People keep asking me if I can feel a difference from before surgery and after. That's kind of a detailed answer so I'll try to answer as simply as possible.
My first symptom before surgery that I remember thinking "I shouldn't be feeling this way...this just isn't right" was the severe fatigue. I remember telling my hubby that I should not be so tired. My kiddos were 3 1/2-4 yrs old at the time. They were in preschool 1/2 days. But it felt like when they were newborns and I just couldn't get enough sleep. I was wide awake in the middle of the night some nights and others I went to bed at a decent hour and still slept many hours later in the morning. I would sleep 8 hrs a night and still feel like I only got 1 or 2 hrs!! So that was my first hint.
Has that changed? Somewhat. Obviously weaning is doing a number on my body, so it's not really recovered yet. But finally getting to this lowered dose, I am finally sleeping like a rock at night - and through the WHOLE night. My mornings are hit or miss still, but once I'm up, I usually don't feel too bad. But I can tell by 7pm, I get tired. Like that is how my body is supposed to be! To start it's decline to a decent bedtime. So there are some differences.
My next symptom was acne. I never got acne, even as a teen. I got pimples here and there, but I was one of the lucky ones who never really had a problem with it. So when I was breaking out all over the place (not JUST on my face), I thought that was odd. And my face, along with the rest of my body was sooo oily! I barely made it through the end of the day and my hair was getting stringy oily! It was so gross.
That has DEFINITELY changed. My skin is finally clearing up slowly but surely and it's SOFT and not oily at all!! I can go two days w/o showering and my hair still looks like day 1. That was one thing my husband noticed first, postop! And one day, I thought I had hair coming out on my forehead and cheeks. I swear I started freaking out! I swore I wouldn't pluck it, cuz I knew how it would come back in. But by the end of the day, I caved and plucked. I'm glad I did though, since as it turns out, it was my pores cleaning themselves out! I used one of those pads you stick to your nose/forehead/cheeks and sure enough when I pulled it off, all this "hairy" oil stuck to it! My pores were cleaning themselves!! I had to laugh at myself for thinking I had a hairy forehead!
What else. . . My menstrual cycle has been "on the day" normal since my miscarriage back in 2005. Even before then it was normal from when I gave birth to my twins til about 6 months before my miscarriage. I never got a normal cycle prior to getting pregnant with my twins. I was diagnosed with PCOS & Endometriosis at age 16. I needed the BCP to keep my cycles regular, so having a normal cycle was new to me - NICE - but new.
I'm still waiting at this point to see if my cycle will return. I'm going on 10 weeks postop and still nothing. Dr. L seems to think it will take some time, but I may be reverting back to my pre-pregnancy cycle. Time will tell there though. I hope to get some bloodwork soon to know what those female hormones look like tho. Maybe that will give me some answers. . .
I also lost 20 lbs after surgery. I never really gained much weight and actually lost 30lbs at one point. After that I just plateaued and never gained. Dr. L was shocked when I came back in June and I weighed the same as I did when he saw me in Feb. Yet I had all these screaming highs. I have no idea how that works. In any case, I think the weight I lost was mostly water weight. I had slight edema going on pre-op, but don't post op. The rest I guess was any weight I did gain.
Ok, well this is turning into a book and I'm tired, so maybe I'll continue with this topic tomorrow. I'll leave you with a before and after face shot tho. I never thought I had the "puffy cheeks" but I guess I did to a small extent. Disregard the white as a ghost look tho.
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