Posted by Catherine, the redhead mom blogger on Aug 9, 2008 in
Mom Rants and Raves
When the doctor first told me I was going to have to take a tiny pill every morning for the rest of my life, I didn’t really take it that seriously. I mean, come on, I have been on the birth control pill and forgotten to take it for several days, and nine months later I was not a mommy. Of course, having undiagnosed Hashimotos disease causes infertility, so my chances at pregnancy were thin at best, but that’s not the point. I have to force myself to take my daily vitamins. Is this thyroid pill thing really all that serious?
Let’s not discuss how the symptoms first knocked me on my ass and made me wonder if I was slowly going mad, some retribution for all the fun partying and men I enjoyed during my fun irresponsible single years. The exhaustion from a dying thyroid alone made me feel like I’d been hit by a freight train. Sometimes I forget how far I’ve come in the last five years.
Until I run out of thyroid pills.
Kaiser seems to have issues with getting Armour Thyroid, which is manufactured in Saint Louis. Two weeks ago, upon the swallowing my last pill, I realize Kaiser hasn’t mailed my next three month supply. Hmmmmm. I was now out of pills. I am the great procrastinator at tasks that require long waits, or waiting in line, the drilling of my teeth, figuring calculus problems, watching political speeches and washing my car. I just figured I’d eventually get around to stopping by Kaiser to explore the reason why my refill prescription had gone the way of bell bottom pants. Forest Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of Armour probably creates my meds in China, where it ships it to Mexico to be packaged and shipped to a warehouse in Canada, before they are shipped to Kaiser to be shipped to me. Where is that EASY button when you need it?
One day turned to two, then three and the next thing I know I’ve not swallowed an Armour tablet in a week. By last Monday my voice was cracking and a slight sore throat was forming. But I assured myself that all was fine and I’d get around to Kaiser and my meds…. some day… soon.
Suddenly sleep seemed like my new best friend and 12 hours of the sweet slumber is not enough, and my throat is beginning to bother me to the point where I cannot swallow and I FINALLY began thinking, hmmmmm I guess I’d better get out a good book and travel to Kaiser…
But before I can get there, the young man who notices everything, except his dirty clothes on the floor decides he needs to have a little talk with me.
“Mom, you’ve been sleeping a lot…”
(This from a boy who lives for sleep)
“I know … I need to go pick up my meds…”
“You ARE doing that TODAY aren’t you?”
I guess there’s just no motivation like a nagging teenager to kick my butt into gear. Because trust me on this, when I say that my son can nag the fur off a dog. So … to avoid hearing him ask me “have you picked up your meds?” forty thousand more times, I drove to Kaiser and forced them to give me a new supply. There was no way I was coming back home without those pills. I even stopped and took two pills at the water fountain by the pharmacy. The water felt like oatmeal going down my throat. For a minute I thought I was going to have to put the pills under my tongue and let them dissolve, but they finally cooperated and went sweetly into my stomach.
Magically by the next day, the sore throat disappears and my energy begins to return, but Brian’s nagging remains.
“Mom, you’re not going to let your pills run out again are you?”
It seems he is channeling my mother. I thought about his question, because up to that moment I realized I had been living within a belief that my thyroid would get better and I could stop the pills … some day.
“Mom?”
“No Brian. I need to be able to speak to nag you about school homework, dirty clothes, wet towels, using soap, brushing your teeth, feeding the pets, and taking out garbage, so I will not let the pills run out EVER AGAIN.”
“Good.”
Grrrrrrrr …. growing up is tough for this parent.
Until next time-
C
http://www.aweekinthelifeofaredhead.com
Tags: A Week In The Life of A Redhead, hypothyroidism
Posted by Catherine, the redhead mom blogger on Jun 21, 2007 in
Brian and Mom
“Mom?”
“Yes?”
(silence)
“Are you well now?”
“You mean is the thyroid disease gone?”
“Yeah.”
“Yes, I am well, but the thyroid disease isn’t gone … yet.”
(silence)
“Why, are you worried ‘Boobello’?”
(silence)
“Kinda.”
“Ahh little man, you forget who your mother is.”
“I know.”
“God and all his wild horses could not drag me away from you. I waited my whole life to meet you. I am not going anywhere until I see how you turn out.”
(silence)
“Ok.”
(silence)
“Don’t I seem much better?”
(silence)
“Yeah.”
(silence)
“Aren’t we laughing a lot these days?”
“Yeah.”
(silence)
(silence)
(silence)
“It was just hard when I was so sick…?”
“Yeah.”
(silence)
“Cause I wasn’t full of energy and laughing all the time?”
“Yeah.”
“Ahhh, well I was a little distracted, but not anymore. You should never worry about me. I am a bitch of a redhead.”
