Health is not valued till sickness comes - Thomas Fuller

I have not written a blog post in 6 years. I am not a writer. I don't think I am any more unique than the next person. I just kept having a nagging thought that I should start writing things down. When I first started this blog, I was a pretty new runner. I still am but I have learned a little bit more in those 6 years. I don't run in Vibram 5 fingers anymore (I still love to wear them for yard work and kayaking though!). My training plans have changed, my routes are different and you will hardly ever see me running alone anymore.

Things were really starting to look good for a nice marathon PR. I decided on Top of Utah Marathon (my first marathon!) and I had a big scary goal of 3:18, a whole hour faster than my first marathon time! Just as I was about to start my training plan, that all changed. On June 5, 2018, I met up with my running friends at the track. I felt very off. I did my best to complete the workout and tried to cool down by running back to where we parked our cars. I couldn't run. I ended up walking the mile back, dry heaving along the way. I thought I must have had some virus my body was fighting off or coming down with something. (Picture below was the beginning of it all. Can you tell by my face? I'm the one in purple.)

Suddenly, I couldn't run as far or as fast as I used to be able to. My average pace per mile was a minute to a minute and a half slower. I couldn't go more than a mile or two before I had to stop and walk. My 40+ mile weeks turned into 15, sometimes less.

I had just given blood a week prior to the track run so I then started thinking it must be my iron. I've been anemic before and my hemoglobin was right at the number it had to be to give blood when I donated. I started taking an iron supplement but it didn't seem to do anything after taking it for a week and a half.

My gynecologist lives in my neighborhood and goes to my same church. I asked him one Sunday how long it usually takes to see an improvement after taking iron after I explained what was going on. He said he would order a blood panel to see where my iron was along with some other things. My iron came back on the low end of normal (typical for me), white blood count was slightly elevated and everything else was normal. He told me to keep taking the iron along with a vitamin supplement. With the slightly elevated WBC he said I could have an infection but nothing to worry about.

The supplements were not making any difference. I was in charge of girls camp and thought it would be a good time to take a rest from running and see what happens when I get back. So, on June 18, 2018, I headed out to Heber for a week. The camp went great but it was during this time I noticed I was drinking a lot of water and having to go to the bathroom a lot, including in the middle of the night. I figured it must have been because I was outside where it's hot and when you drink a lot, you usually have to go to the bathroom a lot.

I got back home and noticed the excessive thirst and urination was not decreasing. I decided to track how much I was drinking. I was up to an average of 2 gallons a day. I would have to get up 2-3 times during the night to go and would have to drink more water before I went back to sleep. So, beginning of July, I decided to get an appointment with our family doctor.

He saw that the blood test I had taken was normal and told me the only thing he could come up with was a possibility of Central Diabetes Insipidus. It has nothing to do with your blood sugar but is a disorder that causes an imbalance of water in your body due to an inadequate output of the hormone ADH. He ordered a water osmolarity urine test to check my body's water balance and it's ability to produce and concentrate urine. The test came back abnormal with a possibility of DI.

My doctor referred me to the clinic's endocrinologist. I had heard he was one of the best. However, after looking at my labs he would not accept me and I had to go somewhere else. My doctor referred me to a new endocrinologist. My appointment was scheduled for Oct. 4th...WHAT?!? I wanted to cry. I was tired of knowing there was something wrong with my body and not getting any answers.

By the end of July, I had a new symptom, nipple discharge. Both my gynecologist and my family doctor were out of town so I called a new gynecologist so I could get a prolactin test. I explained all of my symptoms again and he took my blood to test my prolactin level. The level came back a little above normal. He told me not to worry about it and my lack of energy could still be my iron (I did not agree).

I then noticed I missed a period (I have now missed two). The only time I have ever missed a period was because I was pregnant or nursing. I had been researching like crazy on the internet and everything pointed to a problem with my pituitary. I started texting a friend who has gone through some crazy things with her daughter's health and I had similar symptoms. She told me I needed to get a doctor to request an MRI asap! I felt silly to keep calling the doctor but I finally called and left a message with my family doctor's medical assistant. I just said I'm still having all of these symptoms and listed them off and asked if there was anything else they could do since my endocrinologist appointment was so far out. I got a call back soon after from his MA telling me the doctor was sending in an order for an MRI.

I had my MRI on August 14, 2018. It was discovered that my pituitary stalk was enlarged (4.7mm - normal is 3mm) and there was an absence of the normal pituitary bright spot (indicating there was no storage of the ADH hormone). The radiologist suggested possibly doing a lumbar puncture. It was at this time I started to get depressed. I had never been depressed before. I just wanted to stay in bed all day.

While waiting for the hospital to call me with an appointment for my lumbar puncture, I got a call instead from the endocrinologist my doctor had originally wanted to send me to. They had an appointment for me in two days on August 22, 2018. Apparently, after getting my MRI back and adding up all of the symptoms, my doctor decided to call the endocrinologist back and talk to him about me. He said, ok, I'll take her! I was beyond thrilled to know I was finally on the path to getting answers!

My appointment with the endocrinologist was fantastic. He listened to me talk about the history of everything that was going on. He then explained to me what was possibly going on, what he wanted to test for and why. He even drew out a diagram on a piece of paper. I wanted to hug him!!

He tested for diabetes insipidus with another urine test along with a blood test. If the urine is highly diluted and the blood is highly concentrated this will indicate DI. This test doesn't always work. If that's the case, I will have to do a water deprivation test which just sounds really awful.

A person can get diabetes insipidus without a known cause. However, with my additional symptoms of nipple discharge, amenorrhea (absence of menstruation), and fatigue, the anterior pituitary could also be affected where all the hormones are produced. This may suggest I have something called Lymphocytic Hypophysitis. This is a rare autoimmune disease. My doctor said it is usually a sudden onset and the body just starts attacking the pituitary. So he is also testing all of the hormones produced by the pituitary.

Diabetes insipidus can also be caused by Lymphoma and Melanoma. I haven't been losing weight, which is a good sign, but he is still testing for Lymphoma.

They took all the many vials of blood last Thursday, August 23. They got my cortisol level back on Friday. It was normal (yay!). I should hear back on the rest sometime this week.

I am trying to just take this one day at a time. Running is hard; like the last mile of a marathon everytime I run hard. But I'm hopeful I will still be able to run and maybe even get up to where I was before, but I don't know. I never thought I took my health for granted. I knew I was blessed with a very healthy body that could run and do so much. I thanked my Heavenly Father for it daily. I am one that very rarely gets sick. I have never had surgery. I have only been in the hospital to have my babies. I have never taken prescription medications except for a little infection here or there. I don't even take over the counter medications unless I REALLY have to. This is different for me. I have found that maybe I did take my health for granted. How can you not? Your body is incredible and does countless things without any thought from you. We just assume it will just keep doing what it's supposed to... until it doesn't. Now I'm thanking my Heavenly Father for medical technology and making it possible for me to get into a doctor that can help me. Just over here rewriting my story again. The only thing we can count on in life is change.