A few nice Weight loss images I found:
Big Rich Texas Botox Party Frisco TX
Image by Oceanview Med Spa
This is licensed under Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons. You are free to use this photo – please give attribution to Oceanview Medical Weight Loss Spa of Frisco, TX and link back to www.oceanviewweightlossmedical.com
Factor V Leiden
Image by Mrs. Jenny Ryan
So I was recently diagnosed with Factor V Leiden (heterozygous). FVL is a genetic blood disorder that increases the likelihood of my developing abnormal blood clots (DVT or Deep Vein Thrombosis). This can lead to clots traveling through the bloodstream to the lungs, causing a pulmonary embolism. It is also associated with increased risk of miscarriage and stillbirth (which is what happened to me on October 15). There’s more detailed info here.
Although approximately 5% of the Caucasian population has FVL, this mutation was only discovered in 1993 so there is a frustrating lack of information out there and most people who have the disorder don’t even know it. They may not know it until they have several pregnancy losses and are finally tested for it, since miscarriages are treated as a normal and common part of life until you have several (aren’t women lucky?). With second & third trimester losses being less common, one is usually tested sooner (like I was since I was almost 6 months pregnant). However, many folks with FVL have totally normal pregnancies. You just never know. Also frustrating is that testing positive can make it hard to get health and life insurance.
Other issues with FVL: Flying can be problematic, same with long car trips. Estrogen is a no-no and I cannot take birth control pills.
Apparently the weeks after giving birth are especially risky for folks with FVL, so doctors usually recommend injecting a blood thinner for 6 weeks or so. These (crappy phone) pix show my torso and the many bruises and blood blisters the injection marks leave. It looks worse in person. 🙁 I have four more weeks of twice-daily injections to go before I can stop. I’ve never had any blood clots or symptoms until the stillbirth (which they believe is attributable to the FVL since the postmortem showed that the placenta was 30% clotted), so taking the blood thinners is mostly a precautionary measure. I really don’t like doing the injections, but when I think about diabetics and other folks who have to inject medications for their entire lives, I feel like a total whiner so I just buck up and do it.
"Buck up and do it" is my attitude 24/7 these days. Keeping my circulation good is super important with FVL (and losing weight is a must to help decrease my clotting risk) so I’ve been increasing my exercise (I’m now working out at least 35 mins every day) and eating as healthily as I can. Having my health on the line (and the health of a potential future baby, since we want to try again) has made my attempts at getting in shape much different than before. I’ve lost 8 lbs in the last 3 weeks and I can only hope my hard work will continue to pay off…
