PCOS/Surgery update

I have posted about my PCOS journey once before here on our blog, and as it is such an important part of our life right now, i have decided to keep posting about it. I had lots of responses from my last post, and i was very grateful for all the love and support that i received, it made me feel like i wasn't alone!

The last few months i have been feeling really down and defeated about my PCOS. I spoke to some family and friends and decided to go and get a second opinion. My first gynaecologist was someone who was assigned to me from the local hospital, and was free. I wasn't really very happy with him, mostly as he didn't listen to me! I decided to go to a private practice to get a second opinion. He cost me a lot ($200+), but it was definitely worth it!

I went to see him last week (Tuesday), and they were running a little late on the day. One hour later and i was finally in for an appointment (after 6 weeks waiting). He was SO nice, and he listened to everything that i had to say.

He was surprised that i have been on the waiting list for surgery for over a year as he thought that i should be a higher priority. He told me that my big dermoid cyst is actually more like 8 and a half cm, not 7cm as i was previously told. He said that it is a size that is quite high risk and needs to be removed asap. He pulled out a new surgery request form and filled it out, and when i signed it i saw that i have been moved from the 3 months + waiting bracket to the less than 30 days bracket! (urgent surgery!). I was SO happy that i could have hugged him! He kept saying 'I can't perform miracles, and you may not get in until early August'.... I totally didn't even care, 4-6 weeks is definitely better than another year waiting!!

Before i could say anything else he started saying 'Ok, so now surgery is on the table and hopefully it is soon, we need something to help you manage your symptoms in the meantime... You don't want to go back on the contraceptive pill as you want to get pregnant? (I nodded) Yes, ok... What is more important to you, having a baby? or managing your hair growth?'... (excessive hair is a problem with PCOS, on your arms, face, etc.)
I told him that i have made peace with the hair growth and have spent a lot of money on IPL and i feel that it is working. I told him that we want to have a baby. He then said 'Seeing as that is your answer, then i will help you with both.'

He then pulled out two prescription forms for me. One is Metformin - this is usually a diabetes medication, but it is also used for PCOS. This one is to (hopefully!) bring back my cycle, as it has disappeared for over a year (!!), and it can sometimes act as a fertility medication too, so hopefully it may help me to ovulate as well as bring back my cycle. If this doesn't work as a fertility med, there are others to try (but not until after surgery). It will also hopefully help me with my acne, and i may have clear skin for the first time in my life!

The other one is to help with the excessive hair growth that is associated with PCOS. I still need to keep having IPL and removing the hair in normal ways, but it should help to not have it grow back as thick or as bad.

I am so excited about this!! Surgery is obviously the priority, to remove the big (dermoid) cyst, but to have some help with the other things in the meantime, is amazing. The first Gyno told me that there was no point having any medication in the meantime...

Two days after my appointment with my gynaecologist (Thursday), i received a call from admissions at the hospital... They told me that they have received my form, and that all i need to do now was come in that week (Friday just gone), and have all my pre admission things done, height, weight, blood pressure etc. They booked me in for the next day, and on Friday i went and did all of it. I got there at 10:30am, met with two doctors, but didn't leave until 3pm as one had to go and deliver a baby in the middle of my appointment! Luckily i thought to bring a book! I ended up reading half of it as i was waiting for a while... 

They sent me away with some medication for a UTI, and some forms for some more blood tests, so that when i get a date for surgery i can go straight to pathology to get the bloods done fast. 

Now all i have to do is to take my medication and wait! This is definitely a different kind of waiting. Before, i was feeling like i was waiting hopelessly, and that there was no point as nothing was going to happen... As they acted so fast at admissions i feel like i might actually get to have the surgery within 30 days!! I am SO nervous, but i am also just really excited to have it over and done with! 

Gavin and i are excited that after a whole year of nothing, we feel like we are taking steps towards getting me healthy, and actively doing something towards starting a family (besides the other thing, haha ;)

This was definitely an answered prayer, and i feel so good about this! I am looking forward to the future again, with hope! :)

A weekend in Hobart

On Friday afternoon I suggested to Gavin that we head down to Hobart for the weekend, just for something to do. It's only the start of winter but i always feel so cooped up with all the cold weather! We left as soon as i finished work and drove down. As it was the Queen's birthday long weekend, almost everything was booked out! We found a caravan park to stay at, in a little cabin. I knew it would be freezing and grabbed some extra blankets as we headed out the door. When we got there we checked in, and then headed around to Gavin's brother, Tim, and his wife, Bec's house to surprise them. They were definitely surprised to see us! 

