jaeleslie

In our last episode of this thrilling series, the rheumatologist had demoted the fibromyalgia to a mere myalgia, boo, but had prescribed useful pain pills, yay! so that I will no longer have to stock up in Britain on over-the-counter paracetamol with codeine, or hoard various other prescription antidotes when I manage to obtain them.

But while I am feeling more or less better emotionally in the last few weeks, I am clearly not getting any better physically. Still exhausted, low energy, and wake up every morning feeling like I have the flu. Treating the symptoms of a mysterious ailment does not necessarily resolve the underlying problem.

While you haven't been hearing much from me, I have been having a little crash course on thyroid function, and it now appears likely that this basic metabolic system may be the cause of many of my difficulties over the years. Just contemplating whether I am lucky after fifteen years of seeking various treatments not to have suddenly gone into a coma, or something bad like that; or not so lucky to have wasted literally decades of my life in suboptimal function because (I am a tough little bird) any tests actually taken showed nothing was wrong except possibly in my pretty little head. Angry? moi?

Surely it's my own fault for not taking better care of myself. My medical care has been spotty since childhood, in this great country of ours where doctors are busy and expensive, and housecalls a thing of legend, so I have soldiered along robustly, not taking up any of those valuable medical resources, like the walking wounded, managing to avoid emergency rooms for the most part. Yet when I check the long list of symptoms of hypothyroidism on this website:

http://www.wilsonssyndrome.com/index.html

Sixty percent of them have been mine. Not just one or two. Thirty out of fifty. And it started going bad for me at age twelve, with low blood pressure and fainting, so is that "normal" for me? One never takes the whole laundry list to the clinic! Just the top priority, the most annoying one that is keeping you out of school or work this time, and leave the rest "subclinical". Wouldn't want to confuse someone who already knows it all...

Thyroid dysfunction is grotesquely under-diagnosed, and under-treated, and may be connected to quite a number of autoimmune conditions. Half-a-dozen friends here in just the last week have taken a highly personal interest in this information, so I pass it along to you all. Last year the professionals made the range of "normal" values on the usual thyroid tests considerably narrower, to somewhat decrease the number of false negatives. But if your tests come out normal, just repeat after me, there's nothing wrong. Er no, don't do that. We've made another doctor appointment.

http://thyroid.about.com/cs/basics_starthere/