(silence)
“I know.”
(silence)
“I love you mom.”
“I love you Brian.”
Until next time-
C
http://www.aweekinthelifeofaredhead.com
Tags: hypothyroidism
Posted by Catherine, the redhead mom blogger on Sep 17, 2006 in
Puzzled
Carl Sanburg said, “Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.”
What happens with your hypothyroidism is spending it for you? I began taking Armour Thyroid this past week, and today I feel different. It has taken a week, but something is distinctively different.
First, I notice I don’t crave carbohydrates. I also don’t crave wine to relax me for sleep. My mental fog seems better. My body doesn’t ache, including my back. But oddly the most distinguishable change is I am having REM sleep. I am dreaming – dreaming a lot. Somewhere in all these years of dealing with Hashimotos Disease I stopped dreaming. Last night I had six different dreams. I woke up laughing this morning with the thought that if dreams are teachers trying to communicate with us, then they must think I’m weird.
Thanks to Donna, a reader who sent me a link to a website, I was directed to the Stop The Thyroid Madness website, where Janie, the owner of the site shares her story. I know this story well.
I used to believe that we have complete control over our thoughts and our lives. If you believe all the new-age declamations, then one might conclude that we control our thoughts which create our lives. Now, I am not so sure. If a change in hormones changes the way one feels and thinks, and by feeling bad, our lives begin to crumble – who is responsible? No amount of positive thinking is going to make my thyroid function well enough to give my body what it needs. Something in a failing thyroid, which drops hormone levels, affects our thoughts.
Is it the chicken or the egg . . . ?
When my thyroid first tanked, my mind would often race with thoughts of depression. I was too exhausted to crawl into the bathroom to brush my teeth. I have laid on my floor to perform countless functions before the doctors prescribed T3 supplementation. Yet, change my meds to mimic natural thyroid function and my thoughts and body change with it. Do we really have as much control over our bodies as we think?
Can certain thoughts be an indication that we are becoming ill?
Until next time-
C
http://www.aweekinthelifeofaredhead.com
Tags: hypothyroidism
Posted by Catherine, the redhead mom blogger on Jun 18, 2006 in
Gratefulness,
Mom Rants and Raves
Sometimes I forget to talk about my Hashimotos disease. I have been on a bit of a relapse cycle lately. It is part of an autoimmune disease, but still the most difficult part for me to accept. It takes everything I have to fight it.
I thank god for Boonie the dog my ex-husband bought Brian, who seems to be attaching to me. 
Today I was feeling guilty about not taking her to the dog park, so I drank some green tea and took her to the state park instead. This thyroid down cycle has been kicking my ass for about two weeks now and I needed a change. It was a beautiful hot Indian summer day.
We hiked 5 miles and thank God for ‘dog drag’ – you know – where your dog drags you along.
The deer were out in force and the Canadian geese fill the lesser ponds. Blue Herons fly low, and all the campers are long gone. I always feel the dedication benches speak to me as I pass them by. They are these cool park benches dedicated to people who have died.
I feel better afterward. I love to hike and sometimes even if it wears me out, I feel renewed. And at least Boonie the dog is now calm and not chewing on my latest hair thingy or favorite pair of shoes.
So I was good or up almost 3 months on my thyroid meds, and now tired and down for two weeks. I do notice that in these down times my sleep patterns are interrupted and I have a hard time sleeping through the night.
I have an appointment tomorrow with a holistic Dr. who does saliva testing along with food allergies. They say answering those issues helps support the immune system. I have to say – this has been the longest period of time that I have gone without a bad cold or flu or even my usual bronchitis.
Hurray for small miracles.
Until next time-
C
http://www.aweekinthelifeofaredhead.com
Tags: erma bombeck, hypothyroidism, mom blogs, parenting blogs
Posted by Catherine, the redhead mom blogger on Nov 27, 2005 in
Puzzled
It is predicted that tonight’s weather will get down into the 20’s here in Northern California and we should cover plants and be prepared for freezing. Right now, the sun shines brightly, with a slight cold breeze.
My thyroid condition keeps my body temperature below normal, so I am always cooler than the rest in a room. This type of weather chills me to my cells and depresses me as the third pair of socks on my feet although create a thick layer of cushion, does not keep me warm.
Often, I am forced to take hot showers to bring my body temperature up so that I can feel the actual temperature in a room. I am often shocked at how warm I have the house, but my body temperature does not heat up to match it. This is one of the areas guys I have dated just don’t understand when I tell them I am cold. They look at me like it is typical for a woman to have this complaint, and shrug it off as if putting on a sweater or pulling on a blanket fixes it, when it rarely does.
