Buh-lieve It, My Belly Changed

Oh, and not for the better! In just the last couple days, my abdomen looks different. More...flumpy. Squishy. Hmm, not attractive, but definitely noticeable, to me, anyway. Just clothes not looking the same.

I will call this "deflation of the distended abdomen caused by Mirena." Ew. Isn't that CRAZY? It's noticeably different, I tell you.

When it comes to the effects of the Mirena IUD on my body, there are two key things about me that are relevant here: 1) I am soooo unobservant. Don't hire me to be your private eye. 2) I am not a conspiracy theorist. So when I do something like, oh, get an IUD, I am not exactly thinking, "wow, I am inexplicably gaining a lot of weight," or "hmm, why did I just start losing all this hair," or "hmm, I sure am a stark raving bitch, I wonder why?" And when I review all these websites complaining about side effects of the Mirena, I have a big part of me that says, "oh, you're just blaming xx on the IUD."

'Cept when I look at the complaints, I am just so struck by things that have affected me since getting the IUD. I *am* a stark raving bitch (oh gosh, only to the people I love most in the world, don't worry, yeesh). I have experienced hair loss for years, and I have always been the first one to tell you that while I have some bad eating habits, I didn't have 263 pounds of bad eating habits. Except for my lifelong battle with nighttime eating, I have never been one to eat all that often or all that much. Poor food choices, sure. Too much eating out, too big of portions at dinner, too much eating before bed. That's what got me fat. Oh, and no exercise. Mirena may have played a hand in it, too, but I wouldn't have noticed because...well, I don't notice.

Have I ever told you that I drove myself to the emergency room in the middle of the night for horrible stomach cramps, diarrhea and vomiting, only to be fine once I checked in? Like, completely and utterly fine? Or how I assumed that the fondue restaurant gave me food poisoning not once, but twice? Uh, a few years later I figured out I was lactose intolerant. And I didn't figure it out until a good friend said, hey dipshit, you're lactose intolerant. So I guess I didn't figure it out at all, haha.

Anyway, there are a litany of complaints of side effects of the IUD and I have, oh, probably 3/4 of them. I am so INTRIGUED to see how things change for me now that I've had it out. And am paying attention.

Weight this morning is 209.2 so maybe things will start happening on the scale again. I started using myfitnesspal.com yesterday and plan to track my food and exercise like a mad woman. I am always reluctant to track food, but now have found the motivation and expect it to stick with me. If you're on the site, add me as a friend! I'm 'freejulie' there, too.

Hmm, also on the IUD front, I am still emulating a stuck pig. :|