A Diagnosis?
For those who didn’t know, I have been battling Hypothyroidism for the past 5 years. It’s been a rollercoaster. I’ve had good days/months, and bad days/months. Hypothyroidism is a disease where your thyroid, a gland located on your neck, doesn’t produce enough thyroid hormone needed by your body to maintain specific funtionality. Thyroid hormones regulate your metabolism, maintain your body temperature, and regulate many of our organ functions.
I’ve really been going backwards the last couple of months, so decided I needed to see a specialist again. The list is long, so skip it if you want, but my current symptoms are:
- Mental fog (forgetfulness, and unable to remember things. Unable to concentrate, and a hard time learning, or absorbing something new. I can’t multi-task right now and can only concentrate on one thing at a time. I can’t spell lately. My brain is just tired.)
- exhaustion (like a switch, I am suddenly exhausted without warning.)
- muscle aches (like achyness during the flu)
- weakness (putting the glasses away in the cabinet from the dish washer feels like I’ve just done a bunch of weightlifting reps)
- Easily stressed out. Cranky. Unable to cope well with stuff.
- ankle pain when I run
- Unable to tolerate cold air
- carpal tunnel symptoms
- hair loss
- weight gain
- swelling of face, feet and hands
- Female issues
- acid reflux (this is a first for me)
- low temperature (97.2)
This morning I had my first visit to a Thyroid Treatment Center to plead for help in getting my cranky body back to normal. When my thyroid levels get low I can tell because I start having all kinds of seemingly unrelated health issues (see above) all at once, and just don’t feel very well.
My new doctor specializes in thyroid disease. Doctors like that are hard to find in my area. After some tests my new Doctor is fairly confident that I have Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. Although I’m not particularly pleased about this, at least I feel like I’m getting somewhere. It’s a clue as to the best way to fight my Hypothyroidism. Hashimoto’s is a disease where your immune system fails to recognize normal thyroid cells, and produces antibodies that destroy the thyroid cells. This causes hypothyroidsim.
He told me that the dose of medicine I’ve been taking for years is a Pediatric level, one that would not sustain my system for very long. Which explains my ups and downs. He intends to do treatment not only based on my lab results, but by my symptoms.
Not just my labs, but my symptoms…
I almost cried when he told me that. Thyroid disease is often difficult to treat, because most doctors treat patients based on the lab results only. Many patients’ ideal levels fall outside of the recommended range, and most doctors will not medicate patients to that point.
So today I started a different medication, at a stronger dosage then in two weeks, that will be increased as well. Happy tears on the car ride home! I hope this all pans out and that he finds my ideal medication mix to keep me on track and back to healthy. I won’t know for six weeks whether the new dosage is working or not, as it takes awhile for the body to rebuild the cellular damage that is done.
We should never take our health for granted. While I’ve got a lot of health issues right now, I still feel very blessed for the body that God has given to me. Even though permanent, my condition is treatable and maintable. With proper medication I will be able to get back to “normal” (as if I have EVER been a “normal” kind of person - he he!!)
I have been praying for a man who had cancer, and just found out today that he lost his life to that last night. Story here: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/billschultes He was so young. Please say a prayer for his wife and family who are going through the unimaginable right now.
Take care of yourself, and thank God every day for what you have. Don’t take anything for granted!
~Mindy.
