Wheeee!

Been a bit since I posted. Had my 3 month follow up thyroid blood work, only TSH this time. It came back normal at 3.84. Some articles I've read online are calling for lowered normal limits tho. This lab has normal ranges of 0.27 to 4.2 tho what I've read says better high limits should be more around 3.0 : http://thyroid.about.com/od/gettestedanddiagnosed/a/tshtestwars.htm

Ive been feeling a bit better. No random migraines yay!!! I can still have one triggered by lack of eating or sleep as I'll explain in a bit.

I've also been seeing a new allergist who is doing skin testing instead of relying solely on the blood work my PCP did and merely throwing different meds at me to try. Found out I'm allergic to everyone of the molds tested for as well as guinea pigs!!!! When we found that out he simply asked me how important the guinea pigs were to me, and at my answer of "Very!" he went on to figure a way to limit my exposure. Hubby will clean the cage and I have to wear a mask and wash thoroughly after feeding and handling. And be very careful to not pick up any moldy hay since I get my hay by the bale from the local horse feed shop. Still one more round of skin testing to go. He also put me on a two week course of clarithromycin to be sure my snuffles weren't due to a chronic sinus infection.


The last few days have been quite eventful.

Early in the week I'd been feeling rather icky but figured it was due to the dampness causing mold and bothering my allergies. Thursday was the last day of work, since they were giving us a 3 day weekend for Easter. Things were winding down and my supervisor asked if I wanted to go home early and I eagerly agreed since I was not feeling well. I was getting a cough, shortness of breath and coughing up some nasty nasty stuff.

Got home from work and was not greeted at the door as usual by an exuberant Maxine. Instead she slunk out of the bedroom and promptly vomited yellow bile at my toes. She's done this in the past when she gets too much hair in her belly from licking herself so I thought it was one of these episodes. Got it cleaned up, and then she vomited again. Not unusual to get two vomits with the hair thing.

Cleaned that up, took her out to potty. She peed as normal. Took her back in and gave a treat for a successful potty. Two minutes later she vomited again, yellow bile with red flecks and of course the dog treat. Cleaned that mess up and she vomited again, starting to get worried, there's more red in this vomit. Cleaned that one up and she vomited again. LOTS of blood in this one, about half and half foamy bile and blood.

Off to the emergency clinic we went. Four hours later she was diagnosed with pancreatitis using a "cPLI Snap Test" according to the invoice, her CBC and other chem came back normal. She did not once vomit on the drive to the ER or at the ER while waiting four hours in the waiting room. However she was maybe a smidge more quiet than she would have normally been in a new environment. No X-rays taken.

One anzemet, famotidine and hydromorphone injection and a huge subque of fluids later we were home with instructions to fast for 24 hours, bland diet afterwards, antibiotics (amoxi), pain killers (tramadol) and more famotidine for the next few days. She acted drunk as a sailor on shore leave, whining, and drooling copiously. I took her out to potty thinking she may need to be rid of some of the fluids and she did pee but then strained and strained for a bowel movement with no success. She had a decent one just a few hours prior. I felt so bad for her. She did not whine like this after her spay or her luxating patella surgery. I do know she was not acting like this prior to the injectables. I wonder if she had a reaction to the hydromorphone. I called the clinic back and they stated it does have a sedating effect and can make them pant (which she was doing).

We ended up going back to the ER for her after being home 4 hours because she did not improve. She had abdominal xrays that came out clean and opted to hospitalize her w/IV fluids for atleast 24 hours.

Which was good because I ended up in the ER myself, pneumonia in my left lung. I had been feeling bad for a few days yes but the stress of Maxine being sick and the looooong night of worry and stress seemed to bring it to a head. My chest was burning, pain in my left side, shortness of breath, weakness, the whole boatload.

Got a right nice migraine while there since I went almost 24 hours with no sleep and only thing to eat was a bagel with cream cheese. They ran all kinds of tests!! Geisinger is nothing if not thorough. Chest X-rays, blood work, ultra sound of my legs to check for blood clots, contrast CT of my chest to make sure no blood clots in my lungs. My bill should be interesting. I have a $100 ER copay and have to pay 2% of any tests up to a $1000 yearly max. I also have a right nice bloody hematoma on my left elbow where they tried to put a catheter in. Ugh I HATE my veins. They got one in the back of my hand but it was too small of a needle to get enough blood out of so they had to draw blood from my right elbow. I'm a pincushin!

We're both home now and recouperating. The animal ER sent home some different meds. Metronidazole to replace the amoxicillin and cisapride to replace the famitodine. They also sent home panacur liquid. I'm on levaquin and medrol.

Maxine was doing great until I gave the panacur this morning against my better judgement. She's always had negative fecal tests and doesnt come in contact with any other dogs really tho I suppose a stray could have contaminated the yard with something. She didnt finish all her breakfast and did vomit a small bit. She did keep down her pills tho. Called the clinic and will hold off on anymore panacur (think I'll just toss the stuff!) and if she continues to vomit will take her back in. She seems perkier now. Fingers crossed.

