|
Date |
Journal |
| Nov. 9, 2000 |
I received the diagnosis of hypothyroidism. I also was
experiencing a relapse of the sinus infection since November 1. |
| Nov. 10 |
I started taking Levoxyl, a synthetic thyroid hormone.
I went to my family doctor for the sinus infection and received
antibiotics. It was a holiday. |
| Nov. 11-12 |
I took it easy over the weekend. I had a friend over
Sunday afternoon. |
| Nov. 12 |
I felt warmer when falling asleep and when I awoke during
the night. For the first time in a longtime I did not require a
sleeping pill to fall back asleep when I awoke. |
| Nov. 13 |
I had the same good experience sleeping, with increased
warmth and no need for a sleeping pill. I took the day off from work
because I was still feeling low energy from the sinus infection. |
| Nov. 14-16 |
Beginning to feel internally stronger, mood improving. |
| Nov. 17 |
I felt like I was starting to get a relapse of the sinus
infection today. My nose was more clogged, my voice a bit hoarse,
and I sneezed. |
| Nov. 18 |
I got a good 12 hours of sleep and, hooray, the relapse went
away. This is totally amazing. I cannot remember when this
happened within the past year. The normal occurrence is that if I
have one night of bad sleep I get sick or get a relapse and it stays with
me. |
| November 19-21 |
About the same |
| Nov. 22 |
I started on a form of cortisone prescribed by my
allergist. Actually I don't have any traditional allergies, I have
non-allergic rhinitis. My nose gets stuffed up but they can't
identify exactly why or do anything for it. The sinus infection is
gone but my nose is still "juicy." So today I stopped the
antibiotic and started the new pills. |
| Nov. 23 |
Yesterday, I stayed up until 10 or 10:30 PM, very late for
me. I have been going to bed between 8 and 9 PM, at the latest 9:30
PM, for the past three months. And if I stayed up later, I would get
sick. This time, I did not get sick. I did not feel great
today and I had to take a nap and I was tired on Thanksgiving. But I
did not get sick. This is progress. |
| Nov. 24 |
11-12 hours sleep, better energy, more relaxed |
| Nov. 25-Dec. 9 |
I decided not to make entries for this time. First I
was on the steroid and then, after only a few days off, I got a cold and
started on pseudafed 24 hours a day. It made it difficult to
sleep. So, I could really separate thyroid medicine impacts from the
impact of other medicines. |
| Dec. 10 |
Slept well for 12 hours last night (first night off
pseudafed). I woke up with energy and did errands for a bit over an
hour in the morning. It is very unusual for me to do anything on a
weekend morning. I also went shopping yesterday from 10:30 AM-4:30
PM which is very unusual for Saturday. I typically wake-up feeling
lousy Saturday mornings and by do something it is after 1 PM. By
Sunday afternoon I was feeling a bit tired and relaxed by watching TV.
But I also worked on this web site in the afternoon. |
| December 11-17 |
My cold came back this week. I was especially feeling
the symptoms on Tuesday-Thursday. I made a doctor's appointment on
Friday and then notice that I was feeling a bit better. Truly
amazing. He confirmed that the cold was still with me and
recommended rest and usual. I have been doing a pretty good job that
this week and am feeling better. As I start to feel better, it is
hard for me to completely rest. I think this is because of all the
time I have spent resting over the last 10+ years. When I have some
energy I want to do something with it....
My sleep has been good in the latter part of a week, sleeping 11-12
hours. I took one sleeping pill. In the early part of the week
I woke up a lot during the night but I did fall back to sleep. |
| Rest of December |
I had a cold most of the time, so it is hard to judge the
impact on energy and fatigue of the thyroid treatment. |
| Jan. 3, 2001 |
I visited the Dr. today. My TSH is down to 1.29 (from
4.6 and early November). I am now at a TSH very near my doctor's
goal. However, since I'm not experiencing many changes in the
symptoms of hypothyroidism my doctor added a second medication,
Cytomel. This is T3. I understand that some people respond
better to the combination of medications than to synthetic T4, such as
Levoxyl, alone.
I return in 2 months. It takes that long for my body to respond
to a change in the medication.
Apparently, it can take time to find the right medications, dosages,
etc.
|
