Glad for the four day weekend
Nov. 27th, 2013 09:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alee_grrlHave been up and down a bit this past week. Mostly things are going well and I had a lovely birthday last week. Got a stomach bug mid-week, which sucked, but am pretty much recovered from that. Got the results of my most recent blood work...and low and behold some things were out of wack. :/
My folate levels are in the pits apparently and so I am now on a daily 1 mg folic acid supplement. Since folate drops are apparently frequently seen in alcoholics my doctor felt compelled to ask me if I had taken up drinking. This triggered me more than I expected. ::facepalm:: I have very large levels of discomfort with alcohol and most mind altering substances due to numerous alcoholics and addicts in my family. I have always been terrified I will become one, and because of a history of dissocaciation I had a brief moment where I questioned my own perceptions of reality. Had I taken up drinking and was hiding it from myself? Then I realized that my heart sister would have broached the subject because she is strongly protective of her daughter (as she should be)...not to mention if eating picked ginger makes me herx slightly, alcohol would make me feel like I was dying. My doctor followed the question by stating that he didn't really think I had, but he hadn't seen me in person in a while and knew that my life was rather hectic and stressful so it wasn't completely out of the realm of possibility. He believed me and didn't push when I said I hadn't taken up drinking. He also noted that Lyme can screw with folate levels. Because apparently Lyme can screw with everything. Grr.
My other frustrations: my thyroid levels are lower than Lyme doc would like, and my iron levels are still terrible despite being on supplements. We determined that the iron issue is probably due to the supplements I was taking not being as effective (name brand is apparently not always better) and I have since switched supplements. We'll see if this makes a difference.
As to the thyroid, doc wanted me to try increasing my dose with either a whole or half of the 15 mg tablets that were left over from the last time they tried to increase my dose. I am currently on 30 mg. At one point my docs had increased me to 60 mg, which was a disaster. My levels weren't quite what they wanted on the 30 mg, so they added 15 mg tablets to the 30. The 15 mg tablets the smallest dose of the armor thyroid available (I do not react well to the synthetic thyroid). After a while I started showing symptoms of being on too much thyroid. So we went back down to 30. Needless to say I wasn't thrilled to try to increase, but I did. Cutting the uber-tiny tablets in half isn't very workable. So I tried raising it up by 15 again. By Monday I was an anxiety attack on legs. So I've gone back to the 30 mg by itself. I cope better with being hypo-thyroid than hyper. I absolutely cannot stand that jumpy, heart-going-to-burst-out-of-my-chest feeling which I have only gotten when: a) my effexor is too high, b) my thyroid is too high, c) both are too high. I've down to one 37.5 mg effexor every other day with the goal of weaning off of it entirely (a slow process). So it is unlikely that the effexor was the problem. In the few days since I reduced my dose I have already started to feel better. So we're sticking with the 30 mg for now.
Realizing that I only have two and a half weeks left of my internship and that I need to finish the CLE presentation and article before I leave did not help my anxiety levels on Monday. Though after talking things through with numerous people I realized that I have things well in hand. Learning that we only had to submit drafts to the accreditation board by Dec. 12 also helped immensely.
Anyway, it has been kind of a dizzying week and I am very, very glad to have a four day weekend. I do have some things I must do this weekend. ::glares at bar exam application:: But I also have some fun, relaxing things planned like watching the shows I didn't get to see in the last few weeks. I'm looking forward to the ridiculous fannish goodness of the 50th Anniversary episode of Dr. Who (after 50 years anyone working on the show counts as a fan and the work as a fan-work in my humble opinion). Might go see Catching Fire with the family on Sunday. So there will be fun-times in with the filling out of forms.
Right now I am off to bed. For my fellow U.S. residents (and American ex-pats or those related to Americans and celebrating Thanksgiving), I wish you a happy and safe Thanksgiving. For my Jewish friends, may you have a happy and blessed Hanukkah. Otherwise may you have a bright rest of the week and a good weekend. Much love to everyone.
My folate levels are in the pits apparently and so I am now on a daily 1 mg folic acid supplement. Since folate drops are apparently frequently seen in alcoholics my doctor felt compelled to ask me if I had taken up drinking. This triggered me more than I expected. ::facepalm:: I have very large levels of discomfort with alcohol and most mind altering substances due to numerous alcoholics and addicts in my family. I have always been terrified I will become one, and because of a history of dissocaciation I had a brief moment where I questioned my own perceptions of reality. Had I taken up drinking and was hiding it from myself? Then I realized that my heart sister would have broached the subject because she is strongly protective of her daughter (as she should be)...not to mention if eating picked ginger makes me herx slightly, alcohol would make me feel like I was dying. My doctor followed the question by stating that he didn't really think I had, but he hadn't seen me in person in a while and knew that my life was rather hectic and stressful so it wasn't completely out of the realm of possibility. He believed me and didn't push when I said I hadn't taken up drinking. He also noted that Lyme can screw with folate levels. Because apparently Lyme can screw with everything. Grr.
My other frustrations: my thyroid levels are lower than Lyme doc would like, and my iron levels are still terrible despite being on supplements. We determined that the iron issue is probably due to the supplements I was taking not being as effective (name brand is apparently not always better) and I have since switched supplements. We'll see if this makes a difference.
As to the thyroid, doc wanted me to try increasing my dose with either a whole or half of the 15 mg tablets that were left over from the last time they tried to increase my dose. I am currently on 30 mg. At one point my docs had increased me to 60 mg, which was a disaster. My levels weren't quite what they wanted on the 30 mg, so they added 15 mg tablets to the 30. The 15 mg tablets the smallest dose of the armor thyroid available (I do not react well to the synthetic thyroid). After a while I started showing symptoms of being on too much thyroid. So we went back down to 30. Needless to say I wasn't thrilled to try to increase, but I did. Cutting the uber-tiny tablets in half isn't very workable. So I tried raising it up by 15 again. By Monday I was an anxiety attack on legs. So I've gone back to the 30 mg by itself. I cope better with being hypo-thyroid than hyper. I absolutely cannot stand that jumpy, heart-going-to-burst-out-of-my-chest feeling which I have only gotten when: a) my effexor is too high, b) my thyroid is too high, c) both are too high. I've down to one 37.5 mg effexor every other day with the goal of weaning off of it entirely (a slow process). So it is unlikely that the effexor was the problem. In the few days since I reduced my dose I have already started to feel better. So we're sticking with the 30 mg for now.
Realizing that I only have two and a half weeks left of my internship and that I need to finish the CLE presentation and article before I leave did not help my anxiety levels on Monday. Though after talking things through with numerous people I realized that I have things well in hand. Learning that we only had to submit drafts to the accreditation board by Dec. 12 also helped immensely.
Anyway, it has been kind of a dizzying week and I am very, very glad to have a four day weekend. I do have some things I must do this weekend. ::glares at bar exam application:: But I also have some fun, relaxing things planned like watching the shows I didn't get to see in the last few weeks. I'm looking forward to the ridiculous fannish goodness of the 50th Anniversary episode of Dr. Who (after 50 years anyone working on the show counts as a fan and the work as a fan-work in my humble opinion). Might go see Catching Fire with the family on Sunday. So there will be fun-times in with the filling out of forms.
Right now I am off to bed. For my fellow U.S. residents (and American ex-pats or those related to Americans and celebrating Thanksgiving), I wish you a happy and safe Thanksgiving. For my Jewish friends, may you have a happy and blessed Hanukkah. Otherwise may you have a bright rest of the week and a good weekend. Much love to everyone.