Metallica

Saw Metallica in Philly tonight and was blown away! Wow. Just. Wow. Too tired to think straight really so just going to post an email the hubby wrote to a friend. Pretty much sums up my feelings too, his comments are below in bold:

Well when the first opening band came on I was disapointed right away. The sound was very hollow. The voices were distorted. Drowned out by the music. I leaned over to Sharon right away and told her "If the whole show sounds like this I am going to be royaly pissed off!". Well thankfully by the time the second opening band was finished my faith had been restored. The sound was much better. Now before I tell you what I thought of Metallica, I will say both the opening bands were decent. I would probably not pay to see them as main acts. After tonight's show (or last night since it is now Sunday) I have seen 81 different bands in concert. When I first saw ACDC 9 years ago, that was the best show I had ever seen. Even when we saw them in October it reaffirmed my opinion. ACDC is the measuring stick on how to put on a show. For 9 years that was my opinion. Metallica just knocked my fuckin socks off !!!!!!! They had the best pyro/laser/music performance of any show I have ever seen. I have never been a part of a more passionate audience then I was last night. 20,000 strong singing in unison to almost every song. I left there with a sore throat and a headache ( screaming , singing, and headbanging). The lead singer brought out his daughter. It was her 7th birthday. 20,000 of us singing happy birthday to her. Sharon is a huge Def Leppard fan. Ever since I have known her she said the first time she saw them in concert was the best show she had been to. Before I told her what I thought of Metallica's performance I asked her opinion of the show. She said by far the best she had ever been to. She didn't know but maybe about half of the songs they played. She was just so impressed with all of it. As was I. It was a wonderful evening.

Yup, I loved the singing happy birthday part. I loved loved loved loved the lazer show. I loved when they dropped the giant black beach balls during the Seek and Destroy encore. Going to try to post two crappy videos I took with the cell phone. First is the opening with the lazers! God that was soooo fricken awesome. Second video is the crowd singing along to Unforgiven my all time fav Metallica song. Hopefully the video files will work with blogger.

First Post

Well I plan on chronicling (is that even spelled right? Spell Checker says it is) a bit about my health. I was diagnosed with thyroid issues a few days ago. My doctor is not sure of the cause.


Basically I watched a special on Discovery Health Mystery Diagnosis of a woman who had Hashimoto's Thyroiditis and it was like a revelation from above! Everything that woman felt I did too. Started with cold intolerance and fatigue. Then in 2006 I started with migraines. They seemed to be hormone related because they strongly coincided with my monthly cycles. I went on the Depo shot to stop cycling and they got better...for a time. The migraines eventually worsened and became more unpredictable.


Within the last year I started having significant hair loss...clogging up the shower every shower is not good. My hair stylist used to curse me when doing a perm on me because my hair was so thick it was hard to get into all the rollers. My ponytail used to be thick as my wrist, now its more like thick as my thumb. My sister (board certified Ob-gyn) said the Depo could cause it so I went on an oral pill. It slowed the hair loss down. But nothing is growing back. And you can see wayyyyyyyy too much of my scalp now, its embarrassing. Btw, I wish my sister wasn't my sister so I could have her be my ob-gyn! Its so hard to find a doctor who listens and doesn't blow you off.


Within the last 6 months I've gone back to my primary care physician for constipation and insomnia treatment. My sleeping habits are so wonky. IF I can fall asleep I'll easily sleep for a good 12-14 hours if I have the time. I have to sleep with a completely light blocking sleeping mask because the slightest light changes would keep me awake too. Other times I'd lay in bed and the littlest sounds would keep me awake. I'd start to drift off and the dog would twitch or wuff in her sleep, the house would settle, wind would blow against the roof, a car would drive down the road etc. It would take me 3 or 4 hours of laying there to fall asleep some times even still. Ambien is now my bestest friend. I uhh..won't go into details on the constipation part.



A lot of my skin is dry, with red bumps and itchy as all hell. I've itched my neck, upper arms, chest, back, and calves bloody already. My fingernails used to be freakishly flexible. I never used to break nails, they would just BEND, sometimes backwards quite painfully. Now, especially my thumbs, will break, split, and kind of peel in layers. Ick!



And, my husband agrees with me on this too, I've definitely been living in a mental fog. It's becoming too much work to carry on a decent conversation with people, for example. Typing this post is taxing enough. I can at least take my time with it.



Then, I saw the DHC show! That night I sent off an email to my PCP (yay for having a technologically current health system!!) summing up my feelings about the show and asking for more thyroid blood work. She has been testing my TSH all along off and on since about 1999:



(Normal values for this lab are 0.27 - 4.2 uiU/mL)

10/1999: 1.69

3/2000: 0.57

2/2006: 1.13

12/2007: 2.96

8/2008: 3.82

1/5/2009: 5.29



With the 1/5/2009 blood work she also did:



T4, Free: 1.01 (Normal values: 0.7-1.7 ng/dL)

T3, Free: 3.1 (Normal values: 2.6-4.4 pg/mL)

Thyroglobulin AB: < 20.0 (Normal Values: < 20- IU/ML)

Thyroid Peroxidase AB: < 10.0 (Normal Values: 0-35 IU/ML)

And my thyroid is a bit enlarged. The lack of thyroid antibodies rules out Hashimoto's at this time. She says she thinks my thyroid is just slowing down. The course of treatment at this time is levothyroxine 25 mcg once per day with more blood work in 6-8 weeks and a follow up visit at that time.





I started the levothyroxine yesterday. Keeping my fingers crossed that it will make a difference in how I feel! Going to try to post a photo of my *gasp* receding hairline to have a baseline to compare to for the future. I have an equally sparse spot in back where men start to go bald. *sigh*