Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Buh-lieve It, My Belly Changed

Oh, and not for the better! In just the last couple days, my abdomen looks different. More...flumpy. Squishy. Hmm, not attractive, but definitely noticeable, to me, anyway. Just clothes not looking the same.

I will call this "deflation of the distended abdomen caused by Mirena." Ew. Isn't that CRAZY? It's noticeably different, I tell you.

When it comes to the effects of the Mirena IUD on my body, there are two key things about me that are relevant here: 1) I am soooo unobservant. Don't hire me to be your private eye. 2) I am not a conspiracy theorist. So when I do something like, oh, get an IUD, I am not exactly thinking, "wow, I am inexplicably gaining a lot of weight," or "hmm, why did I just start losing all this hair," or "hmm, I sure am a stark raving bitch, I wonder why?" And when I review all these websites complaining about side effects of the Mirena, I have a big part of me that says, "oh, you're just blaming xx on the IUD."

'Cept when I look at the complaints, I am just so struck by things that have affected me since getting the IUD. I *am* a stark raving bitch (oh gosh, only to the people I love most in the world, don't worry, yeesh). I have experienced hair loss for years, and I have always been the first one to tell you that while I have some bad eating habits, I didn't have 263 pounds of bad eating habits. Except for my lifelong battle with nighttime eating, I have never been one to eat all that often or all that much. Poor food choices, sure. Too much eating out, too big of portions at dinner, too much eating before bed. That's what got me fat. Oh, and no exercise. Mirena may have played a hand in it, too, but I wouldn't have noticed because...well, I don't notice.

Have I ever told you that I drove myself to the emergency room in the middle of the night for horrible stomach cramps, diarrhea and vomiting, only to be fine once I checked in? Like, completely and utterly fine? Or how I assumed that the fondue restaurant gave me food poisoning not once, but twice? Uh, a few years later I figured out I was lactose intolerant. And I didn't figure it out until a good friend said, hey dipshit, you're lactose intolerant. So I guess I didn't figure it out at all, haha.

Anyway, there are a litany of complaints of side effects of the IUD and I have, oh, probably 3/4 of them. I am so INTRIGUED to see how things change for me now that I've had it out. And am paying attention.

Weight this morning is 209.2 so maybe things will start happening on the scale again. I started using myfitnesspal.com yesterday and plan to track my food and exercise like a mad woman. I am always reluctant to track food, but now have found the motivation and expect it to stick with me. If you're on the site, add me as a friend! I'm 'freejulie' there, too.

Hmm, also on the IUD front, I am still emulating a stuck pig. :|

4 comments:

  1. All very interesting observation about the IUD.

    I track all of my food about 90% of the time. The last 10% is on weekend day when I just don't bother. :)

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  2. Hey Julie, I use myfitnesspal.com too! I will add you. :)

    I hope you get to feeling better without the IUD in!!

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  3. Sorry, giggling about the part to make sure that I never hire you to be a Private Investigator...mental note to self. LOL. My oldest DD has a peanut allergy and while I realized what we were dealing with the first time she reacted it took me MUCH longer to learn to read the ingredients (duh!) and decode the nutrition labels to figure out what works for her and what doesn't. It's all a process, and even if you weren't on the ball before, you are finding your way now. Hang in there chickie!

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  4. Hi Julie, been following you for a while and enjoying sharing your journey. You may find this link about xenoestrogens very informative, as it does relate to birth control such as the Mirena IUD (a search for the difference between progestin and progesterone will shed light on why progestin is considered one of the worst xenoestrogens and to be avoided at all costs). You may also find the book The Anti-Estrogenic Diet by Ori Hofmekler informative and useful.

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