Friday

Thanks for your comments Tonia and Dave. :)

My thyroid saga has been reduced to one pill six times a week. I was just a tad hyper my last visit so I get to skip Sunday's pill. Then labs in three months to see how that is working.

At my last visit the doc went through the big list of symptoms I had last December and I answered NO to almost all of them. I told him I was glad I went through the treatment because one pill a day is much better than 5 pills 5 times a day and still feeling like crap. lol.

I still have some real thryroid left, and hopefully that behaves itself and doesn't start overproducing thyroid hormone again. That happens rarely-and usually in severe cases like mine. I think that is one reason I was so aggravated it took so long to get to see the specialist after I was diagnosed- because my thyroid raged on for months. There is some rule that objects in motion want to stay in motion...one of Newton's laws?

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We had our first frost on the lawn this morning. BRRRRR so cold. We didn't get one yesterday, but other places did. One farm had their front and back field cloaked in frost and I thought that looked like a cold place to live!

Our foliage is a disaster. For the last 14 years the Firebird's birthday has been the absolute peak of foliage here, the height of early color of maples and ash. This year everywhere but the swamps is still green.

We did have periods of wind and rain, and my sugar maples have dropped a lot of leaves before they changed.

I am not the only one to notice, I have seen the foliage story carried on AP the last few days. Many hypothesis abound as to what is going on with the foliage. I don't really have a strong opinion myself-I am puzzled.

The change of fall color is attributed to shorter day length-the leaves stop producing chlorophyll and what remains is the actual color of the leaf. As far as I know the day's length is shortening as it usually does.

As far as weather and temperature, we have not been much different from the norm-we get rain and drought and wind on a regular basis but the the leaves still change every year about the same time.

Fungus is getting blamed-well I hope they find out which one! I heard through the farmer's grapevine that potatoes diseased with late blight have been getting dumped along the shore, and then the moist air coming off the ocean is carrying the blight inland and really destroyed everyone's tomatoe crop here. So perhaps that is what is causing the leaves to drop and not change?

Or maybe those big solar flares triggered the trees to keep growing for a bit longer?

I do know that the Firebird's birthday seemed a little less festive with the autumn colors still in hiding.

Goodbye Thyroid

I had my blood drawn this week for follow up on Radioactive I131 treatment for Grave's Disease(hyperactive thyroid). I am 10 weeks after treatment.

My free T4 levels have dropped below normal. I went from 2.58 at treatment to 1.91 six weeks later to .79 this week. Normal range, according to my doc, is 0.91-1.71. I was immediately put on 75 mg Levoxyl once a day with more blood work in another four weeks.

Yeah, I've been feeling pretty lousy the last week. I think there were about 10 days in the last month I thought, "hey, I'm feeling good!" and my muscle tone started to recover a little.

Then I started freezing all the time (all this cold and damp, I thought) and the blues like no tomorrow (ditto weather) and tired tired tired (who isn't this time of year?)

Now I get to look forward to medication daily for the rest of my life. But I do get to phase off the propanolol, oops are you still on that? three days of a gradually reducing dose and that will be ended...three times a day was a nightmare, especially the afternoon one and sometimes the night one too! So yay to that, right?

well, considering I had free T4 of 5.7+ from October through January, I guess I deserve a little crash. I sort of wish the crash was in the winter, but sometimes things are outside of our control...

Wednesday

It's been just about a week since I took the I131 treatment. The treatment takes 1-6 weeks to kill the thyroid. Usually in the interim patients continue with their anti-thyroid meds to prevent a spike in thyroid hormone as the dying thyroid releases the stored hormone.

As I had a rare reaction to the meds, I am not on any, and I am experiencing hyperthyroid symptoms. More muscular/neurological stuff, like back pain out of nowhere that turned into curl up in a ball stomach pains.

My back is still a little cranky this morning and an ankle is now protesting.

My brain is very scattered; I am having a hard time accomplishing anything but the must do's.

The total body fidgets are back.

Total exhaustion.

I am not even sure what the Dr.'s plan is. All I can remember was something about, "see you in six weeks."

I am not sure the natural methods will work when I go hypo, since technically there won't be a thyroid to stimulate. I will be on Thyroxine, I believe, so unless there is naturally occurring thyroxine I will be on pharmaceuticals. Even if there is natural thyroid hormone, if I took it that might effect my prescribed dose.

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The roads here are a mess. We had about 3-4 feet of snow pack, then we had torrential rain and temps in the 40's for two days. There are orange cones and road barricades all over the place, from where the road flooded over and washed out the road, or turned to ice the night before as it was flooding, creating these crumbling iceburgs across the road in places.

Parts of my road, which is dirt, are nearly impassable without 4 wheel drive (which I don't have). As the top layer of road thawed, the water and muck stayed on top, making mire pits in low sections.

I'll have to take my camera out and get some pictures of a real Maine spring. :)

Congrats to the Firebird for winning a trophy for basketball!

So, I'm 50 hours into the radioactive iodine treatment. Although the only known side effect is a possible sore neck, I have been draggin butt and just got up from a three hour nap.

The tech said I was getting a good dose that will knock the thyroid out, so most likely I am looking at replacement hormone the rest of my life. Thanks Tonia, for the tip on the generic, after I took the pill I was thinking that I hope the meds over my loifetime weren't going to cost me an arm and a leg...figuratively speaking.

Friday

Well, Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

I finally got to see the endocrinologist yesterday. Last week I had gone to my PA, who took three days to return my call regarding a resting pulse of 134. She told me there was no medication for my condition and apparently did not follow up on my request to coordinate treatment with my specialist. I was told to go to my PA with the request by the endo receptionist after I frantically tried to get in to the specialist.

