practicality: (Gwendal | knitting)
I am sick and tired of being sick and tired with no explanation. I'm tired of the near-constant brainfog, of wanting to sleep twelve hours a night, of coming home from work and not having the energy to do anything but sit on the sofa and stare at the internet. None of this is new. This has been the last eight years of my life, with increasing severity.

What's new is that I've lost twenty-five pounds in a month and a half, without changing what I eat or how I exercise (in fact, I've been eating more). My fingernails have started breaking all the time. I sweat in my sleep.

I've had piles of tests done. I could give a laundry list of things that aren't wrong with me, because all of them have come back normal. And GPs just look at me and shrug and say things like 'it's probably stress' or 'you need to exercise more' and it's just... no. Something is wrong. And nobody knows what it is, or has the decency to straight-up say 'yeah, there's something wrong here but I can't tell you what' instead of making me feel like a paranoid hypochondriac, which, by the way, is a really shitty thing to do to someone with anxiety disorders.

Date: 2012-05-20 02:03 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] momijizukamori.dreamwidth.org
It is much-appreciated :( I just about screamed when I saw TSH was in reference range on the last set of tests because honestly everything else fits.

Date: 2012-05-20 02:03 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] synecdochic.dreamwidth.org
Yeah, the 'acceptable' levels of TSH are changing lately, so you might want to push your doc on that a bit.

Date: 2012-05-20 02:05 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] momijizukamori.dreamwidth.org
Yeah, I need to be like 'look just make them test free T4 and thyroid antibodies for my own peace of mind okay' but me and assertiveness are... not always a thing that happens.

Date: 2012-05-20 02:14 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] pantswarrior.dreamwidth.org
Oh man, I did the same thing - since hyperthyroidism fits ALL my symptoms, EXACTLY.

And it was normal. SO PISSED.

I mean, those who knew I was looking into it were like "Yay! You don't have thyroid problems! Thyroid problems are awful!" And I was like "But if I had thyroid problems then someone might know how to make me not feel FREAKING HORRIBLE CONSTANTLY."

Date: 2012-05-20 02:17 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] momijizukamori.dreamwidth.org
Yeah, and thyroid problems are pretty treatable, too, honestly. Like. THINGS CAN BE DONE.

Date: 2012-05-20 02:27 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] pantswarrior.dreamwidth.org
Yeah, from what I've heard from relatives who had hypothyroidism, there's a tricky balance that you have to walk.

But if there's something that can be done, I WANT IT DONE. (I seriously am shocked I managed to make it to 2012, still am not convinced I'll survive to 2013 unless something gets fixed.)

Date: 2012-05-20 02:31 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] momijizukamori.dreamwidth.org
Yeah, it's a balance, but at the same time, it's not like... you will have to radically change your life. My mom has Graves' Disease, and treatment for that makes you hypothyroid, usually, but she hasn't really had any problems other than frustration at the weight swing.

Date: 2012-05-20 02:36 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] pantswarrior.dreamwidth.org
I admit that would be weird for me, because I've had trouble keeping weight on since I was 9. So I have no idea how I'd react if I somehow managed to go past "slim-but-normal" and wind up with any extra weight at all. But you know, I'm pretty sure I'd learn to live happily with that if it meant an end to the daily anxiety attacks that last for hours on end and constant nausea and tightness in the throat and muscle spasms waking me up multiple times per night.

Date: 2012-05-20 02:43 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] momijizukamori.dreamwidth.org
Yeah, I've kind of flip-flopped - I was a rail until my late teens, put on a bunch of weight in college, and now am suddenly down to where I was when I was seventeen. It always ends up frustrating even if you're okay with weight changes because hi new clothes all around :c but yeah, it'd certainly beat feeling like shit.

You get the throat tightness thing too? I've had problems with that for a while - to the point where at one point I thought I was having an allergic reaction to a med - along with trouble swallowing.

Date: 2012-05-20 02:53 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] pantswarrior.dreamwidth.org
Chronic nausea since 4th grade. It's always been tough for me to keep weight on, but last January I was up to my highest weight ever - which was ALMOST within the normal range for my height. Then in May I got a whole bunch of new symptoms too, and suddenly I was back below 75 pounds. :P

The throat tightness thing was what tipped me off to look at thyroid problems. I'd had panic attacks off and on for ages, but usually the tension seemed centered in my stomach, and suddenly I realized that the tension was now centered in my throat, and it wasn't always a panic attack, just tension in my throat. (Heck, as I'm typing this, my throat is so tight it ACHES, but nothing else feels particularly wrong except that I'm tired. :P) Googled the problem, found out it could mean thyroid issues, went PING! ...Got tested, nothing.

Date: 2012-05-20 03:04 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] momijizukamori.dreamwidth.org
Ugh, shitty :c Me and food generally get along well unless my intestines hate it, which is mostly just grease. But I have happily been eating like seven slices of pizza for lunch every day this week (too tired to do real cooking).

I can actually feel it too right now - kind of like something is pushing in right under my chin. It's a little panic-inducing if I actually pay attention to it (which is why I try not pay attention to it). Though not painful, at least.

Date: 2012-05-20 03:11 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] pantswarrior.dreamwidth.org
Hahah, food and I sort of hate each other, to the point where I can't understand (I mean, logically I sort of can, and yet...) why there's a Food Network, and why anyone would watch it, because just looking at so much food makes me feel sick. (Thea's habit of watching it WHILE EATING completely horrifies me - having to eat in the first place is bad enough without the suggestion of still more food!) I've just found some things over the years that make me feel sick 50% or less of the time, and mostly live off small portions of those. :P

Mine really does feel like tension, like when someone says that they have a lump in their throat? That's what it feels like. Sometimes I can loosen it up a little by yawning or coughing, but that may or may not last long. Sometimes I think I should take up drinking large amounts of alcohol. :P

Date: 2012-05-20 03:30 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] momijizukamori.dreamwidth.org
Yeah, total opposite here. FOOD FOOD ALL THE FOOD. I am making myself hungry again just with this conversation.

And yes, that's exactly it.

Date: 2012-05-21 12:06 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] pantswarrior.dreamwidth.org
I'd say it's good to know someone knows what I'm talking about...

Except that means someone else is dealing with the same crap I am, and that sucks. Especially when neither of us are getting anywhere.

(In fact, while grumbling around about this, went back and looked at the hyperthyroidism article on wikipedia again, and clicked on a few of the symptoms that were odd words I didn't know off the top of my head. ...EXCESSIVE THIRST TOO?! How do I not have hyperthyroidism?)

Date: 2012-05-21 12:09 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] momijizukamori.dreamwidth.org
(that was exactly my reaction too. I was like 'WAIT you mean the fact that I suck down water perpetually and have to get up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night even if I haven't had any liquids for four hours before hand is a symptom?')

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