Friday, August 14, 2009

Symptoms...PMS or Pregnancy?

The problem with early pregnancy symptoms is that most of them are the same for any other stomach ailment or PMS. I have a few PMS symptoms that I experience every cyle, primarily depressed feelings or sadness for a day or two, mood swings, and craving for chocolate. They always occur almost exactly 1 week before, on the dot.

However a few things have been occurring which are a bit unusual for PMS.
1. Cat has been clingy. He's normally a cuddle kitty but he's found a new favorite spot, my stomach. He usually clings to me in the morning, and DH in the evening, but he's all but ignoring DH now. He sleeps with me, cuddles with me on the couch, and watches me drive away. I know animals can sense things before we can, so maybe I should take these changes into consideration.

2. Increased appetite. Not only am I eating more, but I am eating faster too. About 30 minutes before my normally scheduled meals, I'll get really hungry. It doesn't grow, it just hits me that I feel starving. I also get hungry on my way home even though I have an afternoon snack at work. I've also had cravings, the latest being butter cookies.

3. Temperature increase. I have noticed that I have what is called a triphasic pattern on my BBT chart. I have a third increase in temperatures. They are holding steady, which differs from the last cycle

4. Upset stomach. This might be related to allergies, but I am not sure. I noticed that my stomach is more sensitive lately. When I get up in the morning my stomach does not feel well. Its not what I would consider nausea, but it is an unusual feeling. I also feel this way before I eat.

5. Weird smells/tastes. I have noticed that some things smell differently, or I have weird tastes in my mouth. On the way home from lunch I was commenting to a friend that my stomach was upset and I was going to take some tums. Then I had a weird taste in my mouth similar to the tums aftertaste. Then when I did have a tums it made me feel really sick. I managed to swallow it down but I've never had that problem before. The same thing happened with dinner. I've made it before but this time I thought it smelled disgusting while DH thought it smelled good.

6. Fatigue. I have pretty bad fatigue lately. I try not to take naps because they take too long and then they mess with my sleep schedule so I'll go to bed at 2 or 3am and be up a few hours later for work. When I do take naps they are almost always 2 hours exactly. The past 2 I have taken have been closer to 4, and that is with a full night's sleep and they haven't been disturbing my bedtime.

I will mention that I've noticed several signs of depression or other medical conditions prior to even possibly being pregnant this cycle, and made an appointment with my doctor to discuss them. These symptoms I've listed above have either popped up in the past week or have gotten worse while my mood has actually lightened considerably. However I am also not blind to think that these could also play into depression.

Because of school starting and an increase in appointments for immunizations and physicals my appointment had to be scheduled a week out. The appointment was early this week and I was ordered to have some blood work done to rule out anemia, thyroid, and blood sugar issues. All came back normal and my doctor is diagnosing me with depression and wrote me a prescription with strict rules not to take it if I am pregnant.

Many people consider it too early to even have pregnancy related symptoms, as much of the medical information out there says the symptoms should not manifest until 4 or 6 weeks of pregnancy. So, who knows if they are really pregnancy related, or psychosomatic, or PMS, or what. We'll find out in the next few weeks!

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