u/Ok_Friend_9735

Sorry if this has already been asked. I couldn’t find a post when I searched.

What are y’all doing for clothes in this in-between time before you have an actual bump but your normal clothes don’t fit?

I am 10W today, and my clothes already do not fit. I am not showing a bump. It’s bloat and general inflammation from all the things happening. But I am so uncomfortable in everything I own. I purchased some comfy pants off Amazon that have a maternity band, but they are too big.

I don’t want to spend a bunch of money sizing up when I’m just going to outgrow anything I buy in a matter of weeks. Help me please!🙏

I am 6w+1d FTM. My husband is itching for a vacation in August because we have both been working super hard and need some R&R. I’m nervous about booking something that soon though because I have no idea how I’m going to be feeling. So far my symptoms have been fairly manageable, mostly fatigue here and there. Over the last few days I’ve started having some short bouts of mild nausea and feeling more consistent fatigue and brain fog. But I have no idea if I’ll be one of Gods Chosen who don’t get too sick or if I’ll be fucking miserable in a few weeks when he wants to take off.

Would you plan a vacation during first trimester? When do symptoms usually show up? Would you go on vacation even if fatigued and nauseous?

We left work around the same time today, and on my drive home while stopped at a light just a few blocks from the office, I happened to look in my rear view and saw that the woman behind me was crying. Like, REALLY crying. Mascara running down her face and big sobs kind of ugly cry. And then looking closer and taking note of the vehicle, I saw that I was my coworker.

For context, this coworker is on another team but we do work closely on a lot of projects. Work has been very intense recently and we’ve been under a lot of pressure to meet deadlines that have been difficult to keep on track without a lot of extra hours from several people across both my team and hers. So my guess is that today was a particularly stressful day, though obviously anything could be the reason.

My heart just absolutely hurts for her. Seeing her breaking down like that made me want to get out of my car right there at the light and give her a hug. Obviously I couldn’t do that and unfortunately I couldn’t get her attention before she turned either.

Part of me wants to reach out and just let her know she has a friend here if she ever needs one.

And part of me also wants to respect that she probably thought it was a private moment and she might be embarrassed to know that I saw. I personally would be mortified. Sometimes you just need a good cry, you know? I could be reading into it.

If it was your coworker, would you say something?

A few disclosures up front: I’m just venting about my experience with my PCP today, not looking for advice or thoughts on whether or not I have lipedema. I am aware that a PCP is generally not the person to diagnose lipedema. They aren’t usually diagnosing fibromyalgia either. I’m also aware that these two diseases are not mutually exclusive and it’s totally possible to have both.

For some background on my symptoms, I have been experiencing extreme tenderness in my upper arms, thighs, chest area, lower back, hips, and other areas around my torso that have gotten increasingly worse the last year or so. I have visible fat pads gathered at my knees and elbows that don’t go away no matter how much I work out. I can feel lumps/nodules in fat throughout my body. My limbs are SO fucking heavy. And sometimes my skin hurts. Like I have a sunburn, but I don’t. Often my hands or feet tingle out of nowhere, for seemingly no reason at all, and several nights a week I experience red hot and cold extremities, like one minute my right foot is bright red and hot and my left is freezing cold and purplish and an hour later they swap. Often it’s individual toes on the same foot. It’s important to note that all of these symptoms have come up in the last 2-3 years, since I stopped taking birth control, and I suspect I’m entering peri menopause.

I realize some of these scream lipedema and others don’t necessarily. In describing them to my PCP today, he asked me “how far down the rabbit hole” I’ve gone on fibromyalgia (answer is pretty far) and whether or not I felt it fit my symptoms. I told him it could fit some of them, but that I had recently learned of lipedema, and I actually thought that sounded much more in line. He said he was familiar with it but that it’s not as studied/relatively new and he didn’t think I would benefit from him diagnosing me with it just to have the label because there aren’t any treatments. 🤔 And then he wrote me a treatment plan for fybromyalgia. He prescribed an anti anxiety medication, referred me to a therapist in town, and told me to add some light strength training to my daily routine. We’re to check in after a couple of months of this to see if the pain has improved and if the circulation symptoms are still present, at which point we’ll look into other tests.

For anyone not familiar with fybromyalgia, typically it’s diagnosed after ruling everything else out. It requires extensive bloodwork and additional tests to rule out autoimmune diseases that could present with the same symptoms.

So here we are.