This past summer I went to the gynecologist because of severe menstrual pains in my right side. I have always had pretty bad cramps and irregular cycles but this was different, it felt like someone was dragging a little spiky metal ball through my right fallopian tube. The Doctor was a complete ass with no tact but he informed me that I have polycystic ovary syndrome. (Through my own research I found that the diagnosis connected a lot of things that I've been dealing with for the past 20 years.) I tried to forget most of my visit but one thing has stuck with me... "You can either take birth control or likely get cancer because of your weight." These words made me realize that even with birth control I needed to make a major change.
Most of my work history since graduating High School has been in call centers and I hated it. I wasn't on the phones anymore but it was still stressful. The employees were miserable, the customers were miserable and the company didn't care about either of us. I was there for so long for the same reason as everyone else, I felt stuck. I was made to believe that I couldn't make as much other places and that my benefits wouldn't be as good. My depression was at an all time low but I stayed because I couldn't afford to leave... until my diagnosis, that's when it clicked. A little extra money is not worth compromising health. So after 11 years of working for "the red menace" I quit and took a lesser paying warehouse job. Even though the 12 hour days kick my ass sometimes I am so much happier (it helps having four days off per week), but last night my ovaries informed me that I still have some things that need to change.
Since the summer I haven't experienced the severe isolated pain during my cycle, just the normal bad cramps and back pain. Instead my ovaries have started hurting outside of my cycle. After spending most of last night wincing intermittently in pain I finally put the pieces together, the seemingly random pain was occurring during ovulation. After a few minutes of searching the Internet I found that the common causes are sugar and grains in your diet. I had recently tried cutting out sugar with no change but I hadn't tried cutting out all carbohydrates which brings us to my unintentional resolution.
I'm not one to make resolutions, I understand why people do it just hasn't been something that I partake in. But lately my ovaries seem to be in control thus it's time to go back to clean eating. I'm not promising that I'm going to cut out processed foods and carbohydrates entirely because that's unrealistic but I am definitely going to cut back on them immensely. I tend to feel better when I eat less carbs, I'm less sluggish and my digestive system is much happier. The last time I ate clean for two months I lost 30 pounds and that was without exercise, now my job is like getting three 12 hour workouts per week so I should yield quicker results. At any rate I just want the pain to be gone and the lifestyle change will help shed some pounds which was the original goal... fuck you cancer, you can't have my ovaries!
