| Kristin's Story | |
Kristin O'Meara is a freelance writer who has subclinical hypothyroidism. She was diagnosed in April of 2001, and has volunteered to share her story as a case study in order to help others dealing with this problem.
 | Two months of treatment had gotten me nowhere. Doctors were telling me that, according to my test results, I should be feeling fine. But I was anything but fine: I felt lousy and my patience was at an all-time low. I was hoping that a different medication would change my life. After reading about Armour thyroid and chatting with other "hypo" folks on line, I was hopeful that I'd feel more normal with the combination of T3 and T4 that the medication would provide. |
I didn't have to wait long for results.
Within days of taking the first quarter-grain dose in June, I could actually see the difference. My face stopped resembling a Superfund site, as an ugly assortment of blemishes stopped hurting and started healing.
Soon, I felt more comfortable in my own skin.
Aches and pains that I had attributed to frequent workouts didn't bother me as much. Playing outdoors with my daughter became a normal part of my day as I felt stronger and less tired.
One day I happened to glance at myself in the bathroom mirror, and was pleasantly surprised. I hadn't put on any makeup, but it looked as if I had.. I rubbed at the color, but nothing came off on my hand. I hadn't seen so much color in my face since my pregnancy, when I was absolutely flushed with good health and happiness. That girl in the mirror was healthy. That was me! I was back.
I ran down the hall to tell my husband, who just smiled and hugged me. Even my wacky period got better. It had been erratic for years, and had started coming about twice a month after I was treated with Levoxyl. Now, although it was still far from normal, it was lighter, shorter and less frequent. I was even grateful for the return of my "normal" PMS symptoms crabbiness, stronger appetite, chocolate cravings and tiredness because my period had become so irregular on Levoxyl that I never knew when it was coming.
Over the course of a month, I began to notice other unexpected benefits I was sleeping more soundly than I had in three years. Little things that used to send me into an uproar just didn't get on my nerves the way they had before, and I realized that the sleep I had been missing had drained my batteries in a big way.
There was no price I could put on the renewed sense of connection I felt with my family and friends. Instead of feeling sidelined by fatigue, I was part of the game again. I had more patience with my toddler, got along better with my husband, didn't freak out in traffic and saw more humor in life.
Since April, much of my spare time had been consumed by research on hypothyroidism. Instead of enjoying myself with friends and family, I had spent hours studying every week, reading whatever I could find about the myriad, seemingly unrelated symptoms, searching for answers in books, on Web sites and in medical studies. I had spent months trying to be my own doctor, a role that I was beginning to deeply resent.
I was ready to hang it up and start having some fun, and with vacation right around the corner, the timing couldn't have been better. Of course, putting on a Speedo wasn't really my idea of a hot time, as I was still lugging around about 10 extra pounds in all the wrong places. Somehow, I finally accepted the fact that I wouldn't be doing any swimsuit calendars this year, and I decided to relax and cut myself a big break.
As for relaxation, my husband and I began to see it as a necessity rather than a luxury. My husband and I were both stress monsters, and a look back over the past few years might rival Dante's Inferno for sheer heat. We'd had three deaths in our extended family, gone through three layoffs and subsequent job changes. I'd quit my fun but stressful job as a staff writer at a travel magazine and started a home-based freelance business. We'd had a child the same day that we signed the contract to buy our home. We remodeled the house right after our daughter was born. Were we out of our minds? Probably.
All of the things we had achieved and survived came with a high price tag. We realized we were both in the habit of overextending ourselves, and we needed to stop. Instead of rustling up more writing jobs, I decided to goof off for the summer, and my husband practically applauded when I told him my idea.
When the fall bulletin for adult education classes arrived one morning, I took about two seconds to fill out a form, signing us both up for a yoga class before presenting it, as a fait accompli, to my husband. We were going to chill out or else. He didn't look thrilled, but agreed to try it. I promised him it was a manly thing to do.
After about four weeks on the medication, I noticed that the great feeling I had at the outset of treatment with Armour began to slowly taper off. A bit more fatigue started creeping into my days. Strenuous exercise, like digging in the garden or long cardio workouts at the gym, still left me more tired than in my pre-hypo days. And of course, my weight hadn't budged, although it had stabilized. I still felt pretty darned good, but something wasn't quite right.
After four weeks on Armour, it was time to test my TSH, as per my doctor's orders. I'd begun to distrust the accuracy of the TSH test based on my own condition while in the normal range, and had read evidence that a truly "normal" TSH level might truly be below 2. Even on Levoxyl, I remembered, I had felt rotten when my TSH was supposedly OK. Now, I wondered how my numbers would look after a month on Armour, because I felt so much better. An apples-to-apples comparison would be very interesting. Because no one had ever tested my TSH when I was well, I reasoned, how could anyone know what was really normal for me? Judging from the way I felt, I was sure that I wasn't there yet.
I wrote yet another long letter for Doctor #5, and thanked her sincerely for honoring my request and switching my medication. After trying Armour, I explained, I felt better than I had in a long time, but that I wasn't back to normal yet. I wanted to focus on feeling my best, I said. If my TSH was higher than 2, I wrote, I wanted to boost the dosage of Armour. To bolster my case, I trotted out some experts, referring to the published work of several doctors and researchers, all of whom advocated the position that truly "normal" TSH was probably less than 2. I kept the tone of my letter collegial, not fanatical or emotional, and definitely not submissive. I also wrote a detailed update of my symptoms, and how they were affected after a month of treatment on Armour.
I realized that I had done myself a big favor by writing letters like this. At first, I'd written to my doctor to make sure we were on the same page, and to make sure that my symptoms weren't overlooked or ignored. Now, my letters gave me a clear view of the roller-coaster ride that I had been on. It was immensely satisfying to know that I was finally getting closer to a solution.
I faxed my letter, had my blood drawn, and decided that the lab results could wait. That night, my husband and I packed up the car. Before dawn the next day, we tucked our sleepy daughter into her car seat and headed north for Cape Cod. We took bike rides, splashed in ponds, slept in and watched sunsets on the beach. We focused on enjoying ourselves, and we truly succeeded. We all had a great time.
No matter what results awaited me when I got home, I knew that I didn't need a lab, or a test, or a doctor to tell me I was finally on the right track.