I am puzzled by their lack of compassion and understanding that having a low body temperature and being cold isn’t pleasant, and can be exhausting. A fast running metabolism is warm and high energy, so what do they think is happening if I am cold? I have yet to meet a man that is kind and helpful when I say that I am cold. What is it with men when they hear a woman say that she is cold?
This is the main reason that I love warm places, especially the tropics. I love being warm all the time. My dream is to live someplace warm, near the ocean, where I can have my windows open and the smell of flowers fill the room. People often think California is warm. This part of Northern California is not warm. In fact, those of us that grew up here laugh at the people who buy air conditioners, as we have no more than maybe 13 “hot” days a year. We are foggy and windy a great portion of the time, and our summer doesn’t begin until late July and lasts to mid-October.
So, I have logs for a fire, and shortly will go out and cover my plants for tonight, but for this winter I have started to write the children story that has been rattling around in my head for so many years now. It will be my winter project to distract me from the cold. It also means from time to time I may not be writing as much here, depending on how well I can balance it all with work and Brian.
I will still occasionally need to get my ramblings out of my head so that I can get to my story plot, so I will come here and unload those thoughts, just like today when the cold was beginning to bug me. My nose and ears are ice cold right now.
I wonder if I was a dog in my past life.
Does Hashimotos disease make you cold too?
Until next time-
C
Tags: hashimotos disease, hypothyroidism, mom blogs, parenting blogs, the next erma bombeck
Posted by Catherine, the redhead mom blogger on Aug 21, 2005 in
Mom Rants and Raves
Today I am asking people to support stem cell research.
It could hold a cure for auto-immune diseases such as Hashimotos disease. I offer my reason why -
The following is excerpted from Johns Hopkins “Health Insider,” interview with Robert A. Brodsky, M.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine -
“Rebooting” – A Promise For Autoimmune Diseases?
Johns Hopkins University researchers have developed a new technique in treating autoimmune disease patients which reboots the immune system with results that have cured some patients while dramatically improving the health of others. This is a new approach to the use of stem cells in treating autoimmune disease.
Autoimmunity occurs when the blood’s lymphocytes, which are designed to defend the body against infections and foreign agents, actually attack one or more of the body’s organs. Researchers in the past have focused on ways to destroy the disease-causing lymphocytes and replace them with normal ones. That attempt has not been successful. Bone marrow transplantation is now being used by many medical institutions worldwide. One attempt to get rid of the misdirected lymphocytes has been the use of high doses of cyclophosphamide, a chemotherapeutic drug. This method also calls for a blood stem cell transplant since it has been thought, incorrectly, that cyclophosphamide in high doses is destructive to the bone marrow’s ability to make new blood cells.
Stem cells, present in both bone marrow and blood, regenerate marrow and blood after chemotherapy. In stem-cell transplants, stem cells are harvested before chemotherapy by drawing some of the patient’s own blood or bone marrow. After the chemotherapy, the blood or marrow stem cells are returned to the patient’s body. However, patients who do go into remission after the procedure usually relapse after a time. This is thought to be the result of the “bad” lymphocytes returning to the patient along with the stem cells. How can pure stem cells be isolated from other blood cells?
Now Johns Hopkins researchers have found a way to circumvent the problem.
According to Robert A. Brodsky, M.D., assistant professor in oncology and medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, “…stem cells contain an enzyme, called aldehyde dehydrogenase, which detoxifies cyclophosphamide. Like most blood cells, lymphocytes have very low levels of this enzyme, so cyclophosphamide destroys them but not the stem cells. That means it is not necessary to do a transplant to preserve the stem cells.” He further states, “Studies have shown that after chemotherapy–as the stem cells turn into the specialized blood cells that have been destroyed–those that become lymphocytes are normal and do not attack the body. The immune system has been repaired.”
This system was first tried with aplastic anemia patients. Seven out of the first ten patients treated by this method have remained disease-free for 10 years–and, in some cases, more than 20 years. The system was later tried with 27 other patients with autoimmune diseases, the majority of whom were lupus patients. Dr. Brodsky reports, “Most are still in remission, and some are off medications two and three years later.” He continues, “All the patients we’ve studied have, at the very worst, remained stable: Virtually all have had major reductions in their immunosuppression medications.” Dr. Brodsky cautions that, before this can be called a cure, the patients must remain disease-free for ten or more years.
Dr. Brodsky offers the comment that “When we have more information about the long-term effects of this treatment, and as more physicians and patients learn about it, the technique could well become standard protocol for autoimmune conditions soon after they are diagnosed and well before the diseases progress or become debilitating.”
All we can do is hope. And let stem cell research move forward.
Until next time -
C
http://www.aweekinthelifeofaredhead.com
Tags: hypothyroidism, mom blogger, mom bloggers
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