Quote:
Originally Posted by hopeful
Hi Cat,
Sorry, it took me a while to get back too you. I'm really happy to hear you have children. When you said you haven't had a period in 21 years I thought you may have had trouble conceiving. How old is your child/children?
I don't think you mentioned if you have health insurance or not. If you do, call the number on the back of the card and ask them for the names of counselors who will take your insurance. If you do not have insurance get the list anyway. If money is an issue many counselors will charge on a sliding scale bases on salary.
As for your exercise, that is quite a bit for the amount of calories you take in. I know cross fit is extreme exercise. I have never done hot yoga but have heard it is difficult. I was very into working out before I got sick. I was at the gym 4-6 days a week for 2 1/2 hours. In order to be that active the body requires much more than normal in the way of calories.
I have found in practice that doctors are extremely reluctant to speak to their patients about weight. As a school nurse, most of the doctors I spoke with concerning a students weight requested I speak with them and their parents about it. I have never understood why. I applaud your GYN for addressing it.
Did the fertility specialist mention it? That's one of the issues they usually address. I suspect, if you were this thin for years it was probably the cause for your periods stopping or at the least it should have been looked into.
I believe you do want to be hungry and enjoy eating. This is an extremely difficult situation your in, those words are not powerful enough to even describe the situation, but it's all I can think of right now. Your words were good, it is maddening.
By saying you have taken most of your calories in liquids, did you mean alcohol. If so, have you gone on the searches here to see what supplements you may need. There are people here that can help you with that.
If you want my opinion, I do suspect, you suffer from an eating disorder. I would definitely see someone. Possibly your GP. Don't wait for him/her to bring up your weight. Make weight the reason for your visit. Perhaps they can even point you in the right direction for counseling. As I said before though, it is not for me to diagnosis.
I don't know anything about your life circumstances but this is sometimes the reason eating disorders occur. Weight is one of the few things we have complete control over when everything else seems to be spiraling down around us.
Did you read about the connection between neuropathy and anorexia. It is interesting. I was not aware of the connection.
I hope this helps a little.
Hopeful  |
Thank you so, so much Hopeful. I was not aware of the connection either but had a suspicion after reading about how alcohol neuropathy often stems from nutritional deficiencies. And yes, I tended to drink wine pretty much every night and it would suppress my appetite making me eat even less. Then when I decided to quit drinking due to the neuropathy symptoms, I still ate the same amount and lost even more weight. On top of it all, I contracted a nasty parasite a few years ago and plummeted to the 87 pounds I have held onto for this long.
The fertility specialists did bring it up, but did not go into depth. I really think in our society of ultra thin being the optimal, low weight may not be seen as unhealthy until it is a hospitalization issue. Or as you said, doctors are just reluctant to discuss it. They ran all kinds of tests anyway and nothing came back positive so my official diagnosis was amenorrhea. Thankfully, I was still able to have children with a series of high dosage FSH/HCG injections. I have two 9 year old boys and a 4 year old boy.
Upon your advice and others, I did see my GP this week and she said gaining weight to a normal BMI would be beneficial. Since she is a GP, I believe that neuropathy is beyond her family practice. Again, there was not a huge concern....she did not say "you probably do have an eating disorder and we need to treat it." She did say I should discuss this with my neurologist. So I went in to see her as well and she seemed to think that while this may not have helped my situation, she is also reluctant to say it is the cause.
I tend to agree with you all that there is a definite connection here and so I am also going to see an eating disorder specialist. Nothing else has seemed to help my condition so it is worth a try! While the pain in my hands and feet have not improved with the increased caloric intake, the dizziness and muscle weakness is definitely better! It has been about three weeks and I have definitely gained weight although it is actually hard work for me...
Are you still not able to workout? At times it makes me so exhausted and my feet hurt to the point that I can barely function the rest of the day-but it is also my sanity. How can something so good for you become bad????
Thanks again for all the thought you put into your responses to me and to everyone on this forum. Between you, Dr. Smith and Mrs. D you could start a medical facility of your own
