I'm hoping that by blogging again that I can just let out the things that are frustrating me and then let go of them since I don't have any control. I attended a retreat this past weekend for wives of wounded warriors (more about that in another blog) and learned how to cope with everything and not let it weigh me down so much. Well right now I need to just dump out that bucket of crap because it's threatening to spill over and this is the best way that I can find to do it.
This started out as a blog for my shop and then a blog about my husband's injuries but today's post is about me. I seem to have no shortage of ways to talk about myself. I never blogged about my surgery this past Spring because life picked right back up and moved on too quickly for me to slow down and write about everything. In a nutshell, I had a complete thyroidectomy for my Graves Disease and subsequently developed a hematoma and MRSA in my incision. During surgery I had a parathyroid gland that was stuck to my thyroid and damaged, leaving me with hypocalcemia and in and out of ICU. I figured why let my husband have all of the fun in the hospital, you know?
After surgery I was followed by my endocrinologist one time and given a 100 mcg dose of Synthroid. I spent the next 6 months trying to contact my doctor to be seen again because I started having a lot of problems from the dose that I was on but had no luck. I finally went to see my PCM out of frustration and he put in a new referral to force them to schedule an appointment with the endocrinology clinic. The earliest I could be seen was three months out and I still have another month to wait.
In the meantime, I have lost at least half of my hair, gained 25 pounds, developed intense muscle spasms, and my skin began to feel like an oil slick. Could I please feel any less attractive? I try to have a good body image but that sure makes it difficult. I finally got so tired of seeing clumps of hair at my feet in the shower and literally clogging the drain, that I went and had most of it cut off.
My PCM had labs drawn to check my thyroid hormone levels and he called me while I was sitting in the airport waiting to catch a flight home this weekend. Well it turns out that my Vitamin D levels are pretty low and it's most likely because my endocrinologist was too quick to pull me off of my Calcitriol that I was taking for the hypocalcemia. Of course he hasn't been following me post surgery progress so I would never have known if I hadn't scheduled a visit with my PCM. So now I'm on a dose of 50,000 units of Vitamin D for the next 12 weeks to bring it back up to a healthy level.
I have to say, I'm kind of angry about the whole thing. My husband gets excellent care and can barely breathe without someone scheduling an appointment for something. It is just so wrong for an endocrinologist to not follow up with their patient after surgery. I realize that he wanted me to have RAI instead of surgery, but let's remember that this is my body and therefore my choice for treatment. If we weren't looking at moving again soon, I would gather up my medical records and request a new endocrinologist from Tricare.
So frustration with that aside, I really hope that I can tolerate the weekly dose of Vitamin D and that I feel a lot better soon. I must be the only person in south Texas who has a problem from lack of sun. I need to start drinking milk on a regular basis again too and I am definitely not a big fan to say the least. Drinking a glass every day will probably pack on more weight but if the extra Vitamin D helps combat the muscle spasms, then maybe I will finally be able to work out again.
My biggest gripe lately is my skin. Because it got so oily feeling and with me having bad acne issues in my teens, I figured the best way to dry it up would be to use a facial scrub with a small amount of salicylic acid in it. Let me say right away, that that was a really bad idea. This was not acne. The salicylic acid actually burned my skin. It's red and extremely dry and feels like a wind or a sunburn. Even using my moisturizer is painful. Other than standing in the shower and letting the warm water run over my face, I leave it alone these days. Putting on makeup, even mineral makeup is so uncomfortable. I feel like my skin is just cracking and it's just raw. Hopefully I can bring things under control soon. It's certainly livable but just really annoying.
As frustrating as this health stuff has been, at least it all makes sense now. I thought all along that I needed my Synthroid dose adjusted and that might not even be the case now. There is still no excuse for my endocrinologist not doing anything, but at least I have a better understanding of what caused this and an option to treat it and feel better. I just hope it works!
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