Category Archives: Health & Fitness

For those of you that have been following along on Twitter and Facebook, my health issues have been rearing their butt-ugly heads recently. I’ve gone through two ultrasounds, one emergency room visit, several Dr’s appointments and one visit to the nuclear medicine department of my local hospital to willingly swallow a radioactive pill. And thanks to that little pill, I’ve been in isolation for the past few days.

Thankfully, not in a hospital ward, but in my own bedroom. Which is not as awesome as it sounds. It’s actually kinda boring. I have to be at least 6ft away from other human beings for about 10-12 days and try not to touch anything without latex gloves, lest I contaminate something with radioactive sweat. Think I’m joking? My mother leaves a tray of food outside my bedroom door with disposable utensils a nice cold Ginger Ale to calm my nausea and then scurries off. I am officially forbidden to leave my bedroom. I’m like Typhoid Mary to my own mother.

Thankfully, I have my own en suite master bath so that isn’t an issue.

What is an issue is the constant hunger I am experiencing. I’m hungry ALL. THE. TIME.  I’m thinking it’s the type of steroids the doctor prescribed this time around that are making me massively hungry, because I went from constantly nauseated to constantly hungry — and I’m never this hungry. All I do is think about food. All I want to do is consume food. I even dream about food. I’m so hungry I could eat an entire cow all by myself if given the chance and given the tools necessary to install a BBQ grill in my bedroom. I’d slaughter that sucker all by myself if necessary!

Heck, I’m hungry now and I just had breakfast!

Mmmm….B.B.Q.

But I digress…

If this sounds familiar than not only have you been a long-time reader of this blog, you have been paying attention. Yes, this is my second round of radioactive iodine therapy. I officially have the thyroid that simply refuses to die.

Or should I say had? It’s been a couple of days…it might be dead now.

It’s the second worst case of Graves Disease that my endocrinologist has ever seen. I know this because I had the stupid idea to actually ask my doctor how bad my situation was a few years ago. I remember the conversation went something like this — and please note that this conversation was at 8:30 IN THE MORNING so I’m clearly paraphrasing:

Me: So…(as the Dr. palpitates my neck) is it like, really bad?

Dr: Well…your thyroid gland is rather large and your test results show that your hormone levels are way in the abnormal range…but it’s not something we can’t deal with.

Me: O….k…

Dr: We just have to make sure we bring those levels down…soon.

Me: Is it…like…urgent? Like…am I…like…dying?

Dr: Well…not yet (slight chuckle)…we have a bit of time before it starts affecting you more than it already has.

{For the record: I had just lost 45lbs in three months, had muscle atrophy in my thighs which meant I needed help getting up out of chairs and off toilets, slept all the time, was tired all the time, couldn’t walk longer than a city block without resting for 20 min, my eyes got bigger, I itched all over and had heart palpitations and the shakes 24/7 — I was a mess — and, oh yes, my hair was starting to fall out. You cannot even imagine what kind of “more” was going though my head at that point}

Me: ………..(snapping back to reality) So…but…you said this is common right?

Dr: Well, yes and no. Lot’s of people have Graves. Most people these days have some sort of thyroid problem. However, your hormone levels are pretty high up there.

Me: So am I like, the worst you’ve ever seen? (nervous giggle)

Dr: Oh no, I had a patient that was just a little bit worse than you.

Me: (sigh of relief) Oh ok! So…like…how did that end up?

Dr: She died.

I mean, really…

Should I have even asked? Would you have asked?

On a much brighter note, that conversation happened around like, three years ago. I’m nowhere near as sick as I was back then. Thank goodness!

And yes, sometimes I do say “like” way too often in conversation. I can’t help it. I’m, like, a California girl!

Like, you know?

Mucho love and laughter,

City Girl to Country Girl

P.S. My thyroid can kick your thyroid’s ass any day of the week! Bring it!