One of the reasons that I disappeared was because it was discovered that my thyroid hormone was way off which is actually why I was exhausted, gained 30 lbs, my hair was falling out (remember that post?) and why my sodium was low!! I was really quite sick and not understanding what was happening.
I take a supplement called biotin that apparently affects the thyroid testing. I have been on thyroid medication for 28 years and no one has ever mentioned this to me before. I finally got a new endocrinologist who mentioned it and did something about it. That was a great few months, until the tests started coming back wacky again and they started changing my dose again. Your thyroid is responsible for your metabolism, so every time they make a change in my medication it changes my metabolism. Meaning: my energy level, my ability to sleep, my appetite, my weight, even my skin and hair. Everything.
This all started back in 2021, so for the last 4 years I've been on a roller coaster of thyroid medication and therefore metabolism changes every 10 weeks. So I have short periods of time where I feel good, then I have periods of time where I feel awful, then I have periods of time where I'm in between, or have good days and bad days. Lots of bad days.
When you been dealing with a health issue for 28 years, you kind of get to the point where you really just want the doctors to listen to you about it. Right? I'm not crazy for thinking that am I? I do feel like my current endocrinologist listens to me, but I don't think like she is believing me, even though I've been dealing with this medical issue longer than she has been a doctor.
Where she is skeptical is that I do not believe that the lab test they are using is accurate for me. This is not unheard of, this is not a one-off, this is not a one in a million, it is possible for the lab test to be inaccurate for many reasons. One of those was the biotin clearly, but there are several others. So I made a chart for her showing my thyroid medication doses compared to the test results and it clearly shows that the test numbers really don't change even when my dose is adjusted, sometimes by a lot. So, while being as polite and agreeable as possible, I'm trying to have conversations with her to explain that I have symptoms at a certain dose and do not have symptoms at another dose and with both doses my test results come back the same. To me it makes perfect sense that you would put me on the dose where I don't have symptoms right? Well as it turns out in Western medicine no. The test is God and cannot be overruled. So that's where I currently stand. Hopefully I will have more news coming soon about this, but I'm not holding my breath. Meanwhile I'm losing time with my kids and husband and struggling through just daily life.
But c'est la vie of a chronic illness sufferer (survivor? I don't really like sufferer...)
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