Thursday 29 June 2017

Living with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

I was diagnosed with PCOS when I was 14, I hadn't had a period in over a year and I began to get concerned. So, I made an appointment with my doctor, she sent me off for an ultrasound scan and blood tests. When I came back for my follow up appointment I was told that I had PCOS. She explained what it was but I didn't really understand much and went about my life as normal. Thinking it was great that I didn't have periods.

It wasn't until I was at university that I discovered the true extent of what living with PCOS meant. Okay, I didn't have periods but I did have the side effects of them, all minus the bleeding. I have bad back ache, severe cramps that would have me crying, I felt ill and had awful mood swings. PCOS also meant my chance of ever becoming pregnant was rather low, I have a 10% chance of conceiving children naturally. I have heard all the stories before of people with PCOS having children naturally, but I have other complications which means the likelihood is a lot lower. Now I was told when I was 14 these statistics and I have had 8 nearly 9 years to process this information. And although sometimes it gets be down, I know there are plenty of children out there that need adopting so when the time is right I think that is the route I will take.

Away, what is PCOS? Other than standing for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, it is not actually cysts on the ovaries. Confusing I know! I used the NHS website to help me explain what PCOS, there definition is :

'Polycystic ovaries contain a large number of harmless follicles that are up to 8mm in size. The follicles are under-developed sacs in which eggs develop. In PCOS, these sacs are often unable to release an egg, which means that ovulation doesn't take place.'

Meaning that the sacs in which the egg normally lives (as it were) is undeveloped and does not contain an egg, meaning an egg is not released and a period does not occur. Although the cause of PCOS is un known it is believed to run in families. It is related to a hormone in-balance within the body.
It is estimated that 1 in 5 women in the UK has PCOS, but it varies in severity.
Signs and symptoms
  • irregular periods or none at all
  • difficulty getting pregnant
  • excess hair 
  • thinning hair 
  • weight gain or trouble losing weight
Basically its a massive shit storm and is horrible. Although there is no treatment for it there are some ways of controlling it. I myself were prescribed several different hormone tablets and treatments. But the extra hormones that was used to combat the extra testosterone but the hormone treatments made be depressed caused me to gain weight and fucked me up more. I stopped the treatments and felt a lot better. 

Its been over 9 years since I was diagnosed and I still havent had periods but I am hearing more and more stories about women diagnosed with PCOS and still concieving children naturally so I have faith that if I chose to have children I will be able to naturally. But that is a long way in the future. 

This has been a bit of long post with loads of information. I will do a follow up post soon about my experience with diagnosis. But just know ladies you are not alone. If you have any questions drop me a line. 

Bonus picture of my baby... My ferret Trevvor. 

Love Yah 
IsThataRedHerring 

Tuesday 27 June 2017

I have more tattoos... still not a thug!

A lot has changed since my first post about my tattoos that by the way you can read here. All of my tattoos tell a story and in the past few weeks they mean more and more. In the first blog I had 4 tattoos I now have 15. Oops. I won't repeat the first 4 as you can read about them in the other post. But lets dive in, I will try and do them in some sort of order.

Tattoo number 5 is an anchor behind my ear. Which is a matching tattoo with my very good friend Chelsey who I shared a house with at university and have a great friendship. Why an anchor? Because I went to university in the Ocean city of England, Plymouth and seemed appropriate. Number 6 is a simple sail boat behind my right ear (sorry no photo), keep on sailing, life is like the ocean, tough and full of bumps and struggles. But it is so important to keep on going, take whatever like throws at you.


Now I know you arent meant to have favourites among your children... but this may be one of my favourites. I love the film Up, and bond I have with my family. It is heart retching but full of love and adventure. It's a wonderful piece and I love it, It's as bright as it was the first day I got it. 


Number 8 and 9 I got on the same day because why the hell not at cute little otter because otters are adorable and well that is the only reason, so no emotional story behind it. The other is a stag, so the geometric side is a stag (male deer) and the realistic side is a doe (female deer) and to be honest I have always wanted a stag, I really like them and also my dad has one and I have always liked it, so i decided to get one haha. This tattoo also influenced me for my next one ha! And the start of a sleeve. 


Number 10 and 11 that;s right this bitch has the Grinch who stole Christmas on her leg. Because I have a love hate relationship with Christmas like he does haha. As some of you maybe aware that my Gran passed away on Christmas day in 2004 when I was 10, so really Christmas has never really been the same again for myself and my family, however I still love the spirit of Christmas so well the Grinch hates it all and comes to love it in the end (sorry spoiler). also for the record the Grinch is awesome. So number 11 is my spirit animal, the sloth. I have always loved sloths always, and I just had to get one, and I couldn't resist getting it in the same style as my stag, so the half geometric and realistic style and I love it.

