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.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
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*
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*
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)