Starting bio-identical hormones...

Hey everyone.  It's been awhile since I've updated where I am at...and my one year anniversary of having the Mirena removed is in a week--Sept. 2nd to be exact.

With the help of Dr. J.....and a WHOLE lot of patience, I can say that I am remarkably better than I was even six months ago.  I remember, all too well, that feeling of "I'm either going to lose my mind or die, and I just don't know which one is going to hit first."  Overall, I feel pretty good most of the time  (For those who need a reminder of what all of my symptoms were at the beginning, they are listed in one of my first posts).

 As of now, the only symptoms that remain are as follows:

--I never regained the vision that I lost in my right eye.  I actually went to see an Opthomologist a week ago, and I am considered "legally blind" in that eye now.  Thanks, Mirena.  However, she didn't see any physical damage to the eye, so she believes that it could be due to the hormonal damage...which gives me hope that maybe--one day--I can get that vision back again.  Yes, it has been a year since removal, but one can hope, right?

--I still have some bad days during two different times of each month:  one is right as my period is over, and the other time is during ovulation.  It is nothing like it once was, but I do find that my mood is definitely affected.  I just find myself feeling angry for no reason, and that "disconnected/detached" feeling returns. At its worst, I also get dizzy and my vision worsens even more. I hate that feeling like you've been drugged.  That's what it feels like to me--like someone slipped something in my drink.  Super annoying.  It used to scare me, but now it doesn't (only because I've been doing it for so long now that I know that it is coming and that it will go away eventually).  I am looking forward to that going away, though, because it is so hard to do anything on those days.  Everything just seems so much more difficult to do.

--I have sporadic days where my body aches SO MUCH.  My joints hurt...sheesh--it feels like my BONES hurt.  I literally have to sit on my bed upstairs for a minute after walking up the stairs because my legs hurt so much just from walking up ten stairs.  There doesn't seem to be much of a rhyme or reason to it.  Somes days I hurt a lot...some days, I only ache a little.  I swear, that stupid thing gave me Osteoporosis or something. 

Those are the only things that I notice now--at one year post.  Compared to where I was just four months ago, I am beyond grateful.  However, I have made the decision to begin taking bio-identical (oral) hormones to see if I can knock out these last symptoms.  According to Dr. J., our cells have hormone receptor sites on them, and ours could be still so "clogged" by the synthetic hormones, that we need to "flush them out" a bit with some natural hormones.  Since my body is still not figuring out the whole hormonal thing, I think that it is time to try this.  The detoxes put me to about 90%.  I think that, in order to me to get this all behind me, I need to try this to "kick start" and clean out my hormonal junk.  Dr. J. says that the goal here is that I will not have to stay on these long term.  The goal is simply to "clean out" my hormonal recepter sites so that my body's hormones have a greater chance of working themselves out.  Since I am at a full year post, I think it is time that I try.

The hormones that I am on are PROGON B (Oral) and PHYTO B (Oral).  Dr. J. says that oral is much better for us than the cream--I'll let him come on here and explain that...I can't.  The Progon B is natural progesterone, and the Phyto B is natural estrogen.  They are both from a company called
Bezwecken.

At first, I was bummed that I have come this far--only to take hormonal help now...so close to what I hoped was the "finish line" of all of this, but Dr. J. explained that this is in no way "giving up".  I have healed so much, but apparently, there is just a certain amount of my hormones that were damaged beyond what the detox itself could repair.  These hormones will, God willing, move my systems back up to where they should be...and give them the strength to eventually work on their own.  Who knows, maybe I will even get some of my vision back. 

Yesterday was day one of the hormones for me. Tomorrow is my 35th birthday.  I'm determined that this is going to be my year.  I think about how much better I am today than I was on my 34th birthday (I remember that I almost didn't go out that evening because I was having back-to-back anxiety attacks that day that I couldn't pull myself out of), and I am so thankful.  I pray that this last step is what will put me back to completely healed. 

I promise to keep you all updated!  Huge hugs to you all. 

Keep fighting for your health!