I went to Dr. P for a regular checkup in April. As always he took a routine blood test. The nurse said if everything was okay with the test, I wouldn’t hear from them.
Dr. P’s office called me the next day.
The nurse told me that my thyroid levels were low and I needed to come back in three weeks to be re-tested. I’d never thought much about my thyroid before. I had heard of thyroid problems, and that recently Arizona Diamondbacks baseball player Doug Davis had surgery for thyroid cancer. I wasn’t too worried; I just didn’t know what hypothyroidism was, so I started doing some research online. Hypothyroidism means that the thyroid is not working hard enough. Hyperthyroidism is the opposite – it means the thyroid is working too hard.
This made me feel kind of odd, as I’d recently read an article about people that doctors are calling “cyberchondriacs” – people who use web sites like WebMD and the Johns Hopkins University web site to look up symptoms they are having, and then assume the worst or that they have some sort of strange tropical jungle disease. I certainly didn’t Dr. P to think I was “one of those” people.
Yet when I started looking up the symptoms, things started clicking in my head. Fatigue, terribly dry skin, muscle aches, sometimes my feet get so cold at night I have to wear two pairs of socks. And that was just a few of them. I wrote everything down and decided to present it to Dr. P.
When I went back to Dr. P, I told him that I’d looked up the symptoms of hypothyroidism and that I felt they pointed toward some things I was experiencing. As I got out my list, he asked me to give it to him. He folded it in half and held it between his fingers. “Tell me what you’re experiencing,” Dr. Psaid, “without looking at the list.” I began telling him things. He listened patiently and nodded. When I finished he said, “You probably do have low thyroid.” We looked at the list together. The things I said from my memory were on the list. He made a copy of it and put it in my file. He gave me a prescription for 75 mcg (micrograms) of a thyroid medication. The drug’s web site says it is a thyroid hormone replacement.
I’m certainly not a medical professional so Wikipedia helped me understand that thyroid hormones containe iodine. It manages the metabolism, synthesizes proteins and generates the heat in our bodies. In some animals, the thyroid plays a role in hibernation cycles and birds moulting (dropping old feathers and replacing them with new ones as they age).
So, armed with my little prescription paper, I headed for the pharmacy. The pharmacy technician told me that many of their customers take thyroid medications. It made me feel a little better knowing it wasn’t something terribly unusual.
I take my medicine every morning with a full glass of water. I have to wait thirty minutes before I eat. I’m guessing this is so it can dissolve in my stomach and start moving throughout my system and doing its job. Since I take a multivitamin in the morning with my coffee, it’s not a difficult task to add to my daily routine.
From what Dr. P said, and reading more on the web and the drug manufacturer’s web site, it will take a few weeks before the medication starts working. I’ve been taking it for almost a week now. It seems like I have a little more energy already, but I don’t want to make assumptions. I’ve asked my friends to make sure and tell me if they see any changes in my energy levels. I’m really hoping that it helps my skin, which has always been very, very dry. Sometimes during the winter, the skin on hands and elbows gets so dry it actually cracks and bleeds! I am constantly using hand creams. I’ve tried all different types, from Vaseline Intensive Care to Bath and Body Works; inexpensive store brands to more expensive department store brands like Clinique. Honestly the best one I’ve found has been Neutrogena’s Norwegian hand cream. It’s the kind in the little white bottle with the Norwegian flag on it. It’s really fantastic. I put it on morning, night and after every time I wash my hands. I try to use lotion soaps whenever possible.
Dr. P said there aren’t very many negative side effects to the medicine. I have heard that some include weight loss and hair loss. I’m certainly not concerned about losing weight; lots of people would like to do that. I have very thick hair so I don’t know that I’d notice it too much. However I’ll keep an eye on both the bathroom scale and my hair brush.
I’m making weekly notes for Dr. P so I can let him know how things are going. I’ll see him again on May 23rd, so we’ll see what the situation is then. By that time I can tell him how I’m feeling and he can determine if the medicine is working for me at the current dosage. I’ll blog about it here as well. Maybe my experience can help others who are experiencing hypothyroidism find some understanding of the condition or some comfort that they’re not alone.
Until next time,
~ ~ ~ Jessie ~ ~ ~
The location of the thyroid in a woman’s throat. In men, the thyroid is located under the Adam’s apple.
