Worts, 4 Seleniums, 4 Echinacea’s. I usually take Echinacea if someone around me is coughing and sneezing. Since the majority of people I work with have children this happens a lot. I’m not in any way insinuating that I view children as being little germ filled receptacles.

Another odd thing is that I have a problem touching door handles. I have never touched the door handles at work. I usually pull down my sleeve instead of touch it.

The prescribed medication I take is Metformin. I have to take it three times a day because I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. The purpose of the medication is so that I can have regular periods. In the past I rarely had a period. I thought nothing of until I began to worry that maybe I had cancer or something. So I researched amenorrhea on the web. I came up across PCOS as a possible diagnosis. I then went to a doctor. She confirmed my suspicions through testing. So I now have to take one pill three times a day just so I can have a period every month. Why bother with all this you ask? Well through my research I learned that women with PCOS are at an increased risk for developing endometrial cancer later in life. As I’m sure I wrote in earlier posts all my aunts on my father’s side of the family died from cancer. Both my grandmothers also died of cancer. My sister may or may not have cancer (she never went back to the doctor’s office for further testing when he told her she might have it) and my niece has survived cancer. So I’m very understandably paranoid about getting cancer. I don’t know if endometrial cancer will eventually take me out. But I like to have an idea of what might.

Another thing I think I should add, PCOS, is the number one cause of infertility in women. It’s usually diagnosed when a woman is trying to have a baby but is having trouble. No one knows what causes it, how to prevent it, or if it can even be cured. It’s pretty much Hmmm, let’s see if this work? I first started off by taking Yasmin. I had to stop taking it because I have these tumors and they really liked the stuff and grew in size. So last year I was switched to Metformin. Metformin is like the drug to be on if you have PCOS. It has this curious side effect of instant weight loss. I don’t know if diabetics who have to take it have the same response. Metformin is the generic name for an insulin sensitizing medication that is noramally prescribed for people with adult onset diabetes. Since PCOS is believed to be related to diabetes, studies have shown that this type of medication aids in minimizing or eliminating many of the symptoms relatd to PCOS, most significantly weight gain and anovulation. Evidence has shown this to be true for both women with PCOS who are actually insulin resistant as well as those who are not.

I should add here that I don’t have diabetes. My insulin levels are normal. Also I’m a chubby person with low blood pressure. How the heck did that happen? I don’t know? I’m sure that people who see me assume I’m a heart attack waiting to happen with have high blood pressure and diabetes. In fact I’m a chubby vegetarian who likes to do yoga and has low blood pressure. I see myself as a lovable medical oddity.