The Thyroid Debacle

If you're one of the two people who reads my blog with any regularity (hi, Kitty!), you might have noticed I haven't posted in some time. Mainly, this is Garrett's fault, what with his constant growing and such. But also, my thyroid and I have had quite the little adventure the last 5 months! I know posts about health are not the most exciting, so I will try to summarize as best I can...

late February 2013 :: After recovering from a cold/virus, I am having trouble "rebounding". I'm super tired, get winded very easily, my heart starts racing when I've only walked 10 feet, my hair is falling out, I'm hot and sweaty all the time, I'm weak, I couldn't sleep, I was losing weight for no reason, and I was generally irritable all the time. NOT FUN!

March 11, 2013 :: Following a bad weekend, I go to the ER because my heart is racing and I am really weak. My pulse after walking from the car to the ER was something like 160 - I was not THAT out of shape, y'all! They check my heart, make sure I'm not pregnant, etc. 4 hours later, we have a diagnosis: hyperthyroidism, probably caused by Graves disease.  I was given Propanalol, a beta blocker, in the meantime to control the symptoms.

March 12, 2013 :: I meet with my endocrinologist, Dr. Colburn. He was an intern under Russ at some point, and is a fabulous doc. I like having an "in" at the hospital from time to time, but I suspect Dr. Colburn is fabulous to everyone. He did an ultrasound on my thyroid to check for nodules. None were found, but my thyroid was 1.5x the normal size. He explained all my options if it were Graves, like he thought it was: (1) medicate me for 2 years, after which there was an 85% chance my condition would come back, (2) ablate my thyroid with Iodine-131 and take Synthroid for the rest of my life, or (3) surgically remove my thyroid. But before making that decision, we needed to be sure it was indeed Graves. They do that with an uptake scan.

March 21, 2013 :: I was given a dose of radioactive iodine (I-123), and then 24 hours later they would scan me to see how much my thyroid took up.  This part wasn't half-bad. The scan was a little uncomfortable because I had to lie, for 10 minutes at a time, perfectly still and in kind of awkward positions. Here were the results from my scan:

The scan showed that my thyroid absorbed an abnormal amount of iodine in that period, which showed that it was overactive and was, indeed, Graves. Graves disease is an autoimmune disease caused by the body developing antibodies (for unknown reasons) that attack the thyroid and cause it to go into overdrive. I had a textbook case.

April 17, 2013 :: D-Day. There were, of course, pros and cons for each course of action, but after a lot of Internet reading, talking to folks, and looking for a natural alternative, we decided to go with the ablation. All I had to do was have labs drawn and then swallow a pill. The worst part was that, since I was radioactive, I could be around ANYONE for 3 days and my little Garrett for 8 more days after that! Garrett stayed with KayLynn & Michael in Austin for 3 days, then Grandma Morrison came to keep him at home for 6 days, and Dad kept him for the remaining time. He clearly had a rough time with all his caretakers...

Snuggle time with Aunt KayLynn

Hanging out with his surrogate dog, Gaius

Nap time on Grandma

 After the procedure, we had to wait a period of time while my thyroid died from the ablation. Over time my hormone levels would drop and I'd develop hypothyroidism - and a whole new set of symptoms. For a while I was feeling great! Lots of energy, clear-minded, very productive, etc. But then ... I sloooowwwweeddd doooowwwwnnnn.

June 29, 2013 :: I had my TSH and free T4 levels checked a couple of times before Dr. Colburn started me on Synthroid, and that's pretty much where I am now. I've been on it for 3 weeks now, and I'm still feeling pretty slow. My weight is a little high, too, considering I've cut my calories way back. Russ and I are thinking we might need to up the dosage, but we will wait until it's been six weeks to re-evaluate.

There's the update. Thanks for hangin' in there!