1 year after TT!

So it has now been 1 year after my TT! It was tough in the beginning as it took me 7mo to get back to work but now, being on my 3rd endocrinologist, I feel much, much better.

I’m currently on 120mg of Armour and 5mg of Lexapro. Immediately after the surgery my anxiety and panic attacks stopped but I was extremely hypothyroid, exhausted, cold. Then myalgia pain started the higher the dose of Synthroid I went on. Every time they would up the dose, the pain got worse and my thyroid panel would come back out of range. Almost a week after switching to Armour the pain stopped, but then I had a battle getting the right dose of Armour, jumping from hypo to hyper, back to hypo. Now the levels are finally coming back CONSISTENTLY in range. Every now and then I still have bad days where I’m either feeling extremely hypo, or hyper but it’s only about 1x a month and maybe lasts for 1-2 days.

The anxiety is SO much better. Before I went back to work is when I started the Lexapro but 10mg started giving me panic attacks again so I dropped the dose to 5mg. I used to never have an anxiety problem until a few years before my diagnosis & TT, and I immediately felt the difference after the TT. So, depending on my “bad days” is when I usually notice it creeping back in. I used to have panic attacks daily and I might have a batch of them here and there but that may happen once every 3-4mo now. I’ve been seeing myself handle stressful situations much better, like how I used to before I started being symptomatic of this dreadful disease. At my next doctor appointment I am going to discuss going off the Lexapro since it’s such a small dose, and see how I do. These meds never helped me before the TT.

I still get very cold or overheated now and then. I have actually learned to embrace the cold feeling as I carry a blanket around with me at work. It’s easier to manage than being hot. Directly after the surgery I would get SO cold that it felt like someone was applying ice to my arms. That also went away after starting the Armour. I joke around and say that whatever everyone else feels, I feel 10 degrees colder. Which is sometimes true. I have found I get overheated more when exercising. Not necessarily “overheated” but more like it’s easier to get heated up and break a sweat with little activity.

Before the TT I weighed around 170lbs & was put on prednisone because of my TED. So after the surgery, finally removing the prednisone, but with lack of activity, my weight got up to around 190lbs. The last few weeks I started counting calories w/a goal of just under 1400 a day and doing regular brisk walks around the neighborhood and I’m down to 178. I’m FINALLY losing weight! For years before being diagnosed w/Hashimmoto’s, I would exercise & I didn’t lose any weight at all until the Graves’. (And I didn’t lose much before they figured out my hypo jumped to hyper.) My exercise is still light for right now.

Some of the things I am battling with right now are brain fog. I have to write everything down or set up reminders or I’ll forget! It feels like my short term memory is non-existent sometimes and I’m like Dory in Finding Nemo.

Another thing is on my really bad days I get very jittery. It’s different from anxiety though. Every morning I wake up at 6am to take my Armour and I’m shaking. I then go back to sleep and wake up usually an hour later to get ready for work and I’m fine. But if my routine changes… Like my normal hours to work are from 10am-6:30pm but one day I had to go in for training until 9pm. Another 2 days I had to go in for training at 8am. If this schedule changes then I try to go back to my other schedule, I feel like I’m shutting down. Exhausted, drained, shaking, can’t think straight, then a day or 2 later I am ok. But I have to keep a tight schedule so I don’t end up like that. Luckily I don’t think I’ll have anymore training for a while.

It has been a journey, still going on. An interesting one with lots of ups and downs, more downs in the past but more ups lately. Very glad for my decision though the whole disease still sucks. Very glad for not giving up on myself either.

Amanda