I just finished my first day of the Couch to 5K program (C25K). This is how I got into running many eons ago when my friends, Victoria and Emily, coerced me into training for a 5K with them. It got me hooked and I ended up running many more 5K to full marathon races (including my favorite, the Boston Marathon). I even ran two full marathons (Boston and Salt Lake) 5 days apart. Running used to be a huge part of my life. This past June 5th marked 2 years since the first day I woke up and knew something was not right. Since then, I have tried over and over to keep running apart of my life. These past 6 months since my surgery have been the most difficult to keep it going. I've felt like I lost friends and even a part of me. It's been hard. As I said in my last post, I decided to mix up my exercise with no pressure this past month. It's been so great and much needed! However, I still missed running. I decided to give it one last go with C25K and have told myself if it really is time to let it go, I'm ready to work on that. It was an interesting feeling after finishing those 30 mins today and going back to where I started. It felt like I was starting over but as a new, even better version of me!
UPDATES:
Doctor -
I saw my OB/GYN on the 12th because I had a menstrual period at the beginning of the month. I don't produce my own estrogen and progesterone and I'm taking the replacement hormones every day and shouldn't have a period. He did an ultrasound and found my uterine lining is too thick which indicates I've got too much estrogen. He had me do a blood test to confirm. I saw my endocrinologist yesterday. He had me do blood labs last week. My growth hormone is still increasing so that's great news. My cortisol and thyroid still haven't kicked in but the replacement medication is doing its job. He hadn't received the ACTH so I don't know about that yet. My testosterone was at a 4 which could explain the extreme fatigue AND possibly my difficulty with running. I am already on a DHEA supplement but he is increasing it to the max you can take and if that doesn't work then we'll have to talk about testosterone cream. I'm really hoping the DHEA does the job. I will restest the testosterone in 6 weeks. As far as my estrogen, he said we can't test it with a blood test since I don't have a fully functioning pituitary. So, he told me to decrease the amount of estrogen I'm taking and go back to the OB/GYN.
I asked him about what things look like long term now with my disorder. I will have blood work and see him every six months. I will have an MRI every year until I have a few in a row that look exactly the same and then they could be spaced out further. Of course, this could change if anything comes up in the meantime.
Noom-
I mentioned I starting using an app called Noom to help lose weight. I love it! I've lost about 8 lbs. I'm still fighting against all my hormone chaos so I haven't lost weight very fast but it's the only thing that I've been able to lose any weight at all doing. It has already started changing my relationship with food for the better. I love the psychological aspect of it. I think that is such a huge part of everything!