We spent the night catching up with them, and then headed to our little cabin. Thankfully the park owner had turned on the heater for us!

On Saturday morning we had a little sleep in, not too much of a sleep in though, as one of Gavin's requests for the weekend was a sausage and egg mcmuffin from maccas. So easy to please him. 

We then did some shopping, especially in some shops we don't have near where we live (hello JB Hifi). Then we headed to Nandos for lunch (which we also don't have where we live). This was Gavin's only other request while we were in Hobart (i told you he is easy to please!). It was very yummy, and we can't wait until they open up near where we live!

 After lunch we headed out to the Museum of Old and New Art.  I have wanted to go for ages, and i was glad that we finally had the chance. While we lived in Hobart we didn't realise that it was free for Tasmanians, or we might have gone sooner!

I can't believe that it is a privately funded museum, it is so big and impressive! It is totally different to other museums i have been to. I loved and hated the fact that it was all spread out and on different levels. They give you each an ipod with headphones and you can press a button which brings up information about the art around you. I liked that you didn't pre judge the artwork on the name of it or on what the artist had written about it. I kind of wish that we had a map though, as i feel like we walked around and around and definitely missed some things!

This light bulb display was very cool! You could hold onto some bars and it took your pulse, then the first light bulb in the line started flashing to your pulse. As new people tried it out, your pulse was pushed down the line a bit further. It looked great.

The waterfall of words was definitely one of our favourites.

I also liked the concept of this room with the TVs, it was very interesting.

This pen was cool! It was powered by the wind from outside.

I loved the simplicity of the jungle book drawings.

This one below was definitely one of my favourites. It was this happy moment with lots of different photos taken from all different angles, of the same moment. I loved the black and white!

My other favourite was definitely the white library! It was so simple, but so great at the same time. I wanted to spend more time in there, but when i turned around, Gavin had disappeared on me. (I also loved the quote on the ipod for this exhibition).

This one below cracked us up, as we got to the middle and both got a huge fright as we thought something was falling onto us, until we realised that it was a mirror!

We both really liked this one. It was kind of overwhelming at first, but we loved how the screen changed. The size was impressive! So many people were taking cool selfies with their shadows, so we had to take a couple too ;) 

One of the things that we noticed as we walked around was that Gavin and i are into totally different kinds of art! The displays that i wanted to spend more time at and listen to the audio, he wanted to rush off and visa versa. It was a little frustrating and maybe made our walk around a lot longer than it needed to be. 

I liked how you could save your tour and email it to yourself to look at when you were home. I emailed mine a little too early, and missed some things at the end, but i now know for next time!

We were kind of glad to get back to the top and be finished. It was so freezing outside, and SO hot inside! It was also super busy! You can't really tell from the photos, but most of the way it was hard to walk around as there were people everywhere. We were just glad to be out in the fresh air and our own space again (despite the freezing cold!)

I love these two photos of us ^^


Even the walk back to the car was interesting and pretty! We made it back into the car just as it started pouring with rain. Good timing!

When we were done at MONA, we headed to Tim & Bec's for tea, and to see our nieces and nephews (who have grown up so much!). We ended up staying quite late chatting away to them, which was nice. 

When we got back to the room Gavin had a midnight snack and watched a bit of the hockey, before we headed to bed. 

On Sunday morning we got up early and checked out of the cabin. We decided to head home early as Gavin worked Monday morning. We had planned to check out mount wellington, but we decided that we would save it for another time as we were so tired.
We drove through Richmond on the way and decided to stop and have a walk around. It is a cute little convict town, which we will have to come back to sometime and spend some more time in, as there are some cool things to do.

It was nice to have a spontaneous weekend away, and it felt like it was needed, but it's always nice to be back home again. See you sometime soon, Hobart! :)