there’s nothing wrong with kids that trying to reason with them won’t make worse

Friday, February 24, 2012

Random thoughts about Racoon eyes

Four years ago, after Noah was weaned and Ben had returned from being deployed I realized that I was exhausted.  Now, being a girl who loves to sleep, I wasn't too worried and just figured I need more napping in my day and came up with a vigorous program of resting and napping to fix the problem.

It didn't work.

You would think that after 13 years of being pregnant or nursing that being not pregnant and not nursing would give me tons of energy, but I felt even worse then when I had been pregnant, so, off to the doctor I hauled my tired little self, and after the blood work came back he told me I was getting over mono, and to just take it easy.  One year later, I was still exhausted, but when I returned to the doctor and got more tests done nothing showed up.  Also, we were in the middle of an international move, and who wouldn't be tired out by all that?  I suppose some part of me gave up caring at that point and was just resigned to being tired for the rest of my life.

Two years and two doctors later and who knows how much blood work, I found out that my thyroid is kaput.  Plus, I have an autoimmune disorder which has mistaken my thyroid for the enemy.  Good times!   About 9 months after the diagnosis I'm finally on the correct dosage of synthroid.

I'm still tired.

It's not nearly as bad as it was, and I'm sure some of the tiredness is due to the unrelenting darkness of German winter, but it's still discouraging to feel so terrible so much of the time.  And this is with a disease which is easily treatable and really isn't such a big deal.  It's made me really feel empathy for anyone with any kind of a chronic health issue.

I'm writing this down because Ben took the boy to see the doc for a rash which has spread all over his body and the doctor wasn't nearly as worried about the rash as he was about No's dark circles.  The dark circles I don't even notice (which all my kids have) because I have always had dark circles under my eyes, no matter how well rested I am.

Health is a weird thing and I am really glad we are as healthy as we are.

Also, my thyroid issues have caused me to wonder how long I've had problems.  After all, feeling cold all the time is a symptom of thyroid problems and I still remember the dream Andy had of our house burning down, while I sat in the embers telling everyone that I was finally warm.  It was funny, because it wasn't all that far from the truth.

1 comment:

Haymonds said...

Makes you wonder, doesn't it? Health is such a precarious balance in our bodies, we don't even realize it when it's just a hair off, even if it's for years and years. Sorry you're still so tired. Glad the thyroid meds are finally working. :)

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