Hypothyroidism and Me :(

I know that I am not the only one who struggles with an inactive thyroid.  Heck, I didn't even know mine wasn't perfect until I thought I was having a heart attack.  Turns out I was having one heck of an anxiety attack while driving my children home from Ohio in May.  I pulled the car over and found a local mall and the girls and I took about an hour and just hung out.  Needless to say this prompted me to make an appointment with my primary care doctor.

I didn't want to go to this appointment.  Why?  My weight has been slowly creeping upwards and I honestly didn't want some man to tell me I should lose weight.  I have been running between 15 and 25 miles a week and have not been overeating but could not explain this gain except age.  You know I did turn 45 this year and ever since 40 I haven't been able to lose weight.  Shoot let's just push that back to since having babies because I have never lost that extra 20 pounds.

So I sat there with him and he listened to me babble on about this and that and told me he didn't think I was having a heart attack.  Whew.  He did want to take some blood work though.  Ok, that's easy enough and I was out of there!  What happened next has opened my eyes to so much that I have been dealing with the past year.  The nurse called to tell me that I had elevated TSH levels and they would like me to retest in 4 weeks.  I immediately got on the computer and have to say I was stunned.  Basically I had ever.single.one of the symptoms for hypothyroidism.  ALL of which I previously blamed on age!

A month later I was back in and my levels had gotten even higher.  They put me on Levothyroxine and sent me on my way.  It hasn't been very successful so far I am sad to say.  The extreme fatigue that I felt is still there, I feel really weird in my chest after taking the pills, I have gained another 5 pounds, I still wake up each night with insomnia, my hair is falling out worse than ever and I have had my period twice in one month.  Not the happy ending I had hoped for.  Right now I am trying to decide what route to take.  I may try and see an Integrative doctor once the girls go back to school.  We'll see.

Why am I writing about this?  Well, I am running another marathon this fall and I wanted a place where I could document what works, what doesn't and how this crazy year is going to turn out.  My training has been dismal so far.  Bless my running partner for putting up with me and my slow butt.  I swear I spend an hour a day trying to figure how to snap my fingers and make myself feel better but that is not an option unfortunately.  It is going to be a slow process, of this I am sure, but I will get back to feeling good again I have to believe that!
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