My appointment with my endo was both enlightening and complex. I will try to remember all the details with as much accuracy as I can. She explained to me how my TSH and cholesterol levels could be up when nothing in my life has changed, but I’m not sure I get it. Tom understood because he is better at numbers. Basically, there isn’t much difference between a TSH of 13 versus 21 as far as doctors are concerned and the numbers aren’t as precise as I thought they were. Still, I need to be somewhere under 10. 

She said the problem is that I’ve been blaming all my symptoms on my thyroid and neither that nor the medication are the only factors in my case. She wants me to treat the anxiety as well as the thyroid. She believes my anxiety can also be due to the trauma of what happened last year as well as menopause setting in, which does make sense. I described my symptoms to her (the anxiety, going from hot to cold, waking up a lot during my sleep) and she wants me to schedule an appointment at the behavioral clinic so that they can test my hormones to see what else can be done to ease my anxiety. I swear these appointments are like cockroaches! One breeds another and another and another… Still, I should be appointment-free till June after tomorrow because that’s when my endo wants to see me again, and she said it usually takes months to get into the behavioral clinic. IDK, maybe my old doctor was right and I need a shrink or something, LOL. She did say that every one out of five people suffers from anxiety. I’ve always been a bit of an anxious person; it’s just never been this bad. I fear exercising will elevate my heart too much and I’m sometimes even afraid to be left alone. Not like I was a few months ago, but still, this is no way to live. I’m simply not ok with not feeling well. Some days are better than others, of course, when I feel like my old self. 

She had me swallow while she “strangled” me and my thyroid isn’t enlarged. I held out my hands as instructed as well. No jitters. So that much is good. 

She said anxiety can be caused by too little of the thyroid hormone as well as too much of it. Then she said what I both feared and knew she would say… I need to go up to 75mcgs, probably even 100. Only this time she has provided me with a heart medication of sorts (Fluoxetine) that is supposed to tame the body’s adrenaline and help keep my heart from racing. Gosh, I hope so! 

She also prescribed Prozac to take as needed. She said I could take that or the lorazepam I still have in order to take the edge off my anxiety if my anxiety levels go up. The adrenaline tamer is something I will have to take every day. 

I thought that the medication was what was causing my hair to fall out, but she says it’s actually because there is not enough thyroid hormone in my body. It is also why my skin is dry and I have water retention. My weight wasn’t up like I expected it to be, though. I was actually down a pound. 

I asked her if there were any particular foods or natural remedies I can take to help either my thyroid or my cholesterol and she said no, although she agrees that backing off of foods like eggs would help my cholesterol. My cholesterol mostly went up because of my thyroid crashing on me, and they also suspect I might have a defective gene running in my family so it’s a genetic thing as well. I asked Tammy if she or anyone else in our immediate family took medication for cholesterol that she knew of when they were alive. She hasn’t checked in on Facebook in a few days. Hopefully, she’s just busy and not sick. Doc A wants me back on statins every other day, but we’re going to wait till Doc O confers with her first to see if we should start that right away or hold off for now. I don’t want to take on too much too soon. I already feel greatly overwhelmed as it is. 

The doctor stressed my need to treat both the thyroid and anxiety, as I said, and asked if I had suicidal thoughts since some conditions can cause such thoughts along with certain life events and medications, but fortunately, I have not had that. I sure wonder what my purpose is in life at times, though. Despite that, my life is actually wonderful aside from this thyroid, menopause and anxiety shit. In fact, it would be damn near perfect if I just didn’t have these issues to deal with. She said that much was good because she would want to know about it right away so that they could deal with it properly and help me to feel better, but hopefully, I’ll never have suicidal thoughts. What would help me to feel better is being able to take the amount of thyroid medication that my individual body needs without severe anxiety. I really hope that the stuff she prescribed to help keep my heart from racing is going to help make the higher doses more tolerable, but I would be a total liar if I said I wasn’t scared shitless because I am. She tells me I worry too much and tend to overanalyze things and she is correct. But sometimes telling myself everything will be okay and I don’t have to worry isn’t always so easy, even though she assures me I’m not in danger and it can’t kill me. She said she has been treating people for nearly 28 years and has never killed anybody yet. That’s good, LOL. 

So I pretty much laid it all out on the table so she would have as much info as she could about me that may help her help me in a more efficient manner… my ear, my sleep disorder, the screwy periods, waking up a lot, anxiety, racing heart, going from warm to cold, etc. 

I’m sure there are more details that have slipped my mind, but the main thing is hoping that I can up my dose in a way that’s not going to make me feel like my heart is going to jump out of my chest. Let’s hope to hell this adrenaline/heart stuff she gave me will help. The plan is to start it on Friday, then start the 75s on Saturday when Tom will be home. 

After the doctor, we grabbed lunch at Carl’s, then hit the nearby Goodwill in search of any goodies. He didn’t find anything, but I found a couple of cute figurines. One is a bright green porcelain ballerina fairy, and another is a tiny black doll that’s pretty realistic looking. She wears a molded magenta dress with a blue hem and a bright pink sweater. She also has a magenta hat. 

Tomorrow I will see the foot doctor to check my toe, which I think will be fine, and then Tom and I will both pick up our prescriptions. We are going to do a little shopping after that at Sam’s to get some things we need.