Number 12 is a little semi-colon I have on my right wrist to symbolise that my story is not over, and that whatever life throws at me I will and can continue.
Number 13 is my most important tattoo, It is the tribute tattoo for my brother who died on the 24th of May 2017 aged 21. Ash loved motorbikes and guitars and known to many of his close friends as Ted, so my wonderful tattooist designed the most perfect tattoo in his honour. 7 hours worth of pain, but totally worth it, it is a master piece. Like myself and Ash it is big, bold and extremely colourful. I carry apart of him with me where ever I go and that means the most. 


Number 14 is simply Ashley's name with his year of birth and death, A little reminded of him whenever I look down, it always makes me smile and look up again. 

Number 15 is Russell because I bloody love Up, and to be honest he always reminded me of my brother. We always joked that he would get Russell tattooed on him, my dad has Mr Fredricksen and I of course have the house... Sadly Ash my brother never got the opportunity to get it done, so of course I got him done. Look at how happy he is there, its like he belongs there. Of course this has now meant that my right leg is turning into a sleeve, and I have many ideas for the rest of the leg. I am really excited to get it finished. A big bold, cartoon leg.


BIG shout out to the wonderful Sophie for being not only my wonderful tattooist but my friend, I always without a shadow of a doubt always have a laugh with Soph and she does an amazing job. We have many more planned so watch this space for another updated one soon.

Love yah
IsThataRedHerring







Friday 23 June 2017

A tribute to my brother. Eulogy

Ashley Martin (Ted) Herring

11/02/1996 – 24/05/2017

On Wednesday the 24th of May at 10pm my life changed. I never thought that it would ever happen, that I open the door to find a police officer standing there, and telling me the worst news he could ever say. I’ve started this speech so many times, never really knowing what to say or how to say it. So fuck it, let’s do an Ashley at get straight to the fucking point.

I had the joys of 21 years with Ashley. It’s safe to say it hasn’t always been smiles and kisses, he knew how to wind me up proper good. But with his stupid smirk of a grin he was easy to forgive. As me and Ash grew up we had an unspoken rule, if we ever argued we were not allowed to stay mad at each other for any more than 2 minutes. It would normally end in us going to Sainsbury’s to buy food we really didn’t need.

Which brings me onto the story of food Tourette’s. Now anyone who knows myself or Ash knew that we were most sarcastic swearing pair of idiots. Who when together were terrible and wound everyone up… Ashley loved to take this to a whole new level, and on behalf of Ashley I would like to apologise to Sainsbury’s and Tescos workers… Ashley invented a game called food Tourette’s, where instead of swearing he would simply start shouting items of foods out loud. This has on several occasions nearly got us kicked out and banned from shops… only for me to turn around and say sorry he doesn’t mean to its his Tourette’s… meanwhile I’m pissing myself laughing and Ashley continues to swear and shout sausage rolls at this poor lady. Ashley was unable to go shopping on his own because I quote ‘people piss me off’.

I honestly have endless amounts of stories about my brother, my best friend. The one that Ashley loved to tell was that of when we were 8 or 9 years old. We had just watched Peter Pan and Ash loved the shadow scene where they fight with swords. So we are sat in his room, I have a pencil for my sword and Ash well he whips out a bloody pen knife. There we are sword fighting, he knocks my pencil out of my hand laughs and I start waving my arms around, he is still jabbing the knife and there it goes, straight into my right forearm where I still have the scar. He of course blames me and laughs. That story still makes me laugh.

On that day, Ashley had a perfect last day. Although he woke up an hour late for work, it means that I got to see him, we joked around had a laugh and I got to say goodbye. Although we didn’t realise it would be our last. He got to work, as usual happy and pissing everyone off. Got to ride his bike to and from work. Got home had eggy bread for dinner and then went back out on his bike. It may be simple but not only did I get to say goodbye, my mum got to see him, my dad got to see him, his favourite work friends worked with him and he was doing what he loved. Without a shadow of a doubt I know Ash died with a smile on his face.

Thank you to Ashley for bringing light into so many people’s lives. For making us smile and laugh even when we shouldn’t have been. For always being there and pushing us to be our best. He pushed me into university I have a degree because of him. For pushing Carl into the police force to Josh motivating him to join the army. For believing in us all when we didn’t think we could do it.
So Ash, my little brother, my best friend. Until we meet again.

Your last words to me
And my last words to you…


See yah later, Cunt