What's Wrong with Me Part 3

At the doctor's again today. My iron is very low but the good news is that my thyroid level is a very good 16 (in comparison to the previous 23). So, what does that mean? Now, all the symptoms we've been blaming on my thyroid may be caused by something else. The one that causes me the most concern is the "crash" after eating. It's bad. And it doesn't matter what or when I eat. Although I first mentioned it to him more than 60 days ago, he's now looking at other possibilities including my blood sugar level (might that also account for the debilitating migraine-type headaches?). He wants to rule out mononucleosis, too. I have to go for two sets of blood work -- we'll do one when I'm feeling shitty (in the crash after eating) and the second when I'm feeling less crappy. Then we can compare the glucose levels in each test.

In addition to the iron pills, the doctor gave me antibiotics for the salivary gland infection. AND I have a dentist appointment tomorrow, so that means the first heavy-duty antibiotic treatment for that procedure.

Oh yeah, I printed a copy of my blog post for his files -- unedited. I hope he doesn't take it personal -- but then again, maybe he needs to be reminded that I'm living this every day.

What's Wrong with Me Part 2

Two days later. Let's add to the list the fact that I spent all last night sick with both diarrhea and vomiting at the same time. No one should have to go through that. It's subhuman.

Today I almost fainted at least 10 times. This is not good. Tomorrow I'll call the doctor. He'll probably tell me that's within the normal range.

What's Wrong with Me

That is a statement, not a question.

Here's a list of all the current ailments and conditions I presently have:

Graves disease, aka hyperthyroidism - When: First symptoms identified in January, 2006. Where: South of France How do I know? Let me list the symptoms associated with hyperthyroidism: change in skin texture * my hair hurts almost all the time * heart palpitations * my nails are growing like crazy, my hair, too * ravenous appetite * headaches across the back of my head * my bones ache to the deepest part of them * oh, yeah, I have no patience, I snap when I don't mean to and I can't wait long enough for people to finish a sentence * my eyes are bugging out, especially the left one (lovely vision, huh?) * suddenly my eyesight is extremely poor * I frequently pull out into traffic and wonder where that car came from. My eyes move more slowly now since they are protruding and it's difficult to judge distance and speed * can't sleep * when I finally do fall asleep, can't wake up * nightmares * my periods are very short, light and irregular (but shouldn't really complain about that, should I?) * thirsty ALL THE TIME * oh yeah, can't forget the paranoia, that's something really lovely to live with, isn't it? * hypersensitive hearing at the high range (can't hear any better when people are speaking, but I can hear the refrigerator humming from the opposite end of the house with the TV on) * and here's the one biggest symptom - immediately after eating my body doesn't know what to do with the excess energy and so I go into this deep, deep "crash." My heart races, my temperature elevates, I feel feverish and exhausted to the bone, can barely hold my head up. The crash is so low I swear I could fall asleep driving, or working, or in the middle of a meeting and life would go on around me unchanged for at least 2-3 hours, it takes that long to recover. That's probably the worst one.

What: The normal range for the thyroid hormone is between 9 and 25 (whatever the unit of measurement is, I don't know). My thyroid level is 23, therefore considered "in the normal range." Now, the thing we don't know is what is normal for ME. What if normal for me is 7? Then I'm more than 3X greater than normal, therefore I am exceedingly outside MY normal range. So the doctor tells me I must get sicker before I can get better.

The thyroid ultrasound found a small lump on the left side of my thyroid. As my family doctor describes it, "the ultrasound tells you there's a lump there, but doesn't tell you what it is." OK, thanks.

Mitral valve prolapse - I am learning that this seems to be quite a common condition, except I never had heart palpitations before I had this current thyroid problem, and there is a known connection between MVP and hyperthyroidism. We can work around this -- I just have to take heavy duty doses of antibiotics before going to the dentist. And hope it doesn't get worse. There is definitely a strain on my heart - I feel it every single day. This morning the racing heart woke me up and stayed with me all day, ALL DAY.

About 4 weeks ago, I wore a holter heart monitor for 24 hours. It was a completely sedentary day that day - I worked in my office (at the old location, no flights of stairs, nothing unusual or the least bit strenuous). The most vigourous thing I did that day was walk across a parking lot and I got winded! I saw the test results last Friday when I was at the doctor's office. My heart rate ranged from a low of 57 bpm (verrrrrry sedentary) to a high of 127 bpm. I pointed that out to the doctor. 127 bpm - that's faster than disco; it's higher than the fitness club goal after 25 minutes on the treadmill. That's all I did was walk across a parking lot. "It's within the normal range," the doctor said. "It's not normal for me." I wish I had a dollar for every time I've said that.

Can't forget the debilitating migraine headache I had on Wednesday of this week. Haven't had a headache like that since my early twenties, before I wore braces. Way back when, after I got my braces off, the dentist gave me a retainer to wear at night or whenever I felt the first signs of a migraine coming. Driving back from a meeting downtown, the pain was so bad, my back teeth screamed every time the car went over a small bump. In tears, I seriously thought about pulling on to the side of the road to sleep for a couple hours, it was that bad. Home in bed at 3 in the afternoon, digging in my bedside table looking for that retainer. That, together with a heating pad, Advil, Tylenol and a Robax Platinum finally helped. Slept 'til 6:30 p.m. then back in bed again at 9. Thursday I felt as though every ounce of strength had been expended fighting yesterday's pain.

I think I have started grinding or clenching my teeth at night.

