Dani has become compliant!

That sounds awful don't it? Me, not compliant? But I used to not be. I hate taking pills. But, I want desparately to be able to be healthy and enjoy a long life here on Earth with my beloved Paul. And maybe, make his dreams of natural fatherhood come true too.

So, instead of being sporadic about taking prescribed medications, I am making an effort to daily do so. What that means is, because of family history, I am pre-diabetic and started out with a fasting insulin level of 20+. In January, our endocrinologist put her foot down and demanded that I take metformin again which I had previously aborted due to some edema and swelling issues from Oct 05 thru Nov 06. I am happy to report that those issues seem to be gone as long as I watch my sodium/salt intake.

I started taking 500 mg metformin 2x daily in Jan. My fasting insulins in April were down 4 pts to 16. She upped my dose to 500 mg metformin 3x daily. I go again for a blood draw the end of July. I suspect/expect to see it drop to around 12 at that time. She wants it under 10. :)

I also started out on 50 mcg of synthroid for hypothyroidism back in Oct 06. In November, the endo upped that to 75 mcg. My TSH level started off at 5.93 before taking it; dropped to 3.93 on 50 mcg synthoid 1x daily. On 75 mcg synthroid, it dropped down to 3.80. I was disgusted and disappointed by the slow drop on the increased dosage. In January, my synthroid was upped to 88 mcg's and in March, my TSH was a respectable 2.096. I still have lots of hair loss going on, and dry scaly skin but endo thinks those issues are now related to the insulin resistance creating a male pattern hair growth/loss thing in my system. I'm not so sure I agree but I am being compliant and taking the 88 mcg daily thru the end of July at which point I will most likely request that we TRY upping the synthroid to 100 mcg daily and see if those issues clear up.

I also started watching my carbohydrate intake sometime around Jan besides taking all these pills daily. I even set my alarm on my phone to make sure I take my meds at the same time each day. :) I'm really being good about it this time around. As an added bonus for being med compliant besides the better health, I have started losing weight without effort. I was shocked at first to see the scales going down instead of up. Now, I am excited about it. I have dropped 25 lbs since January. I am fitting into clothes I didn't think I'd fit into again for a long time. I am having to wear a belt with some of my favorite pants. I am loving the increased room in my clothes. :) And Paul is enjoying my slimmer appearance too.

I am making a conscious effort to drink more water and that is helping me out some too. It's not that I drink more stuff like soda than I should. I hardly touch them. I just don't drink period which is bad bad bad for me. So, I am trying to drink 4 to 8 20 oz bottles of water a day. I am up to 3.5 daily now. Getting there slowly.

When I lost the first 2 lbs (yes! 2 lbs, between Jan and Apr endo visits) I was disgusted! I felt like it was a worthless amount of loss but the endo was THRILLED for me. Kind of put a different spin on it for me. *grin* Anyway, she suggested I try drinking 1 can of slim fast (or other brand) liquid dietary shake each day instead of 1 meal so that I got the nutrients in balance that I needed to support a healthier lifestyle without having to measure and weigh foods/portions etc.

I'm not a cook. At least not a I LOVE COOKING cook. I can get buy but mostly only if I have a good recipe and easy measured items or a box/can ingredient. So, doing the shakes has been a big help to me. And they aren't bad if you buy the right ones. I cannot do the Strawberry slimfast powder. It has a chalky taste to it no matter how well mixed it is. I also do not like the pre-mixed strawberry either. It has a vitaminy taste to it. And then there is the chocolate slimfast optima shakes that I gag on. I don't mind the Costco Kirkland brand chocolate shakes too much so I usually have one of those for lunch each day. And because the weight is just nice coming off, I usually drink a vanilla slimfast powder shake for another meal each day. So, I am usually only eating 1 actual meal a day and then the 2 shakes plus 2 healthy (carb smart) snacks. The Atkins diet has some GOOD tasting carb smart snack bars that Paul and I love. We are not fond of the Special K brand carb smart bars and haven't tried any others yet but we are still in the experimenting what's out there stage of the snack bars.

Compliancy is a good thing! :) Many benefits that were both expected and unexpected out of this!