It’s hard to describe the feeling you get inside when you feel failed by your Doctor, I don’t mean just the once but time and time again. Imagine trying for years to lose weight, to starve yourself, to excerise endlessly, to spend hundreds on fad diets and shakes and find that after all of it you’ve not lost a single pound or centimetre from your legs. Sure my waist would shrink, in fact at one stage I had my ribs and hip bones sticking out and looking pretty gross but yet my legs were still a 14-16 and there were no ankles to be seen. When I started realised these things, noticing my legs were a different shape to the other girls around me, trying and failing to lose the weight I went to my doctor. He simply told me that some people store fat in other areas and I should eat less, I explained that I was barely eating as it was (specifically mentioning one piece of toast for breakfast) and I was told to half what I ate, yes that would mean half a piece of toast for breakfast … moron!!

Thankfully for me I was lucky to have an osteopath at the time with a genuine interest in helping me get my health and self esteem back on track, these things didn’t come cheap but health comes miles before wealth in my life. He started picking up on my legs, my hypermobility and a few other symptoms which started him wondering what could link them all together. By chance I needed an emergency doctor appointment for something unrelated and had to see a locum, I have never been more grateful! I decided to mention my legs, like I had done to a gazillion doctors before, and she was like ‘Woah! I know what this is!’ It transpired she had watched This Morming the day before and they had had a lady on with Lipoedema. Apparently the fact I had a teeny waist and the fat didn’t go beyond my ankles meant it was definitely lipoedema. She said there was nothing she could do and no one to refer me too but I had a name! A name to a condition that has NOTHING to do with eating habits. And so I emailed my osteopath to tell him about Lipoedema and I embarked on a google quest!

Fast forward a few months, some very expensive consultations in London, the diagnosis of EDS (a connective tissue disorder), finding out I had POTSyndrome along with a few other conditions and I actually had an answer! HALLELUJIAH!! It turns out they’re all linked conditions and the primary issue (within me) seems to be the faulty connective tissue …. unfortunately this can’t be ‘fixed’ and so the research begins again to discover how I can get the most out of my slightly defective body!

To help you understand lipoedema fat compared to normal fat here is a photo, a little gross I’m afraid! For reasons that I haven’t worked out yet my adipose tissue (a connective tissue under the skin) allows fat lumps to penetrate and get stuck there! For some reason they say it’s impossible to get rid of … I’m a stubborn cow sometimes and am refusing to believe it can’t happen, so I have made a promise to myself that I will do anything it takes to try and prove the Doctors wrong.

The first and biggest challenge for me has been addressing my diet. I’ve been on and off keto ways of eating and I 100% believe it’s something I must learn to stick too. A 10lb loss in four days can only be fluid and already I feel so much better. Inflammatory pain is down, my fatigue is a little better, my general mood and sense of well being is even feeling better! Essentially we’re talking low carb intake and higher fat, sounds ridiculous right?! For now though it’s working! Alongside this I have been measured this week for some new and stronger compression leggings … they may not be sexy but I don’t give a monkeys! I’m feeling more driven than ever before to get my life back on track, I believe fully in the law of attraction and so to believe I can get better is the first and most powerful start.

I will be continuing my research, trying new low carb recipes and photographing the evidence as I set out on my new journey! Follow me @itsthelittlethingsinlife2017 on instagram if you’d like to follow my journey! Xx