It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been here. I’ve thought about it. I’ve had ideas of what I wanted to say, but never got further than that. Here’s the scoop.

I’ve been on Natpara for 4 weeks now. I’m loving the way I feel on the new medication and I’ve even gotten used to giving myself a shot every morning. It’s a noticeable change. I am happy with not feeling like grandma in the morning. No more muscle spasms either. As said before, my head is much clearer and I do feel more like myself. More energy and other symptoms disappearing too. I will say that I’ve also noticed that my running has improved too in the sense that I’m actually able to run:)

I ran a local 5K in May, United for a Cause. I finished in 30:41 which is a 9:54 pace. This was my first race on Natpara. I had done a St Barts 5K in early March where I finished in 31:18 with a pace of 10:04. While it may appear that my races were similar, it really couldn’t be further from the truth. The first 5K, I had to prepare by making sure that I took my meds and calcium prior to the event. Plus I had calcium in my water. I also rested a few days before event and pushed myself to the limit for this event. On top of that, the two courses could not have been more different. The St Barts event was a fairly flat course with really only one hill at the mid point. The United for a Cause was a constant up and down of hills. Also the St Barts event is first thing in morning while United for a Cause is in evening. Comparing the two actual events is like comparing and apple and orange.

Now with that being said, there were also very notable differences in recovery. Where St Barts left me exhausted and needing downtime, there was no such recovery needed for United for a Cause other than stretching. I felt fine….. no twitching muscles, no need of extra calcium, no need of extra I felt like me.

It’s funny though how in life acceptance is a funny things. I don’t mean funny as full belly laugh, but funny in that you go back-and-forth with acceptance. I really thought that I had reached a stage of acceptance for being hypopara. I was wrong. I think I was just holding on to that everything would disappear with the Natpara and poof everything that comes with hypopara would be gone – no more monitoring for sypmtoms, balancing pills, and anxiety of what comes next.

All that being said, I did have unrealistic expectations for Natpara. I really thought of it as a magic pill or in this case magic shot where I would no longer have any symptoms or even think about having Hypopara. It would all just disappear. Now don’t get me wrong, it has been life changing I have also been able to stop taking Calcitroil and have lowered my calcium supplement intake while having great calcium levels. That being said, I still need to juggle supplements and symptoms.

I’m back to relearning what my body needs with my calcium intake. I pretty much knew what I needed when before starting and now I’m kind of back to square one. I’ve got it pretty down pat without heavy exercise, but as the miles increase I will need to add some more calcium to my routine especially during the hot summer months. It will all be worth it though and already is. I keep saying that I can’t go back and am so thankful to be able to feel like myself again.

So once again I’m back to the acceptance stage, but it is easier to accept when your feeling so much better.