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The sleeping issue is tough, but it’s worth figuring something out. We had a doctor speak with us at one conference about sleep issues, and he said that it’s important to solve this before it becomes "chronic," because then it turns into something mental as well as physical, and it’s harder to correct.
There are a few things that may help. First, remember that laying still, relaxing your body, is nearly as good for you as full-on sleep, so pursue whatever you can accomplish successfully, and try not to be frustrated when sleep doesn’t come as easily or last as long as you are used to. Your body is chemically imbalanced right now, so there’s only so much you can do to overcome that until the meds (or whatever treatment you choose) take effect. Do the usual things ~ avoid alcohol and caffeine in the later part of the day, take a long, hot bath or shower shortly before you plan to go to bed, go into a dark, quiet room and lay down. No TV ~ it’s bright, the images change often, it’s rather "exciting" to the brain ~ but reading is okay, if it helps you. If it creates one more distraction from rest, skip that too. If you haven’t been able to sleep for very many hours at a time, you may want to go ahead and let yourself stay up a little later than a "typical" day, so that when you DO go to sleep, you’re likely to sleep all the way until your alarm goes off. I think some of the hardest times are after we wake up in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep.
In any event, if you find yourself laying there and being frustrated and your mind running a hundred miles an hour, get up again, move to another room, turn on some lights and do something else. Choose to read a magazine or get something done that won’t take too much physical energy to do. Then try again.
If it’s at all possible, look into daytime naps to "make up" for sleep you lost the night before. I’ve read several sleep studies, and they all came up with different answers ~ one said it’s impossible to make up sleep, another said it’s essential ~ so feel this out for yourself. If a nap one day means you sleep even worse that night, well, that’s the answer for you. If it helps you function during the day and doesn’t affect your ability to sleep the next night, again, there’s your answer.
It’ll get better as you proceed through treatment, I promise
” title=”Wink” /> Hang in. We’ve all come through to the other side, and you will too.The different ranges of normal between labs shouldn’t make an enormous difference in what you find out, but make sure you don’t compare the value in one test to a value in the other test ~ just look at the relationships to the normal range, to evaluate your progress.
The one thing about Graves’ that is consistent is that we are never the same as another Graves’ patient, so there’s no calculation we can make to say when exactly you would be going hypo, based on your progress to date. It’d be nice if we could, it’d save time for lots of us….
The best thing to do is keep a symptom diary. When you notice 4 or 5 classic hypo symptoms that are occurring frequently, go and get your blood tested. You may see at first that you are feeling as if you may be hypo, when in fact your levels read normal. That happened to me after my RAI, and all I could surmise was that it felt sluggish for me, because I was used to hyper by then (it was the only time that everything in my house was getting done!). So keep track of what’s going on with you, get blood tests when you feel it’s necessary, and go from there.
As I used to tell my kids when we were on long road trips ~ "closer every minute!"
” title=”Very Happy” />It’s not really a big deal, taking the replacement ~ there are rules about taking it on an empty stomach, and not eating for a period of time afterward, as well as leaving mineral supplements for another part of the day, but you just take it once a day ~ I haven’t had much trouble getting into a habit, but I never liked to eat right away in the morning anyway. It’s absorbed in the intestine, mostly, which is why they have rules about an empty stomach and not eating for a while afterward ~ just to let it get down there, all alone, and start being absorbed, so you get the most out of it you possibly can. Some people set an alarm an hour before they really want to get up, take the replacement hormone, and then go back to bed so they can eat and drink right away. Remember, it takes a while to build up in your bloodstream, so you don’t have to worry about massive reactions quickly after taking it. They come up slowly, kind of like Graves’ did at first. Also, if you miss a dose by accident, it’s not that big a deal ~ you won’t be "low" quickly either. As far as food restrictions, there are some you might want to consider, but if you are doing the same thing every single day, then your dose will ultimately be calibrated TO that normal, if you see what I mean, so just be consistent and you are more likely to have an easy time getting regulated.
I hope that helps a little.
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