Riding on This See-Saw Called HYPOTHYROIDISM

You remember what riding on a see-saw was like when you were a kid, don't you?  You hop on by yourself and the seat goes to the ground.  Another person hops on and you go up.  Up and down, up and down.  And occasionally you balance each other out with feet dangling in the air.  That, to me, is what living with hypothyroidism is like.

It has now been two years since I found out I have hypothyroidism.  I spent the first year with one doctor and am now on my second one.  My TSH numbers were never really high so that makes finding a correct dosage for me more difficult.  When I started over with doctor number 2, my numbers had plummeted to .5, which put me in the hyperthyroid range.  He took me off of everything at that point and started all over again.  The thing about treating this condition is that the medication used (Synthroid) can only be adjusted by small amounts at a time.  That, therefore, means that it takes a while (6 weeks) for one's numbers to even out to see where you go from there.  Recently, I had another issue with my medication and quite frankly...it sucked! (Sorry...just how I feel about it).

Six weeks ago, I began to "feel" off.  And, believe me, if you have hypothyroidism, you need to start tuning into how you "feel".  That is one thing I like about my doctor too; he always ask, "How do you 'feel'?"  Well, finally after living with this for a couple of years, I have learned to notice the signs that something is just not right.  And so it was six weeks ago.  I began to feel "off balance", weak, tired, achy and just downright lowsy.  I took myself to a lab and had my TSH levels tested to see if I was too high or too low.  I got the results the next day; .2; that is very low.  I was back in a hyperthyroid state again (sigh...).  I immediately sent a message to my doctor who said to change back to my lower dosage of Synthroid and come back in six weeks for blood work again.  Like I said, changing one's Synthroid dosage does nothing overnight, therefore, I continued to ride on that see-saw.

I began to feel some improvements after being on my new dosage for about two week, however, during that two week period, I could not do much.  Going to yoga was out of the question because of my balance issues and to be quite honest, I just wasn't feeling well or energetic enough to do any sort of physical activity.

After two weeks, I started back to yoga and have continued to feel a little better every day.  This week marked six weeks and I returned to my doctor for another blood test.  I was so happy and relieved to find that my TSH numbers were once again within normal limits.  I'm finally beginning to trust the way that I "feel" where my thyroid is concerned and have decided to continue having my TSH level tested every 6 weeks for a while.  It feel so good to finally be "balancing" on that see-saw again and not plummeting one way or the other!