Day 17: a picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life rec

As many of you have read in this blog on December 28, 2009 I had a tumor removed from my brain. In October of that year I had been diagnosed with acromegaly, and since then I have been battling the disease.

As you can see from the photos with side effects, it's not pretty. The hardest thing for me has been the fact that all of these years I thought I was gaining weight do to quitting swimming, and being lazier. I thought I had poor eating habits (which I do...but not that poor!). I went from being a 5'9" division I college athlete to being a 5'11" couch potato.

I can honestly say that the surgery was almost 14 months ago, I've lost weight and regained my energy! My cortisone levels and a few of my hormone levels are still high, but the outlook is positive. Sadly, I still feel self-conscious about my "acromegaly face, hands and back." It still makes me uncomfortable to know that my endo essentially looked at me and diagnosed my disease. However, luckily, my friends and family have been there beside me to encourage me when I get sad, and to cheer me on when I get lazy.

So this is what had made the biggest impact on my life recently. I'm still attempting to not let my life revolve around it. But currently, I can't help but define myself in terms of being an acromegliac (that's my own made up term!).