Part Four

I have finally been officially diagnosed as hypothyroid.  I am quite certain that I've been hypo for many years.

Hypothyroid symptoms can include these:

Breathing difficulties, particularly "air hunger" or the inability to inhale a good breath.
Course skin on the soles of the feet.
Ridged Fingernails
Low body temperature
Stubborn overweight
Low Blood-pressure
Hair loss
Muscle pain
Brain fog
Fatigue
Insomnia
Infertility
Menstrual irregularities
Anxiety
Depression
Dry eyes
Dry skin

and eventually...

diabetes
heart disease
high cholesterol

I am pretty sure that's not a complete list, but why would you want more?

I had a lot of these symptoms.  After several months on thyroid medication, in my case Cytomel, I still have many of these symptoms.  What I have noticed is that my skin is softer, my hair is thicker (and curlier??), my mood is much, much better.  My energy level is better (but not great, yet) and brain fog is decreased.  My breathing is also easier.

There may be more room to increase the Cytomel.  At some point I will likely be switched (only with MY agreement) to some form of natural thyroid, like Erfa, which does not have to be taken as often and which has a more complete range of the various thyroid chemicals.

I will also ask to be tested for Hashimoto's Thyroiditis.  This is a common cause of hypthyroidism, so the theory goes.  It is an autoimmune condition.  Knowing whether I have this will not change my treatment much, but I will probably look in some different directions, as there seems to be a strong association between Hashimoto's Thryoiditis and gluten intolerance.

Not that I'm thrilled about giving up gluten.  It seems like SO much work.  But if you must, you must.

I have not returned to LDN, as described in my previous post.  Once I started on thyroid meds and my sleep improved, I was not in a hurry to do anything that might interfere with that!  LDN's effect on sleep is usually transitory, but I'm just not that patient right now.  I am learning that LDN can positively affect autoimmune conditions like Hashimoto's Thyroiditis.  That would force the issue, and I would get back to taking LDN.

I am completely off anti-depressants and don't miss them.  I am down to, most nights, half of one sleep prescription.  I would call that a net gain!

My Story so Far...part 2

I went back in to the doctor's.  This time, I was still not sleeping.  In fact, I was now able to take lengthy bike rides, early in the day, and have my sleep that night be WORSE than usual.  Who does this? 

The specialist who had finally diagnosed my osteoarthritis, just four months before both my hips were replaced in 2008, had told me that if I lost weight (50 pounds enough for you?) and exercised (daily walks and weekly 40 km bike rides?) that I would feel "fantastic".  I should have gotten it in writing.  I seemed to be doing everything correctly, but I was not getting better.  I was getting worse.  To the insomnia, I had added tremours, near agoraphobia, lack of sociability, intense spells of irrational anger, and what felt like blood sugar swings.

I was fnally sent for a sleep-lab which said that they couldn't see anything wrong.  I had 85% sleep efficiency (remember, I was on two prescription sleep meds!).  I am not sure what that means, but if my math is correct, that means in attempting to sleep for 8 hours, I was actually sleeping only 7.  That doesn't sound too bad, but I was waking up tired.  I was waking up in the middle of the night, frequently feeling angry.  I would pick fights at night that I would not have bothered with at all during the day.  And my brain never seemed to shut down. 

Before I was sent home in the morning, the nurse observing my sleep lab told me that  two things jumped out at her.  I was on a LOT of sleeping meds.  One seemed to interfere with my breathing.  She suggested that I start looking elsewhere for answers...endocrinology perhaps?

I love nurses.  It was a nurse who finally pushed my GP to send me to yet another specialist when I was at the point where I couldn't walk.

It was a nurse who got me started down the path that may finally be getting my health mysteries sorted out.

It was a friend and former nursing student who gave me some valuable leads which led to the 'rabbit trails' that have gotten me where I am.

My Story (part 1)

Yesterday, I read an article by Cindi S.

 Most of it could have been written by me.

I first asked my doctor to check my thyroid  function when I was not yet 20 years old.  That's nearly 30 years ago.  My symptoms then were thyroid enlargement, depression, overweight, swollen ankles, heat intolerance, low body temperature, cold hands and feet and fatigue.  My doctor at the time said he'd check, but I owed him chocolate chip cookies when it came back normal.  Which it did.

What is normal?  I don't know which test or tests my doctor used.  I suspect he used the TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) blood test.  It was still fairly new at the time and was (and is, in many circles) considered the 'gold standard' for guaging thyroid function.  Since that time, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) effectively lowered the range of 'normal', although many labs still use 5 as the upper limit of "normal" anyway.  Of course that was in the US.  I am in Canada.  But maybe I would have scored a hypothyroid lab test then, if the lower range had been in effect.  But who was I to argue with a lab test?

I got married a few years later.  All my symptoms persisted.  The births of all but one of my children were followed by post-partum depression.  My husband tends to be a go-getter...I most definitely was not.  Increasingly, I found I did not handle stress well.  In 2001, I 'finally' began taking an anti-depressant.  Eventually, I was also diagnosed with fibromyalgia (joint pain, stultifying fatigue, insomnia).  My skin and hair got very dry.  My nails split and eventually my hair started falling out periodically.  I was dizzy and frequently couldn't finish a sentence I'd started.

At this point, my thyroid was tested again, and again came back 'normal'...although it was high-normal.  The resident (and this man is practicing somewhere in Ontario!) told me, in effect, that I was a bored, middle-aged housewife who needed to get out and do something to take my mind off of myself.  I was so fogged in that I was at the end of the hallway before the urge to clobber him came to me.  I wanted to cry.

Before the "fibromyalgia" struck me, I had been the volunteer queen.  I had many, perhaps too many, activities I enjoyed doing.  I had people I enjoyed seeing.  At the  point where this doctor met me, I was recovering from major surgery, and had stopped all my activities so that what energy I had I used for my family.  When you are severely fatigued, you may fall into a state of anhedonia...the inability to take pleasure in anything.  That was pretty much where I was at.  Had it not been for my family, I would not have gotten out of bed in the morning...but the condition would also have kept me from sleeping.  Oh...I was on TWO prescription sleeping pills at this point, too.

I managed to get enough thoughts together to realize that that particular doctor was a jerk. 

Around  the same time though, I had been given a chance to learn a new and interesting skill, with the potential for a good income from it.  I could do this work from home, which was an added bonus because it meant I didn't have to use my precious and scarce energy to leave the house.  It would allow me to get off of disability!

That is when I realized just how bad things had gotten.  My goldfish-memory span (three seconds!) and inability to handle stress made it impossible to handle what I saw could be a very good occupation for me.  I crashed and burned.  The coup de grace was my 'boss' telling me I'd been slow to learn a particular aspect.  If I could have bellowed, I would have.  NO ONE HAS EVER CALLED ME A SLOW LEARNER!  But he was correct.  I had been unable to figure out the task he gave me.

I had to do something.

But right now, I need to take my temperature.  More in my next post.