Blood work is telling!

Holy moly what a few great weeks it's been! I'm sharing my experience in the hopes of connecting with others who have similar stories.

A little background, around 9 years ago I really buckled down and joined MFP the first time. I wasn't very overweight, but knew I wanted to feel better in general. I also started running and marathon training. I found it easy to lose what little weight I did need to lose, and maintain a healthy weight as I worked towards my marathon goals.

2 years ago, I started to gain weight and found really difficult to lose it. In fact, 2 years ago today I was running 15 miles for training, yet was weighing 50lbs more than my first marathon. I attributed it to stress, and kept going.

Fast forward to a year ago. My practitioner moved out of state and I was assigned a new one. She was nice, but I never felt very heard. I explained to her my issues, the weight gain, fatigue, etc. She ran a blood panel and checked my thyroid. She told me it was all good, and wrote me an Rx for phentermine. I took that for less than a month after educating myself on what it was.

A month ago, a friend recommended her practitioner, and I was blown away by how tuned in she was to me and my concerns. She ran a TON of different labs, normal CBC panel, thyroid, metabolic, hormonal, and even tested food intolerances.

She found that my Vit. D was way below normal (normal living in Nebraska but explains seasonal depression and fatigue), my testosterone levels were at a 1 (far, FAR below what they should be for a woman my age, also contributes to fatigue), my protein levels were low, my fasting blood sugar was a 179 (at 200 you are considered diabetic), and my A1C was 6%. There was also something about my adrenal glands and cortisol, but I was already so overwhelmed I forgot to clarify beyond the fact that I know this was also something that we are going to get fixed. I am also soy, dairy, and gluten intolerant according to the food sensitivity. On top of all of this there has been major stress with my job, and coming in to colder months I also struggle. For the first time ever, I said out loud that I needed help. I was started on an anti-depressant and anti-anxiety but she only wants me on this until March while I work on getting the rest of my body in check. I am now working with a functional nutritionist who has a degree in therapy and bio-chemistry, and I am also working with a compounding pharmacy which I had never heard of until recently. All of this has came about in the past 3 weeks. I had a few other minor issues going on that can be fixed through changing my eating habits, but I am very much looking forward to happy changes to come!

Right now, my nutritionist only has me tracking Fiber because she has everything else already spelled out for me on her end. If you have gone through something similar I would love to connect for the support!