Re: Re: Armour aggravating Hashi's????

October 6, 2005

Hey , keep your chin up. You know we're here for you in the ups and downs, just like you are for us. You've brought up an interesting point that I wanted to ask you about - if you have a particularly stressful or tiring few days, is that likely to affect how hypo you are? And will it all even out within a week or so, of it's own accord?

Love Chris

That's exactly it... In my case I wasn't dealing with disease or cancer... my gland could have been medicated to readjust it and then monitored... but because the doc that I saw didn't know squat all he could say was that I was 'too fat to be sick' and tell me to go home.

From all that I've learned it wouldn't have been that difficult to get mine under control. My gland was healthy with no problems, it was my TSH receptors that where at fault.... so as the years passed and I went through issues and stresses my gland just started to produce more and more hormone, it had no signals to slow down..... I'd have had to monitor... and maybe medicate to lower production if it started creeping up again... but I'd have still had my gland.... but by the time the symptoms got bad enough to affect my job and make me go back in to see a doc they had to kill it, or it would kill me..

That is soo sad. I was so messed up that I stopped sleeping so that I could stay up to eat, and I was barely able to maintain my weight. I was running the air conditioner in my truck because I was too warm, in Minnesota, with snow on the ground and everyone else wearing heavy coats and gloves.. I'm in a short sleeved shirt running the AC. All these things getting worse and worse for me and I'm afraid to go back to a doc cuz the last one said that I was 'too fat to be sick'. I'd gone in for excessive unexplained weight loss and extreme thirst. I lost 40 pounds in 30 days and all this jerk doc could say is that I was 'too fat to be sick'. He wrote that on my chart. He didnt' test me, didn't care about my symptoms...

So by the time it's affecting my job, I can't lift my arms above my waist... and go back in to see a doc my thyroid is so hyper that they tell me if they don't kill it today it will kill me. So that's what they did. They killed it...

That's soo wrong... I went another decade thinking that I was the only one that stuff like this happened to. Then I met you guys and hundreds others like you.... blown off by docs, ignored, abused, put down, insulted or treated like morons....

It's the whole thing that is wrong.. We're people, human beings, that happen to have a body part that doesn't work quite like it should. Diabetics are cared for, Epileptics are cared for, Paraplegics are cared for... then there is us.

You know what my personal opinion is? Why they heck can't they develop a daily test for us, so that we can see how we are converting and adjust for our circumstance? This has really hit home for me again in the last couple of weeks. I'm downsliding.. haven't figured out why... but it SUCKS. I don't know if it's the change in the season, the change in my supplements, stress, or that walk I took a 2 1/2 weeks ago. Something has thrown my system off and I can't figure out what.

You can order a TSH kit to test TSH at home, did you know that? It's around $75 at some places... around $45 at others... Way too high a price for something that doesn't tell you anything. TSH doesn't change immediately according to the body's needs. It's changes happen weeks or more after the cause.. that's why our bodies store T4, so that we have a reserve of hormone to draw from to make the hormones that our bodies use for daily function. Otherwise our poor thyroid glands would have to shoot production up to cover us in high need times and then back off for mellow times.. that's hard on glands... look what happens to our adrenals when they get over stressed for too long.. they start to sputter and spurt, not giving us the hormones that we need when we need them... they, too, have a hormone reserve system, but it can be abused for only so long before it affects the glands themselves.... Why can't we be offered the tools that we need to monitor this stuff better and help our bodies?

I know... because what we have probably won't kill us.... Just make us miserable for years and years and years and keep the pockets of the pharmaceutical companies well lined with our money.

I'm having a bad morning me thinks... Maybe I shouldn't be here today......

Topper ()

October 8, 2005

Well, all my ranting and moaning the last couple of days cuz I couldn't figure out what was happening with me..... sorry about that guys... but getting it out of my system helped me to focus a bit better, and notice some things.... I think I have it figured out.

All ties in with your question, Chris.... even with extra activity or stress, the body should be able to sort itself out and get back into routine... it shouldn't run you down and make you have to start all over again. That's why I've gotten angry about what has been going on with me. I HAD to figure this out!

