Forum Replies Created
-
I keep meaning to post the rest of my story but I keep getting side tracked and then see post like this or the one from AzGravesGuy last week and feel like I should jump in because I am going through the same thing, or at least went through it recently.
Where I am at …
I went hypO sometime between Dec 11 and Jan 2 after having RAI Oct 11. On Dec 11 labs said I was more hyPER than at any point before that and boy-o-boy did I feel like it. Then, around Christmas, I felt good and I started going back to the gym and was OK. On Jan 2 my labs showed slight hyPO but I misheard the nurse on the phone I thought I was normal so I went on thinking at least I was headed in the right direction.
During this time I did start to have HyPO symptoms, though. I was gaining weight, I was a bit constipated, and I was more fatigued than before. However, I was still going to the gym and work and otherwise having normal days, but with 2 hour naps in the afternoon. Interestingly, I was having paresthesia (tingling in my hands) when I would wake up and I was also having strange dreams. Turns out hyPO can mess with your brainwaves (delta and theta waves), apparently and affect not just how much sleep but apparently what goes on with your brain when you sleep. I would have to dig up the site where I read that and it may be bunk, but I can tell you my dreams were very different for at least two week compared to what I am used to experiencing and this is symptom of hypo that I haven’t really heard anyone talk to much about, other than that one site, so it may be unrelated.
Meanwhile I was going more and more hyPO and on Jan 22 had labs with .007 FreeT4 and a TSH of 54.3 — ding, ding, ding — we have a winner!!! Let the butterfly-shaped confetti fall.The day I had those labs and the day after were the worse. I was able to function, but I was eating a lot of sugar to do it. I taught a two-hour university seminar and apparently it was fine, but my wife says my affect was off that whole week. I remember thinking that I shouldn’t be driving because my reaction times were slower than I knew they should be and I remember being irritable. I would fixate on something a little annoying and get myself all up in a tizzy about it.
The day after the labs, when I got the numbers, they set me up with 125 mcg of synthroid and within a day or two I felt better. I had my first dose last Thursday and here is how I would describe the progression:
Wednesday — walking dead, but still able to function, like a bad flu (minus the fever and chills) — body aches and fatigued easy
Thursday — better but still body aches, cramps in some long muscles (legs and back), not 100%, still real flu-like, screaming headache
Friday — better still, was able to clean the house for about 20 mins at a time then rest and watch a Frasier rerun, then clean, then watch a Frasier rerun (yippie streaming Netflix:), didn’t feel like flu anymore, felt like I had been drinking a lot, like I had been on a real bender the night before, achy and tired, but OK
Saturday — still coming off the bender, but OK, took the dogs for a walk with my mother, got tired easily but felt OK
Sunday — now it is more just an ache in my lower back, like I worked out too hard
Monday — fine, really, but still a little tired, and I’ve built up the sick hours for this so I am going to use them, stayed home, more Frasier
Tuesday — about 75%, using some sick hours
Wednesday — back to work, did a full day, taught another seminar, fixed my mother’s thermostat after work, purposely let my wife mess up my sister-in-laws taxes while they worked on them at the kitchen table that night, then, with glee offered to get my sister-in-law a bigger refund if she would bring me a cookie home from work later in the week — H and R Geostyv to the rescue.Sister-in-Law happy with the refund
Wife annoyed I let her go on making a mistake — I explained that I am a sick little bear and clearly not in my right mind
she has forgiven me, but I am sure payback is in offing So those are my experiences of the last week. The only thing I would add and ask anyone who is still reading this is this — is it common to pee a lot after starting synthroid? Yesterday I was peeing every half hour on the half hour. I was watching the clock, this is no exaggeration. My constipation resolved itself within a day or two of starting synthroid, but I am not sure what to make of the peeing other than maybe some of the water weight post-RAI I gained is moving.
Lindsay, if you’re still reading all this (and how could you not, the prose is so gripping :)I would say too that my heart rate and blood pressure went way down within the last month, however, before that it went way up post-RAI but pre-hypO and my cardiologist actually upped the beta-blocker and was fairly concerned. The BP and HR going down was one of the first signs that things were moving the right direction. My cardiologist asked me to monitor my heart with one of those wrist heart rate/BP monitors that I bought at local discount giant, they are fairly inexpensive and more convenient than the typical blood pressure cuff.
Feel free to PM me if you want, otherwise that’s my story of “escape to hyPOthyroidism” — check it out, ma, I am sick that’s how I know I am better
geostyv
Hi Everyone,
Well, is has been just over two weeks since I did RAI. I have felt pretty good so far. I have a heart palpitation everyone once in a while and I am still taking my beta blockers, but on the whole I do feel better. Sort of peaceful in a way. There has been a lot of work stress in the last week and my wife has been suffering from peri-orbital cellulitus (sp?) so she has had to be home for a few days and I’ve had to juggle work to take her to the doctor. Her doc prescribed oxycodone today for pain, she is really hurting. Meanwhile we are in the middle of trying to get some of my mother’s property, which is in another state, through closing and sold. The RAI seems to be the least of my worries right now!
I guess if I could say if I feel bad at all it would be that I am a little tired and my knees and hips have been a little achey. Both these things could be stress and the changing seasons or they could be the hypo — who knows?
I am worried about the eventual cliff I will drive off where I will go hypO and not be able to function. There are a lot of people who depend on me being able to do my job and I worry about them. I teach and have a lot of students who paid a lot of tuition and there is no one to cover my subject if I am out for a day or two. I have administrative responsibilities, too. People at work who know have been understanding and maybe I am being dramatic. Still, work is a concern.
The cat is still evil — he has not been understanding.
On the whole feeling good and at peace with my decision.
geostyv
