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You may not be doing him any favors by hiding how you feel, FYI. If he can see that you are just as frustrated as he is, at least he’s not alone feeling that way. Show him you’re frustrated, but you’ll still hope for the best and try to get through the day. Then he can copy you. Just a thought.
” title=”Wink” /> It’s hard for someone to think they’re the only one losing their grip.One more thing ~ he’ll get those things you want him to have. He’ll just get them later on.
Actually, if you are well cared-for by your general practitioner, there’s no reason an endocrinologist would be better for you. There are good and bad doctors in every field. Some general practitioners are simply interested in helping their patients, and so they learn right alongside us, and they can be some of the most helpful doctors around. Others have already been through this with other patients as well, so in that respect, they may even have more experience than some endos. Some endocrinologists have never treated a Graves’ patient and will be just as clueless as clueless gets. The important thing is getting the proper care, and for that, many people rely on their general practitioners. No harm in consulting an endocrinologist, but it’s really your choice as to who manages the overall care, as long as you’re being treated and things are working out (levels are improving, etc.).
And as to your comment, BOY do I know how you feel! I remember feeling like I must’ve secretly turned 110 years old on my last birthday, trying to get out of my car. I also well remember handily dismissing ALL of my symptoms, until I woke up one morning and all the tissues around and on top of my eyes were swollen like crazy. It’s really common for us to dismiss things ~ we don’t want to be sick, after all.
” title=”Very Happy” /> It’s also very human not to complain about every little symptom. For a little while, you’ll need to be extra vigilant, and maybe even take the arm of a friend when things may be dicey. You don’t want to hurt yourself, if you can help it. No need to make a big deal out of it, but I know it’s tough to just brush it off. Just take care.We’re so glad you found us. Stick around, we’ll help at every turn.
” title=”Wink” />This is certainly the appropriate board for you, welcome!
We can help with everything a GD patient goes through, and managing your levels after removal of the thyroid is definitely one of those things!!
The elevated liver enzymes would not be related to the replacement hormone, because it is chemically identical to our own thyroid hormone and doesn’t need to be processed through the liver. Your doctor would be the best source to figure out what you’ve been taking, if anything, that has led to liver trouble. Even taking ibuprofen every day can do that, long term, so make sure you get a comprehensive answer (not just a brush off). You need to know the cause, and you need to know what you can do to bring those enzyme levels back into normal range.
Now, as far as your thyroid hormone replacement ~ it’s possible that your "normal point" is somewhere other than it has been. That can be a tiny bit time consuming to find, but it is SO worth it. Start by having your blood levels tested, then keep a symptom diary for a month or two, have your blood levels tested one more time, and go to your endo (or GP, whomever is managing your dose) armed with all of the info. Be VERY specific in your symptom diary. Doctors have trouble hearing "I’m tired all the time," but they will eat up empirical data indicating that you fall asleep at or before 9pm every night, and still don’t feel rested until 10am, if you know what I mean. They run on specifics, and we typically walk in with generalities. WE know that we’re tired all the time and it’s not normal for us, but they hear us say we’re "tired all the time" and they don’t really know what to do with that. Once you’ve got something for them to look at (we have a symptom diary as one of our bulletins, so ask Nancy if you’d like one), see if the two of you together can discuss changing your replacement hormone, just by one dose level, to see how you feel. You’ll need to stay on that dose for at least six weeks before you have your blood tested again, because it takes that long before your bloodstream fully adjusts. In the first couple of weeks after changing, you may feel hyper one day, hypo the next. That’s completely normal. It’s all part of the adjustment. Wait out the six weeks and see where you stand then, and continue to keep the symptom diary throughout. Together, you and your doctor can find your normal point, and that will mean you can feel better from then on!! Now, if one dose leaves you slightly hypo-feeling, and the next dose level leaves you slightly hyper-feeling, you can take the two on alternating days. Replacement hormone builds up slowly in your system, so it wouldn’t mean that you’d feel low one day, high the next. It’d even out and you’d feel just right, Goldilocks.
” title=”Very Happy” />I hope this helps. Keep asking any questions you have, you are in the right place!
Yep, you are NOT alone!
” title=”Very Happy” /> If there’s any way you can get some help from outside, that may be a solution for now. I know you don’t want to feel like this (well, no one does), and you don’t want your house to be a mess, but the solution is definitely not to suck it up and do it anyway. That will only make you feel worse, it adds to the resentment you feel about doing everything, and it wears you out so you have little time or patience for your husband or kids. Do you have women friends? Neighbors, parents of your kids’ friends? Can you have a "clean my house with me" party once a week? Provide something for everyone to eat & drink, and split up the work among many hands. You could do your part, they could give you a hand, the house would be nice, and you wouldn’t be worn out. If that’s not an option, look toward a cleaning person ~ not every day, or even every week, if that’s too much for your budget, but maybe once a month for the really hard stuff. You need to reach out and get some real help from those around you now, because there are two parts to what you’re feeling right now. The first part is the exhaustion, the depression, the sadness, the frustration. The second part is the resentment you feel toward the disease (your body is letting you down, how dare it!), toward your family for needing, toward your husband for not helping, etc. etc. etc. BOTH issues need to be addressed in some way that helps, rather than putting you in an escalating state of upset.
Naturally, in the back of our mind we know that we love our family, our body can’t help this, we are expecting too much from ourselves, and we need to calm down over the whole thing. Unfortunately, this is largely chemical. It’s not as easy as just saying "I understand." We’re GOING to feel badly. We’re GOING to get angry. This is TOUGH. Sometimes knowing that is helpful. Sometimes not. It’s tough to be balanced when you feel as if so much is going wrong.
Anything that can put your mind back toward the positive will be a good thing. Get the old gratitude journal out. Write down five things you’re grateful for every morning. Try to make sure you build in to your day some things JUST for you, and don’t feel guilty about that. (And if that thing is wiping down the counters with bleach because no one else does it right, that’s okay too!)
Above all, remember that you didn’t put yourself here, no one is saying you want to be in this condition, but indeed, here you are. There’s no shortcut to wellness, sorry about that. You’ll have to take every step of it yourself. But you WILL get there, things will start looking up. One day you’ll turn around and realize you’ve been feeling okay for quite a few days. One day even further down the road you’ll be telling someone about this period in your life and find that you’ve really, truly recovered. That day IS in your future.
