New to D

My (Possible) Symptoms

So I haven't added anything new in way too long. I'd like to pause the story for now and talk about the types of things I felt leading up to diagnosis (Nov. 1, 2011). I'm not exactly sure if these are all symptoms (I know some are), or if they can be attributed to something else.. but here it goes:

Muscle Cramps - I started getting upper leg cramps after a road game against Lake Forest on Nov. 13, 2010. On the bus back to Appleton, I almost fell over walking to another seat because my legs got so tight right above my knee. I played a lot that game, so it wasn't super surprising that I was cramping a little. I was told to hydrate a lot and stretch, which sort of helped.

The next thing I knew, I would get terrible cramps in my calves at least once a night. I started to supplement with calcium/magnesium because they are supposed to help muscles relax. These nightly cramps continued to wake me up for the remainder of the season.

Extreme Thirst - Not much to say here, I drink tons of water when I'm at home in Texas and when I'm playing hockey, so it seemed natural to NEED water all the time (I even craved water when I woke up with the leg cramps)


Joint trouble - I first noticed that I was having a lot of trouble with the left side of my groin during winter term of 2010. I realized that something wasn't right because when I was sitting in the computer chairs in one of the economics class rooms, I could tweak my leg so that my left pelvic joint (?) popped. My whole leg usually felt better after it popped, but I had never experienced this before in my life, so I was pretty sure there was something unusual going on.

Increased Appetite - In the winter of 2011, I would consistently eat full meals then go back to my room and immediately start snacking. My appetite was literally insatiable. My roommate and I used to joke that I would 'eat myself into diabetes' like Jay Cutler did. Of course, Jay Cutler didn't eat himself into D and neither did I, but it was pretty funny at the time.

Urinating frequently - I don't think I slept for an entire night without going to the bathroom for the first ten and a half months of 2011.

Weight loss - I've mentioned this in previous posts - I lost 15-20 lbs during the first couple months of 2011 and was hovering around 170 until November.

Foot problems - At the beginning of the hockey season in September, I developed plantar fasciitis. I got new skates around then, so I thought it might have been those, but I'm not entirely sure.