Day 78: Hormones

At the end of my high school career, like most of my fellow classmates, I had made plans to move away from home and attend college. Despite my excitement, I was a little concerned. For 3 years I dreaded that lovely womanly gift that comes once a month. Each month I was knocked off my feet in pain and left to make friends with the closest toilet. The scariest moment was when I loss consciousness because my body just couldn't take it anymore. Going off to college and not having people around me that understood my plight was a little unnerving and even concerned my parents. My mother whisked me off to the doctor for some tests and low and behold I was diagnosed with endometriosis. The treatment, birth control to stabilize my cycles and hard hitting pain killers for any lingering pain. For 6 years I have taken those lovely little white pills that have made each month bearable. For 6 years I have been able to live with my endometriosis with out it controlling me and my schedule.

3 months ago my husband and I wanted to start trying to have children which required me to stop taking the heavenly white pills and go back to my high school days. Fear and panic set in. The first month was by far the hardest as my body completely freaked out and screamed in agony; asking me what was I thinking?! The second month was smoother but still hard and still very painful. By the third month I knew exactly what to expect and had taken measures to prevent as much as I could with medicine and having the heating pad ready and waiting. One week I called my mom asking her how she ever put up with me in high school, I felt like a complete wreck and was ready to be admitted. No wonder I find high school girls SO annoying!

As I'm sure your wondering what ANY of this has to do with my hair, it has EVERYTHING to do with it. For 6 years I was on artificial hormones and to remove that from your body causes great chemical changes and stress. Since I also suffer from hypoglycemia, I've had to relearn how to care for my blood sugar levels; I feel like I'm starting over again. Insulin is a hormone and now that I have less hormones in my body, due to lack of birth control, it has caused my pancreas to work harder than it did before and has made my hypoglycemia worse.

My emotional stress levels are all over the map, my physical stress is a mess and mentally I'm going insane. To top it all off, I think the chemical changes are killing my curl down to a wave. Studies show that women with straight hair find that it curls when pregnant or visa-versa. Although I'm not pregnant the hormonal changes are still significant enough to make a difference; I just hope I'm not losing my curl. :(

Lack of motivation, time, and effort this morning caused me to pull it up in a pony tail and leave it at that. It's not even 12:PM and I already have a headache; I really need a trim and maybe some thinning.

Curl: 3
Frizz: 2
Weather: 25F, Snowing, 83% humidity
Stress: High