Final Medical Update

Ack, hopefully final in a good way, as in no more drama, and not, as in, no more me.

Thanks everyone for all your encouragement and well wishes over my recent medical drama.

Saw my endocrinologist today. (Have I said how much I love my doctors?) My thyroid is over-treated with synthroid right now. Unfortunately, getting the right dose is a bit of a moving target because I produce antibodies to my thyroid that cause it to fluctuate. So I've had periods of being under and over treated. I'll tell you one thing, the thyroid is a very significant part of the human anatomy, and when it is not right it is just not good. And just right seems a bit elusive so far. I have just not been the same person, energy-wise, since I developed thyroid disease in my early thirties.

I'm still going to have the follow up cardiology tests because it has been three years since my last echo cardiogram and stress test. (And because I heart my cardiologist.)

Oh, and today I started on Crestor. Not because my cholesterol is bad, but because I am at risk (type 1 diabetes) for an early heart attack. So we need to make my bad cholesterol as low as possible and my good cholestorol as high possible.

Geez, you should see my pharmacy bills.

But still, I really am blessed to have medical resources like these. Not too many years back in time, and I would have died from insulin-dependent diabetes.

And again, I'm counting you all as one of my blessings too. :)

Just to legitimize this as a photoblog, here is a picture of my endocrinologist, Dr. A.



Her first name is Dagmar (that's how I chose her out of the list; I just thought the name was cool). She speaks with a German accent and is very funny but quite stern. The combination works for me. She also listens very well, type’s notes of everything we discuss, and is on the cutting edge of research and treatment. And most of all she is very understanding of what a difficult type of diabetes I have to manage; she encourages each and every little improvement, and reassures me when I struggle.

And she was quite tickled to pose for a shot for my blog.

Update for all my wonderful well-wishers

I am writing all this out for those who are interested (Carrie :-)), but if you are not one of them, it will not hurt my feelings at all. :)

First of all, none of what is going on with me is life threatening!

But it is disconcerting when your heart rate is elevated, and somewhat erratic, for several hours on end.

A few years ago, I had several episodes of Supraventricular Tachycardia. My heart rate would shoot up to 250ish and just stay there. It involved taking a wonderful drug, via IV, called adenosine. Adenosine kind of reboots the heart. It feels awful. Just awful. Feels like you are going to die. Kind of like when you get the wind knocked out of you and you are waiting to breathe again, except you are waiting for your heart to beat again.

I give you that history to explain why I am a bit sensitive about these heart-rate-related issues. But, since having my hyperthyroidism treated, getting my insulin pump, and making sure I don't have too much caffeine or take cold medicine, I have been without incident for three years.

This time, instead of SVT, I had regular old tachycardia with some arrhythmia thrown in for good fun. My cardiologist does not think this is the same problem as I had before, but he is going to follow up with a battery of tests and has given me a prescription for a beta blocker to take if it becomes a chronic problem. (It did happen again today, but for only two hours and then it resolved.)

To add to the mix of possibilities, after I had my appointment today, I went by the hospital and got my lab results because they had tested my thyroid but not had the results back before I was discharged. My Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) is low, which means that my thyroid levels are too high. I already had an appointment scheduled with my endocrinologist for Monday (how convenient!), so I will talk with her about this.

My cardiologist mentioned dehydration as a possible source of my tachycardia, and I remembered that they had to stick me four times to get blood out of me. They got the vein, but only a trickle of blood. That points to dehydration as well.

So, after all that drama, this could be a matter of a confluence of needing to adjust the thyroid meds, being dehydrated, and having a heart that sends an extra signal from one of the chambers to the other, giving it a tendency toward episodes like this. The funny thing is that I drink a pretty decent amount of water, but had just this week had added a daily 30 minute walk to my routine, and may not have added enough water to compensate for that. The body is wonderfully complicated.

I feel lucky that I have such wonderful doctors, and am in such good health given my host of medical issues.

And friends. I feel lucky to have such wonderful friends.

Especially the cyber-friends, who don't even know me IRL, but still care so much.

I also feel proud of myself that I have been taking such good care of myself and eating right and exercising. I hope you don't mind that I give myself that little, public pat on the back. Just a few years ago, I was quite negligent, and fatalistic, about my health. But I have since decided that life matters.