Well, the endo put me on two meds! Propananol for the racing heart and screwy BP, and a drug to calm the thyroid. That is not a permanent fix. Most likely I will end up having radioactive iodine to knock the thyroid down and then take a thyroid supplement, thyroxine.

If they did the iodine now it could spike my levels with a flush of thyroxine from the dying thyroid.

At any rate, I already, just since last night, feel loads better! A bit lightheaded and some stomach cramping before lunch, but so far so good.

It was a 2 hour drive each way to the specialist, and he was really nice and said we will do labs locally so I don't have to go that far every time.

I cannot believe how frustrating it was to get treatment! I complained to the nurse and Doc and said, "well, at least I didn't drop dead before the appointment, or then I would have been really mad" LOL, I don't know if they got the joke.

The doc said my thyroid levels (two months ago) were "through the roof" oh, that's nice. I had some more blood drawn yesterday for a benchmark. The thyroid med can cause white blood cells to go nuts, so if I get sick they can draw blood and compare the WBC. Hopefully that doesn't happen, because I really want this to work!

Nice to go into the New Year feeling good! Hope everyone has a happy and healthy 2011!

Monday

I finally heard from the Endocrinologist Thursday afternoon. They set me up with an appointment Dec 30th!!! I freaked out! No one had even looked at any of the tests I have had. The woman was frankly, an idiot. She finally put me on the cancellation list.

I looked up top thyroid Doctors in Maine to see what they had to say about this doctor. He had been removed from the list. The site doesn't give a reason, but says it was either from too many /really bad comments or a nasty email from the doctors asking to be removed.

Just from my experience with the appointment lady, I could understand why. Still, I felt pretty alarmed.

At the top of the list were Homeopaths and alternative medicine practitioners. I did a little online research and found a list of natural supplements that are supposed to help hyperactive thyroid.

So, I have picked up some oil of Evening Primrose caps, also used to treat pms symptoms, and some vitamin C. Broccoli is said to help slow the thyroid down, so I have been eating that. I have yet to try the cabbage poultice or acquired PABA.

I think the primrose has helped the shakes and irritability. I just started my monthly cycle without have a meltdown the day before. I feel a bit depressed today and have had zero motivation for even the basic chores.

We did get to see the latest Harry Potter last night. 2 and 1/2 hours worth! I found it to be a pretty good rendition of the book so far. Luckily I read the book a little bit ago so most of the details are fuzzy.

But when Voldemort takes Lucius Malfoy's wand, and Voldemort is checking out the wand, and says, "Elm, and the core is....?"

and I burst out in the half full theater, "Dragon Heartstring!" before Lucius could reply, I felt quite the geek! LOL

Sunny Sunday

We are having a beautiful stretch of weather! Our Indian summer has arrived. Yesterday it was 62 in the shade.

I did manage to lie still for my thyroid test. I didn't even have to sign in, they sent me directly into the room. I first sat to have my background radiation checked for a baseline, so they knew how much to subtract of the different radioactive iodine I took the day before.

This was done by placing a small bar-shaped sensor on my leg above my knee. My leg trembled a bit. The reading came back lower than the background radiation. The radioactive iodine is meant to be absorbed by the thyroid, so it was good news it wasn't floating around in my leg, lol.

Then I had to lie down on a very narrow curved -well, it wasn't a cot, since I was slid back under the -camera? The first image was difficult, because part of the equipment had to barely touch my chin so it was focused over the thyroid. To lie completely still with a huge camera over your face with the cone over your throat and part of it on your chin was challenging. I kept my eyes closed. I did open them once and quickly closed them, lol.

I swallowed twice. That was hard, having the feeling I had to swallow and fight it and then it becomes a vicious loop- you HAVE to swallow, lol. The tech shrugged and said, "what are you going to do?"

I did get to move briefly after each image was complete ( I made sure to swallow then) I didn't swallow for the next two from each side. I did say, "Thank God!" when the second one was finished!

The tech was very nice. When he first slid me back, I said, "They said there wouldn't be any side effects, but I've had the song, "Radioactive" on my mind all morning."

He was very excited and said they had a program called Pandora and set about to find the song for me. Only trouble was, but the time he had the list of artists (I thought it was Peter Gabriel) booted up, the scan was going, so as he went through the list of artists I could just lie still and flap my thumbs at him in response, lol.

I was very glad to have music, although the tech was a bit fussy and kept turning down good songs or skipping to the next song just when I was getting into it. All I could think of was I hoped his wife kept him away from the TV remote, lol.

Still waiting to see and endo. Looks like Grave's disease.

Tons on the to do list, hope I can focus some of this manic energy!

Wednesday the 10th

I took my radioactive pills this afternoon. I was repeatedly assured that it was harmless, that I wouldn't be shedding radiation or have to take any precautions. But the pill was in a pill bottle in a lead box in a lead lined alcove and I was directed not to touch the pills. She look a little alarmed as I held the pill cup and drank water, but I got them both down without incident.

Those folks at imaging really rock and make my doctor look sooo bad! Both times I went directly to sign in (they had three intake open), and before I signed the paper and got my band there was someone waiting to take me to nuclear or sonogram. There I had a chance to sit and pick up the paper before I was called. yeah, I like that kind of efficiency!

The worse news is that when I go back in 24 hours I have to sit still for ten minutes -three times(!) for images. I can't even beat the birthday cake frosting ten minutes-I go five and say, "good enough". How am I going to sit still for 10 minutes even once?

I am so speedy I pace and bounce my leg a lot. I was relieved when the woman who gave me the pills told me that after her daughter was born her thyroid went hyper. She lost 40 pounds in a week and couldn't make a complete sentence. So I guess I can't bemoan 15 pounds and not being able to comprehend a sentence. LOL.