Thursday, January 05, 2012

What hyperthyroidism feels like

I got a call from my internal medicine doctor this morning, and as I suspected, my thyroid has gone wacky again.  I guess my thyroid doesn't like being on less medication, but it took about 5-6 months to realize it.  When she called this morning I was so glad to hear from her, when she asked how I was doing, I said I am doing great.  She said, are you sure?  I have your blood test results here and I would think you aren't.  I told her that I wasn't feeling too spectacular, but I was glad to be hearing from her. 

I was thinking about how to describe how the symptoms feel.  I think the best way to describe some of the most annoying symptoms is to say it feels like I just ran up a flight of stairs, constantly.  My heart is beating around 100-120bpm, and as I said the other day, I think the average resting heart rate for an adult is 60-90bpm.  I feel slightly out of breath.  I only seem to notice that when I am giving a massage and trying to talk to a client at the same time.  I also have been getting overheated when giving a massage.  So I am massaging, my heart is racing, I am sweating and finding it hard to speak a sentence without having to stop to take a breath in the middle.  On top of that my hands feel jittery, and I wonder if my clients can feel it?  What I read is that having hyperthyroidism is like having adrenaline running through your system.  And I would tend to agree.  I also find it a little hard to focus my thoughts right now.  I have to say that I don't think I have lost a bunch of weight like I did last time, but I think normally I might have gained a little over the Christmas season, and I didn't.  I also haven't been ravenously hungry all the time like I was last time.  I have had a headache off and on for the last week or two and I am wondering if that isn't connected to the heart rate issue. 

I am sure there are a lot of people who have much worse illnesses, and I am thankful that this is so treatable with medication.  I suppose we have learned our lesson that Angie's thyroid doesn't like less medication.  Even though I am on a pretty small dose, it keeps my thyroid happy, and having a happy thyroid makes me happy.  I just hope taking more medication will get it whipped into shape quickly.  

2 comments:

Karen said...

Feeling any better yet?

Angie said...

Not really :P Hopefully soon...