Saw Dr. A in the morning, and damn, the appointments really do multiply like cockroaches! First, she agrees my lower TSH readings were probably me having pocket flares but that when I’m not, the numbers aren’t high enough to worry about. Also, I feel good and that’s what matters most. I can tell I’m not low on thyroid just by how fast my hair and nails grow. My skin isn’t too dry either.

She feels the bleeding and water retention will back off on its own, but if worse comes to worst and it doesn’t, I can return to the GYN. I’m still spotting though very lightly.

I was given a flu shot and I don’t have to see her again for six months at which time she’ll test my thyroid, cholesterol, estrogen and other things they routinely test for.

She did recommend statins again, but I still want to wait. My cholesterol isn’t off the charts high anyway, and my ultrasound showed I didn’t have any signs of plaque in my arteries.

I told her it’s getting harder to keep weight off and asked if increasing my exercise from 30 minutes to 60 minutes would help make a difference since I can’t sustain 1000-1200 calories every single day. I really need 1500-1700 or else I’m dizzy, hungry and grumpy. She said it would help to increase my exercise, and she also gave me a booklet on low-carb menus which she usually gives to diabetics. She says that even though I don’t have diabetes it’s good for anyone to follow. The only challenge is being able to exercise the five days a week I’d like to get in as I’m just too tired too much of the time. Because I have sleep issues that leave me tired so much of the time, I don’t think I’ll have the energy to work out more than 3-4 days a week. It’s better than nothing and I’ll work out any day I’m awake enough to.

Even right now I’m totally exhausted. I simply woke up too early. If it isn’t traffic waking me up too early or a nightmare, then I wake up for no apparent reason. My sleep has always been and always will be cursed. So… No exercise tonight. I’m just too tired. :-( We are going to go to Denny’s real early before he has to go to work, though. Wish I could take a nap but 9 out of 10 times, as tired as I am, I can’t get myself to nap. It really sucks because I would get so much more done so much faster, including editing my books, if I didn’t have to spend half my life tired. I really hope some of the tiredness is the peri because that can’t last forever, even if it sometimes feels like it will.

My white blood cell count continues to be elevated even though I have no apparent infections, and so she wants me to see a hematologist. I’m just about a hundred percent sure it’s nothing. I know it can be a sign of leukemia but I’ve had high white blood cell count readings for a long time, even back in my 20s and 30s. I think it’s just how I am, just like I have a high HR for no apparent reason. It was clocked at 101 even though I wasn’t nervous at all. My blood pressure was 140/70 something. Since I’ve had a habit of having a high white blood cell count for many years, I’d think it would’ve developed into something serious by now if it was going to do so. I think they would just rather do extra tests and find nothing wrong rather than not do extra tests and find something was wrong later on. It’s their job to cover all the bases and rule out anything they can. But while it’s easy for them, it’s a pain in the ass for me. It puts more stress on my schedule and means Tom has to take more time off.

What surprised me was that they called back yesterday afternoon with referrals after I’d gone to bed. I thought it would be a few days or more before I heard back from them. Sure enough, the name they gave me isn’t American. Some kind of Indian name which means I’ll have to struggle with understanding the fucking accent. During those few months we lived with Raj and Tina up in Oregon I quickly learned that the Indian accent is very hard to comprehend. sighs I don’t understand why it’s become harder and harder to get American doctors in America! It really sucks. But then again, my eye doctor looks Asian while she has a Spanish name yet her accent is clearly American, so maybe I’ll get lucky and it’s just the name that’s not American. My own (maiden) name is German after all.

I’m not sure if I really want to bother with that hematologist for the same reason I don’t want statins right now… Because I have no symptoms that make life hard on me like I would if I didn’t take my thyroid meds. Also, I’m just sick of all the goddamn appointments! I realize they’re not going to stop unless I stop them. The extra ones, I mean. Other than the dermatologist, dentist and ENT, I don’t want to be adding yet another appointment and making doctors’ offices like a second home. Let’s wait till I actually am dying someday for that.

Despite feeling confident that the high white blood cell count is nothing to worry about, I’m trying not to think of how I worried that I would continue to have one health problem after another and how seldom my bad feelings are wrong. Upon moving into this place I had a bad feeling that my health would come under attack, and it did. I suffered on and off for three years both physically and psychologically. I’m also trying not to think of the fact that I had a bad feeling that once the medication issues/peri were resolved, I would be in for something new shortly afterward. Lastly, I’m trying not to think of the nagging feeling I had that told me that what happened a few years ago happened to prepare me for something worse. Seriously, though, leukemia doesn’t run in my family that I know of. If anything is going to kill me someday it’s likely to be a heart attack or a stroke.

She said their dermatologist, which I do want to see because I have symptoms I can actually feel, is usually booked up three or four months so feel free to look for a dermatologist on my own.

Aly wished me a happy birthday on Twitter and that really made my day. Was glad to learn that she’s home from the hospital, too. :-)

So life is good other than a few annoyances like being tired, having too many appointments, and pipes rattling in the wall when we shower in the large shower.