I'm swollen on the right side of my neck, so I thought maybe that's where the lump on the left side of my thyroid was (you know, like stage left if you're looking at the stage). Turns out I have a new infection in my salivary gland. Who knows if it's related or just another part expiry. Because of all the hoopla around my heart condition, the doctor forgot to give me antibiotics for this infection so I've been taking some minocycline that I had from my skin doctor. Only thing about minocycline is, it kills the good bacteria in your gut. So I've been countering that with lactobacillus tablets. My gut is in turmoil.

And yes, yes, sister Chris, I'm going for the mammogram, I promise.

My husband told me last night that the doctor had called the day before (we hadn't seen each other the previous night since I had worked into the wee hours). They must have the latest blood work back. I'll see him again next week, but my appointment with the thyroid specialist isn't until June 22.

It's like the warranty has run out on my body and everything is breaking down.

Had to get that off my chest and finally put everything into one long list.

Go Go Dancers of Nepal

Very clever amateur claymation video with cool groove music. Check it out.

The Great Cat Food Dilemma - What do You Think?

One of our cats LOVES tuna. Last weekend we ran out of cat food so I opened a can of tuna for the two of them to share. Blossom wolfed down the entire can in less than 5 minutes then promptly walked to the front of the house where she regurgitated everything into a neat, warm little pile. She hadn't even chewed her food, it still looked exactly like it did when it came out of the can. I thought about picking it up and putting it all back in her dish.

Is this gross?
	Absolutely! How could you think such a thing?
	No, it's practical. Nothing wrong with recycled food.
	You're sick!
Free polls from Pollhost.com

BABIES SHOULD NOT WATCH TV!!!!!!

My personal obsession, commitment, passion, vow:

I will do everything within my power to prevent this from EVER coming to Canada.

From www.thestar.com:

Round-the-clock TV channel for babies to launch
'Babies are already watching TV,' VP explains
May 10, 2006. 02:35 PM
ASSOCIATED PRESS


NEW YORK — Escalating an already heated national debate, a first-of-its-kind TV channel premieres Thursday designed specifically for babies — an age group that the American Academy of Pediatrics says should be kept away from television altogether.

The new, round-the-clock channel is called BabyFirstTV. For $9.99 (U.S.) a month, it will be available initially by satellite through DirecTV and later through cable TV providers as well.

TV offerings already abound for older toddlers, and a lucrative — though controversial — market has developed for baby-oriented videos, attracting the Walt Disney Co. and the makers of Sesame Street, among others. But until now there had been no ongoing TV programming aimed at infants.

"This is the first channel dedicated to babies and their parents — transforming TV from its original purpose into a way for them to interact," said Sharon Rechter, BabyFirstTV's executive vice president for business development and marketing.

"The fact of life is that babies are already watching TV," she said. "That's why having BabyFirstTV is so important — what we want to offer is completely safe, commercial-free and appropriate content.''

A 2003 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 68 percent of children under 2 watch TV or videos daily and 26 percent have a TV in their bedroom. Nonetheless, the pediatrics academy recommends that children of that age not be exposed to TV or videos, saying that learning to talk and play with others is much more important.

The academy's guidelines were cited last week in a complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission, challenging claims by leading makers of videos for babies that their products were educational.

Seattle-area pediatrician Donald Shifrin, chairman of the academy committee that studies television and children, urged parents to exercise prudence and to view the new TV options skeptically.

"Sesame Street has opened a Pandora's box by legitimizing the idea that TV needs to be developed for this demographic," Shifrin said. "We're not the nation's nanny, but we do want to provide a little balance — we don't want to make TV the default entertainer for children.''

Critics of TV for infants also are skeptical of assertions by BabyFirstTV and other companies that their products are designed to be watched by babies and parents together in an interactive manner.

"Experience tells anyone that it's not going to be used that way," said Dr. Michael Rich, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children's Hospital Boston. "Parents use it to park their kids in front of the TV so they can get things done.''

Rich said the companies "are basically letting parents off the hook from their guilt by saying, 'This is educational,' so parents can justify it to themselves.''

Rechter said BabyFirstTV is not claiming that its programs — designed for viewers from 6 months to 3 years old — will make babies smarter. "But having babies and parents interact helps children's development, and we give them that opportunity," she said.

Asked about the possibility that parents might simply use the new channel as a baby sitter, Rechter replied, "We could speculate as much as we like about what parents should do.''

"If a baby is watching TV, let's put them in front of appropriate content," she said. "At the end of the day, parents make the decisions.''

BabyFirstTV's advisory board includes Dr. Edward McCabe, a pediatrician who is physician-in-chief at UCLA's Mattel Children's Hospital.

"I was skeptical when I first heard about it," McCabe said. ``But I became convinced that this is a major evolution in media for kids.''

Rechter said BabyFirstTV will start with 250 hours of content, 80 percent of it original. Some of its programs will come from baby DVD companies, including Brainy Baby and First Impressions, and it has an agreement with Sterling Publishing, a Barnes & Noble subsidiary, to use children's books in a "Story Time" program.

By the end of 2006, Rechter said, BabyFirstTV also will be available in Spanish.

The three companies behind BabyFirstTV are Regency Enterprises, a film and TV production company that is a partner of Fox Entertainment; Kardan N.V, an investment group based in the Netherlands and Israel; and Bellco Capital, a private Los Angeles-based investment fund.

That's what we call Democracy!

"Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen!"

Attributed to Rev. Joe Wright of the Central Christian Church addressing the Kansas state Senate.

That's what we call democracy! God help us all.

Thought for the Year

"It is critical that we teach this next generation how to think -- not just what to think." -- Barbara Coloroso

Totally Random Thought

As I was driving home from work this evening, I saw a woman jogging with her dog. I could have sworn that you could tell the dog thought the woman was running too slow.