As I've felt better I've been more active. If I 'get a bug up my butt' to do something I can just get up and go do it now... no more sitting around for an hour trying to decide if I want to or not.... It can get a person into mischief! hehehehehehe With the cooler weather now I'm getting into more and more things that I've let slide all summer.

So what I noticed, of late, is that I don't have a cyclic fatigue... suggesting that I'm having trouble with my dosing.... to check that I took some extra T3... if it were my hormone levels that should have lifted the fatigue, made me less cranky and irritable, but it didn't .... I still felt too 'weighted down' to want to do stuff.

It was like my brakes were dragging....I more or less wanted to do stuff but it was too much work to do... not like when I was really hypo.. I didn't care that much about doing stuff or not doing stuff... It was a 'oh well, who cares?' type of attitude....

I had a 'lay down' yesterday morning. I didnt' actually sleep, just that kind of in and out dozing that has you noticing the clock as moved 10 minutes and you can't remember the 10 minutes going by? Anyway... it was a one hour laydown while I had bread dough rising, it was Friday cooking/baking day. Well, it gave me a spurt more energy and I started the dough for pasta too... I had the first half batch cut and hanging when I started the meat sauce to go with it....

It was at that point that I started feeling dragged again... I checked the time, I'd not missed any doses, I was right on schedule. I decided to take 6 1/4 mcg of T3, a quarter tab, to see if that would lift it and it didn't.... I managed to get the bread baked and the pasta cooked and my meals set up for the weekend and then came back in here to finish the second half of the pasta and lay it out to dry..... I was just all dragged out and frumpy.... didnt' want to finish the pasta, but couldn't let it go to waste either... so I tried to make it more fun and did shapes with the pasta instead of just linguine style.... that kinda helped but when I got done I found myself napping in my chair...

Got out my thermometer... temp okay. Checked my resting pulse.. that was okay.... It was time for a dose, I took that... and little bit later it was time to eat and take vitamins so I did that..... then it hit me....

'Can't see the forest for the trees'

I haven't been dealing a dosing issue, it's not my conversion, it's not a change in supplements, it's not the time of year.... its soooooo stupid and I just didnt' see it...

I've been more active... I'm 'just getting up' and doing things... that's what's wrong.... I'm more active, using more muscles, being more energetic... I went for the long walk... but I'm not sleeping enough!!!

Household schedules usually have me sleeping 6 hours or less per day. With the activity level that I have now, six hours isn't enough. I tested my theory last night.

I moved my fan to be right next to the head of my bed... white noise to help drown out TVs in the rest of the house... I set my alarms for 5:15 and 6:15 (dual alarm clock). Skipped bedxercise and MLD. I conked out right away... I didn't even keep the TV on to watch the weather....

The first alarm went off at 5:15, the time that I'm usually ready to get out of bed, and take my first morning dose of pills. I took the pills and rolled over to go back to sleep. The first dose of pills includes some T4, so I need to wait an hour to eat. When the second alarm went off I took a good stretch, wiggled my fingers and toes, got dressed, made a bathroom run, grabbed breakfast/first meal and headed in here to eat and start reading emails.

I feel great today! Better than I have in a couple of weeks!

I had about 7 1/2 hours of sleep.

I've been refusing to take naps during the day, it has to do with having had insomnia for soooo many years and the first rule of insomnia is to NEVER EVER take a nap during the day, it makes sleeping at night even harder..... But.... I obviously need more sleep....

Just not sure how to do it... I can't sleep when things are noisy..... TVs blaring in other parts of the house... and housemates won't turn things down.. they LOVE to nap with the TVs blaring and nap during the day, that's why they don't sleep so long at night, they've been napping during the day... which I've not been able to do.... So I'll have to do some figuring to see how I can get more sleep myself.

At least I figured it out!

YIPPEE for me!

Topper () *who's going to print new Motto Sign: Keep the Forest healthy by watching your Trees!*

On Thu, 6 Oct 2005 15:25:12 +0100 "" writes:

Hey , keep your chin up. You know we're here for you in the ups and downs, just like you are for us. You've brought up an interesting point that I wanted to ask you about - if you have a particularly stressful or tiring few days, is that likely to affect how hypo you are? And will it all even out within a week or so, of it's own accord?

Love Chris

October 8, 2005