Off to a good start

Well, yesterday I left work a little early to pick up my medication and get some rest. I certainly did that and I won't worry about making up the time until Thursday or Friday when I will hopefully be feeling better.

Lately, after I get Justin up (at 5:40) I've been going back to bed and sleeping until 8:30-9, which puts me to work really late, around 9:30. I was taking my thyroid meds when I got to work and eating an hour later because you aren't supposed to eat with them. Well, today when I got him up I was hungry, so I decided to take my thyroid pill then so that if I was still hungry when I got up I could eat right away. Well, there was a very interesting change....I woke up about 7:20 feeling like maybe I was ready to go about my day instead of sleep. I don't know for sure if this was a result of the medication or if it was because I spent so much time resting yesterday. Either way, I think I'm going to try taking it in the morning like that and see how I do. So that's why my day is off to a good start.

I forgot to mention, my free T3 and free T4 levels were improved in my last blood work. For anyone who isn't that familiar with thyroid conditions, most doctors only measure TSH. TSH is thyroid stimulating hormone. When your body isn't getting enough of the hormone, the pituitary makes this TSH to create more thyroid hormone. So, theoretically if your TSH is high, it's because your pituitary knows your low on thyroid hormone and keeps trying to get you to make more, so you're hypothyroid (low thyroid). Well, that's a fine indicator IF your pituitary gland is functioning properly. Unfortunately, most people who are hypothyroid have stressed the pituitary to the point where it doesn't always make TSH in response to the low thyroid and so this isn't really always a good measure. Thankfully, my doctor recognizes this. It's actually ok to push the pituitary to virtually stop producing TSH as long as you aren't overmedicating with the thyroid hormone. My TSH was .97, which is fairly low, and my free T3 and free T4 were still at the low end of normal. He acknowledges I probably won't feel better until they're in the upper 1/2 of the range so we'll probably increase meds slightly after I get past this walking pneumonia thing. He wants to know what level I start to "feel good" at, and I won't know that as clearly if the lungs are bringing me down. Anyway, sorry for the detailed medical info, but it might be helpful for anyone who has thyroid problems. I wanted put info here about my levels in case I want to check when they changed and when I felt better and I wanted it to make sense to anyone who was reading it.

Justin is going camping this weekend. I'll miss him when he's gone, but not like when he's gone for a week. It's only April and I'm already dreading June and July when he's gone to camp and his dad's.

Oh well, back to work for me.

(Update 4:30 pm....it may have been a good start to the day but I'm worn out now! I don't know if that's illness or thyroid related, or just because I got up earlier than usual, so I guess time will tell)