What is good for the goose is good for the gander

10/9/08

The doctor’s office recently called me and told me to change my meds. I wasn’t sure that I really wanted to do that, or why they wanted me to do that. I did it one weekend and I felt horrible, so naturally I attributed it to the decreased dose. I am so use to taking the same dose, when I get up I take the same amount of pills out of habit. I was talking to my aunt one day, and she asked why they decreased my pills. I told her that I really didn’t know why. She commented that it really was not like me to “not know” something like that. She did have a point, so I called the doctor Monday morning. I was informed that my Endocrinologist was still out of the office on an unforeseen emergency, but that the receptionist was going to grab my chart and try to help me. I asked her why they decreased my meds; she informed me that my blood work was so low that I should feel horrible everyday, and she was surprised that I could function. She said the normal range was .4 to 4.5 and I was .03. She said that is way to low and that is why they took my medicine away….I started to get upset. It didn’t make sense to me, if I think I feel fine now other than being moody, and I my blood work is really low and they want to take my meds away …how am I going to feel????? So she offered me an appt with another doctor in two days…so I took it.

The new doctor is okay. She seemed to be on the defensive.
She explained that it works opposite, when your levels are low they lower the amount of hormone you receive and when your levels are high they give you more hormone to lower your levels. She explained that they want to keep my levels on the low range but not as low as I currently am.
If my levels are low then it lessens the risk of reoccurrence. Here we go again. That is all you had to say! She explained that she wants me to take the pills as she has ordered them, not to dose myself; and to have blood work done in 6 weeks. She also explained that it is an accumulative dose, so it doesn’t matter what days I take the smaller dose as long as I have a certain amount of milligrams at the end of the 7 day period. She still wants me to have a follow up scan in January, and she wants me to have a thyroid us in May. Hmmm….a Thyroid US on a nonexistent thyroid, so you know I had to question that. She said, that the cancer can come back in the lymph nodes around the neck area so they still perform thyroid us. Did I not just talk about this low chance of reoccurrence? UGH!

We also talked about the horrible or annoying side effects I have from the meds. She said that it is because I am over dosed and that she can prescribe MORE medication to help lessen the side effects. It is already getting ridiculous. I went to see the neurologist for my headaches and to review the MRI that started this whole thing, and he put me on a daily preventative medication. He wants me to see a Cardiologist to rule out PFO, which he explained as a whole in the heart. Well I have seen the Cardiologist in the past 4 years and I tend to believe that if I had a whole in my heart he would have seen that on my last Doppler. But God forbid I do not do what this guy says and something happens, I will have no one to blame but myself. So guess who has an appt at the end of the month with a heart doctor…ME! So needless to say the number one complaint that any person that sees more then one doctor has:
is that one thing always leads to another,
and you always end up seeing to many doctors,
with to many diagnosis,
and to many meds, and
to many headaches.

This leads to another thing that has recently upset me:
Do you think I want to do this? Well the answer is NO, I did not ask for this.
So do I expect you to do this when it comes to your health, and to do it without complaining…that answer is YES. I will hold you hand as you held mine. And I will tell you the same thing you told me…I just found you, and I am not ready to lose you yet. And I will add something else: I want the time that we have together to be enjoyable, and not hindered my some pesky GI, GYN, or any other problems!

So the next time you think that you don’t have to take that med, or see that doctor, remember what is good for the goose is good for the gander and if you don’t have to ….neither do I!

I know you didn’t ask to be part of the 2% or the %5 but you are…and that just means you are special!

I love you!