Reply To: DW Community Catch-up Thread

@LisforLeslie The pulmonologist at Mayo basically told me to go home and get an echocardiogram to diagnose pulmonary hypertension (which was my final diagnosis) and that I should consider a lung transplant in the future. (!!) My current doctor (PH specialist) says we are nowhere near a lung transplant. I don’t really want one; it sounds terrifying.

@Copa, I’ve never worked with a career coach but I got really lucky in a job 10 years ago where I had a manager/mentor who helped me to figure out where my strengths are and gave me opportunities to pursue a career path where I could thrive. However, I know that *he* has used a career coach/life coach in the past and found it really helpful. For me, if I was considering it, I would try to work out what my goals would be in using one and then being sure to have action items or real tangible things to come out of the sessions. It would be kind of how I would see a personal trainer or a dietician. Like, I generally know what I should be doing; I would only hire someone if I were really stuck. Does that resonate?

So y’all, something I recently figured out (more health stuff) is – I was put on a different brand of birth control back in May or June, and while it was supposedly the same ingredients, I think it really messed with me. I got very depressed, had no energy, ZERO sex drive, literally everything just got sort of gray and bland. I also packed on more than 10 pounds. I stopped taking it when it started interacting poorly with my pulmonary hypertension meds and I just got sick of the side effects (constant spotting, TMI, sorry). However, I haven’t gotten back on it and it’s like my personality is back, like I can see colors again, I’m finding joy in the world. I got on Ozempic this past week as well because I am ridiculously overweight for a 4’10” lady and I lost 3lbs over the weekend. Maybe part of all this in the last few months was this birth control? Who knows, but I feel like I am *almost* myself after a verrrry long time so I think I’m done with hormonal birth control. Maybe forever? Wow.