Every few months I put up a thread talking about my health. I've got an autoimmune disease in my thyroid that has been gradually worsening for six or seven years and I've experienced in this last year a great decline in overall health. The symptoms of this condition - memory loss, insomnia, unexpected weight gain/loss, sensitivity to temperature, and so on down the line of unusual problems - have spiked in severity. But it's so irregular that I'll go five or six months feeling perfectly fine.
However, a cycle has emerged. Roughly twice a year my thyroid will crash to the point of barely staying alive, something my endocrinologist can't really explain. Normally a thyroid will crash just once, die, and then it would be removed via surgery and the person would be on medicine forever. In my case my thyroid doesn't really die; it just limps along, slowly recuperating until it slips and send me back down the spiral.
Earlier this year was the worst for me. I would go days without eating because I couldn't remember to eat long enough to walk to the kitchen (some errant thought would come into my mind and sidetrack me). I would be in one place and then suddenly find myself someplace else with no memory of the intervening time. I couldn't sleep for weeks on end. I forgot about close friends - I even forgot that I had parents for a while there.
After a whole mess of tests looking for anything from a tumor to a bizarre case of epilepsy the doctor(S) decided to triple my thyroid medication and hope for the best. It took a few months but, over time, my memory returned and I got back control.
A week ago my left eye began twitching erratically, which has always been the precursor to further difficulties. A few days ago my memory started to slip - it's like a dense gray fog is settling inside my brain that makes it strenuous to access memory. I'm still pretty functional right now but I know it's going to get worse. Given a few more weeks and I won't be able to write a coherent sentence.
So I went to the doctor's office this morning and threw down $90 (since presently I *don't* have medical insurance) for a preemptive test. I could feel the thyroid deficiency. And, sure enough, it's slipping. They want me to double the medicine I'm already on which, to me, sounds like the wrong move to be making. It would take months for that to take real effect and in that time I would be at the full mercy of my dying organ. I presented them with another option: take the darn thing out. It's an inevitable conclusion that my thyroid will die, so why not do it on our timetable and under safe conditions? Why let it take me by surprise, potentially endangering me?
I'm waiting for a call back on that one. Since I don't have insurance it'll be expensive and I'll be making payments until the end of time. But it seems like the only way to put this problem away, once and for all. I'll keep y'all updated.
Topic: 2008: A Thyroid Odyssey. (Read 968 times)
