Back at it again…

I have been avoiding this topic for a while now.  I briefly touched on it in a previous post, but I am experiencing new symptoms.  Just when I thought things were starting to go my way, my joints started acting up.  Last year, I had immense shoulder pain in my left shoulder.  Also, severe headaches started happening every month.  I went to the chiropractor as friends suggested that would help both.  Nice try.  The water bed was great as it massaged me, and of course he said I needed to keep going ($20 a visit and I had 3 visits a week).  Ha.  Plan B was a specialist.  Those run $35 a visit.  I went a few times and he claimed he thought I had bursitis.  Muscle relaxers were prescribed.  Nice try.  Cortisone shot was up next.  Worst pain I have ever felt in my shoulder and couldn’t raise my arm at all that night.  I could not even remove my shirt because my arm was in so much pain.  Never, ever again.  Not a nice try.  Seriously, worst pain ever.

So I put myself on glucosamine pills and joint health drinks.  Amazingly enough, I could sleep on that side again.  That was a huge improvement.  Months go by and my workouts don’t pain me as much.  I think I am getting better.  The thing that lurks within was luring me into a false sense of security.  It was waiting for just the right time to cause mayhem.  It likes to strike before I go back to work again in the fall.  In August, I am so tired I can hardly get out of bed in the morning.  I start to sleep later and think that maybe my body is telling me to suck in all the sleep I can before school starts.

My body knows that when I go back to work and my girls are busy with school, I will need to get back into a pattern.  Just to be sure, I check with my doc.  Need Vitamin D pills.  Got it.  Makes sense.  Only now, my right shoulder begins to ache.  Not a small pain, but a bone deep ache.  Please go away.  I can’t deal with this now.  I start to notice my hair is breaking off more.  Weird.  My finger nails break a bit, but I am hard on my hands as I like to garden in the summer without gloves.  Ignore.  Get to it later.  I get into my patterns.  I forget things sometimes.  No big deal.  Still really tired.  I feel like I have gained weight and it won’t come off even with my busy day and work outs of 2-3 miles elliptical.  So I tell myself to get my thyroid checked.  I am told it’s creeping up, but still within normal range.

Since by now I know that I feel horrible, I read up on thyroid issues.  I am convinced that there is a link between Hereditary Hemochromatosis and what is going on with my body.  The only problem is, I feel like it has made my thyroid off somehow and I can’t prove it.  The levels on the test are within “normal”.  What is normal to me does not seem to apply, but I listen to what they say and drop it for a while.  Pain increases and can’t sleep on that side.  Now I use a hot wrap everyday when I come home from work.  My feet hurt, body aches, tired, and just over it.  I start talking to my girlfriends at lunch.  One of them thinks I am right and that I should look into the symptoms of Hashimoto’s Disease.  Oh great.  As soon as she said it, I looked it up.  There are my freaking symptoms all over the page.  Great.  Now to get someone to believe me.  I look up the range of thyroid levels and discover that research done by the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists states a smaller window than most labs use.  Interesting.  I begin to wonder what my lab used when they told me I was “normal”.

Due to my latest research, I am going back to the doctor tomorrow, and not leaving until every test possible is conducted.  This time, I will ask them to send me the results.  This time, if I don’t get an answer, I am going to find someone else who can help me.  I am tired of being tired.  Moreover, I am not really a fan of suffering quietly and it is time someone takes me seriously.

“Pain is inevitable.  Suffering is optional.”  ~Anonymous

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