WCW - Endometrial ablation can be a good alternative to a hysterectomy for uncontrollable bleeding - BUT - most dysfunctional uterine bleeding should be able to be controlled medically.
I had problems a few years back, went on birth control pills and that cleared it right up. In retrospect, don't know how much was due to perimenopause and how much might have been the ongoing thyroid issues. Do be sure to have your thyroid checked before you do anything (a FULL panel including thyroid antibodies) because thyroid irregularities can cause anovulation and heavy periods too.
Also - make sure you're getting enough iron - sometimes you get iron deficient from the heavy bleeding, then the resulting anemia causes more heavy bleeding - kind of a vicious cycle.
I had problems that I didn't even know were problems, I figured just sorta normal getting older stuff. I finally went to a doctor, and ended with surgery to remove a fybrois tumor half the size of a soccor ball. Doc also said I had endometriosis, and was suprised I could handle the pain. I said, well duh, that's why I'm here, I can't anymore, it puts me on my knees and makes me nascious. Anyway, in a follow up checkup, he suggested ablation. After a few years, I am thinking that is not a bad way to deal with this. The pain isn't so bad again, but the bleeding controls my life on certain days. At the time of last surgery all the tests, including thyroid, were okay. I suppose they would check it all again. I do take a daily vitamin, and usually an additional iron supplement. And sometimes I eat broccoli!
As for the NY diet, I lose a few, gain a few, lose a few. More of a yoyo than a loss.
Live your life while you are still living. Riding the trail less traveled.
God, Ellie, you really should do your own medical advice Web site and get paid for it. As long as everyone's doing it, can I ask if elderberry extract is OK for breastfeeding moms (cf. avian flu, above)? I should consult with my pediatrician, right?
Thanks for your advice on my thread. I'll get back to it later. I'm going out to walk off these childbearing hips in this gorgeous fake weather we're having... 50 degrees and sunny in late January?! Never hoid of it.
J - If you can figure out a way I can get paid for it, I would LOVE to do just that. I've run into a stumbling block with doing individual consultations in that insurers don't want to give malpractice insurance since I would possibly be giving advice to patients who don't reside in the state I am licensed in? And coaching insurances don't cover people with professional degrees like mine. Any ideas how I could get someone to just pay me to run a Q and A website?
As for the elderberry - since avian flu is not a threat this year, I wouldn't take it. Probably it is okay, but you never know - just because something is a food doesn't necessarily mean it is safe in concentrated form for breastfeeding. BUT - if there was a national emergency with people dropping like flies? Heck yes, I'd take it, even if breastfeeding.
Luckily, it looks like avian flu, if it happens (i.e. if it mutates to a form transmissible person-to-person and becomes a pandemic) is still anywhere from 1 to 5 years away.
WCW - Funny, if the fibroid were the cause of your excess bleeding, you should have improved after the surgeryAsk to see a copy of your thyroid labs. If you have any family history of thyroid disease, or symptoms that could be due to low thyroid, and your TSH is 3 or higher, you may benefit from a trial of treatment (the old guidelines said up to 5 was normal, but those have been changed recently)>
Also, if it is due to hormonal irregularities due to the early signs of menopause (which can show up a decade before periods actually stop) you might benefit from the pill or some other regimen of female hormones - has that ever been tried?
I don't believe I have reported in this week, but my weight is the same, between 67 and 68 kilos. I am still doing my early morning exercise routine.
I have noticed how slow and sleepy I feel much of the time, and my digeston is quite sluggish, so I am resolving to severely limit the amount of refined carbs I consume and up my vegetable intake, and get more active as I believe exercise improves digestion as well. So I walked briskly around the park after dropping off D at school this morning.
How about you?
Livnlearn
"The unexamined life is not worth living" - Socrates
Well - my weight hasn't budged an ounce, despite sticking really closely to 1500 calories a day, of totally healthy food, well balanced, and continuing to work out. There's no question at all in my mind that there's something seriously awry with my metabolism at this point - it's simply not possible to make this many improvements and not lose weight!!!!
My most recent thyroid numbers "look" okay, but I ran across some interesting research the other day. It says that while Grave's disease patients treated with radioactive iodine and put on replacement thyroid hormone after gain an average of 20-some pounds, patients who have radioactive iodine treatment for thyroid cancer do not. The reason? You put the thyroid cancer patients on higher doses of thyroid hormone afterwards, enough to suppress their TSH (and keep their thyroid cancer from regrowing). The authors of the study suggest that perhaps Grave's patients like myself should be put on the higher, suppressive doses of thyroid hormone.
I think I'm going to try it.
Thank god for the internet, because if it weren't for the numerous stories out there by other thyroid patients who don't feel well despite "normal" lab numbers, I'd think I was going insane!
On a sadder note - attended my cousin's funeral Monday. She was almost my mother's age - this is the one whose two son's died in the last six months of heart attacks. Now there's only her daughter, single and in her 40's, no kids - with all her immediate family dead (her father died when she was a girl). So very very sad.
I am sorry about your cousin, Ellie - that is very sad.
I've been doing well with my eating and such - I try to stick around 1800 calories, I walk nearly every day and I'm trying to get back more into weights (mostly weight machines) a few days a week. The walking is easy for me - I enjoy it, the weights can seem repetetive, but I know they are good for my metabolism, my bones, my health. That is the one thing I need to really focus on.
I still need to lose 25 or so pounds to be in (what is considered) a healthy weight range, but I've lost over 60 total at this point. My bloodwork was done last week, and overall my numbers look really good. The one thing I do need to work on is the healthy cholesterol, I'm slightly low in that. If I just keep on the way I've been doing, that should right itself. I do need to eat a few more healthy fats - like olive oil and such. I can't stand peanut butter unless it's mixed with chocolate, so I may start taking a a TBSP of peanut butter every few days (as a good fat) and melt in a few dark chocolate MnM's. I am not a nut or fish person, though I can deal with most nuts once in chocolate (not almonds so much). I do allow myself some sweets every day, so maybe I can make them a bit healthier this way.
I make Good Season's Italian dressing - the kind you mix up at home in the free little glass carafe? I use extra virgin olive oil, and wine vinegar with a little balsamic vinegar thrown in, and it tastes way better than the store-bought kind, plus it uses all olive oil, which is hard to find in the stores. Avocados are also a good source of some healthy fats (although a lot of calories too if you love them like I do). I like a few toasted pine nuts or almonds thrown in a salad. I love nuts in general, though, and can't keep salted nuts in the house or I'll eat them.
I'm doing a lot of reading about the thyroid stuff and am thinking of switching to Armour thyroid - the old-fashioned pig-gland thyroid supplement. The endocrinologists pooh-pooh it, but so many people seem to do better when they take it. Funny - I was reading a study today which purports to show that adding T3 to the T4 dose (which Armour essentially does) doesn't improve anything (by various measures of hormone levels, mood, thought processes, etc). They kind of glossed over the fact, though, that a large majority of their test subjects said they preferred the regimen with the highest T3. Ummmmm.... didn't they think maybe these people preferred it because, ummm, they FELT BETTER???? Sheesh.
Anyway - if any of you lurkers have had experience taking Armour thyroid, good or bad, I'd love to hear from you.
Thanks for the idea! I wish I liked nuts and fish (I do try to take at least one fish oil pill daily now). I have never even had an avacado, I don't know what they taste like. I occasionally use olive oil for cooking (like dipping potato slices in and then baking or grilling them).
I can tolerate a can of tuna every now and then, without enough low-fat mayo.
Have you tried upping your calories by a couple of hundred? Maybe that would help, especially if you are exercising a lot.
