Do-Overs, Diagnosis, and Darn Good Pictures . . .

Warning: If you want to see the darling pics of Miss Molly, you'll have to scroll through the following mess first:)

Yesterday I posted on Facebook:

"Wishing I could have a 'do-over' today with a different outcome:("

Have you ever had a day like that? Yesterday was it for me. I normally wouldn't share this on a blog, but here's what's going on.

Yesterday morning around 10:00, I got a bit of a surprising phone call at work from my doctor's office (after a routine physical on Wednesday of last week)

The nurse said "Dr. G got your blood work back and you have been diagnosed with pronounced hypothyroidism."

Huh? What did she say? I was pre-med at Friends so I knew exactly what she said and what it meant, but was so shocked to hear it, for a moment I didn't think she was talking to me.

For my non-science-geek friends out there, my thyroid is not producing enough hormone - not near enough. It's a feedback loop that's a little tricky to explain, but think of it this way (way over-simplified, but trying to make a point): There is one hormone (TSH - thyroid stimulating hormone) that your body produces to tell your thyroid to produce another homone (T3). If your body doesn't make enough T3, it produces more TSH to tell your body to "step it up" and make more. The higher your TSH, the worse the problem. Basically my thyroid isn't listening at all to the TSH and making enough T3, so my body is making more TSH, but my body still isn't listening.

To give you a point of reference, a normal range of TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) is 0.5-2.5 and mine measured at a 60!!. This basically means that my thyroid is being super stimulated to produce the necessary hormones and it's not producing what it needs.

I was surprised and completely freaked out to say the least. My MIL (a nurse) sent me a paper that listed the symptoms of hypothyroidism: feeling cold all the time, dry, itchy skin, paleness, weight gain, constipation, loss of energy, exhaustion, hair loss, muscle aches, blurred vision, sleepiness, mood swings, puffy skin around the eyes.

Really didn't have any symptoms beyond the fact I've been having a horrible time losing the last 5-8 pregnancy pounds even with running almost 15 miles a week. In all honesty, I thought I was just getting old and my metabolism was slowing and I tended to hang on to a little weight with Bailey until I stopped nursing. But, my doctor even told me on Wednesday that my weight is well within a healthy range for my height.

Have had about 24 hours now to let it all sink in and am feeling a little better about it today. I was written a prescription for thyroid hormone replacement and started taking it this morning - probably will have to take it the rest of my life. Will go in 6 weeks to have bloodwork done again, levels adjusted if necessary, and then may be referred to a good endocrinologist if needed.

Questions abound . . . How did this happen? Does it always come on suddenly like this? I had the same physical last year and nothing. I've heard horror stories about people gaining 100+ pounds with this condition and taking years to regulate their medication. Apparently, it is not all that uncommon and can definitely happen all of a sudden, especially after pregnancy.

Absolutely hate the thought of being on medication the rest of my life, but the other end of the spectrum could be worse. Your body depends so much on thyroid hormone for nearly everything - from metabolism to healthy hair, teeth, and nails, to mental state and memory.

Unexpectedly, someone here at my new job put it into a little better perspective to me today (her husband has the same issue). . . it's not really medication, it's a synthetic hormone supplement - if I was anemic, I would take an iron supplement right? This helped calm me down a bit.

So anyway, that's the story of my last 24 hours. Yes, it could be worse. No, I'm not dying. Yes, I wish I could "do-over" yesterday and not get that phone call.

On a completely separate note . . . Got some preview collages back of Molly's first year pictures that we had taken on Saturday. To say they are "darn good" in my opinion would be a huge understatement. I LOVE THEM! Isn't she beautiful, even if her mommy is a diagnosed, do-over desiring mess! I sure think so.

Cammy