The California Journey (2005-2007)

Just a month after being diagnosed with PCOS, I was set to move to Oakland California for graduate school. I was tired, excited at new life, and sad to be leaving my family and boyfriend of 2 years behind. I was not sure that PCOS would play a part in my new life in California as a graduate student, but I was hopeful that I would be able to push past the fatigue and come out on top. I feel I should mention I was not a great undergraduate student. In fact, I had to leave my home state of Colorado in order to attend graduate school, as the school here had declined my application. But I knew I was now venturing into a degree I was passionate about and I was sure my PCOS would be pushed out of my mind when I was working hard and using my brain 24 hours a day.

My adventure to California turned out to be bigger than I could have imagined. I came to life in California, for the first time in many years. So many years in fact I could not remember feeling so alive. I made close friends, which I had failed to do during my undergraduate work, mostly because I rarely attended classes and was sleeping all of the time. But in graduate school they knew if you were not in class, so I attended everyday, although I napped in between classes, after classes, and sometimes even in the morning before classes even began. I became known in the graduate dormitories as "the queen of sleep" and often raised a giggle or two from my neighbors when I went to bed at 8:30 at night. But I made room for a good time, pushed my body further than I had before. Many of my friends were runners, and I began joining them on their 3 to 5 mile runs each day. Another close friend and I joined a local Weight Watchers. I was excited, still tired, but losing about one pound per week. By the beginning of my second year I was down to 132 lbs (I am 5' 6 1/2") from my prior 162 lb. body weight. My friends, family, and my (by then) fiance asked me frequently "are you feeling okay" and sometimes even gave me a "tisk tisk, you are too thin." But I felt great, except for the fact that I was still exhausted and still taking 2500 mg each day of Metformin.

In 2007, I moved home to Colorado and within 6 months I had put on 13 lbs again (then weighing 145 lbs).

I left California with amazing, lifetime friends who would support me no matter my weight. Be it 100 or 500 pounds they were my true friends through and through. But I knew that I had to find the right path. At the time, my path seemed to be single track and straight up hill. I knew I was in for the battle of my life, Me vs. PCOS.