Diagnosis

About a year ago, I read this post by one of my favorite bloggers about her struggle with Hashimoto's thyroiditis. In the post, she included a link to a checklist of symptoms. I clicked through and found myself saying "Yes, yes, yes..." to many of the questions on the list.

I was convinced, for a few days at least, that I had some sort of thyroid issue.

But. I am easily persuaded. And, one of the symptoms? "Memory problems or having trouble thinking clearly." -from WebMD

Yesterday morning I had some blood drawn as part of my "annual" physical. Got a cryptic call from my doctor today, saying they had the results and that I should call the office.

Turns out...I have hypothyroidism. Duh!

The symptoms are pretty vague, so I can excuse myself for being unsure of my self-diagnosis. Here are a few of the joys of hypothyroidism:

1. Feeling tired, weak, or depressed.
2. Dry skin and brittle nails.
3. Not being able to stand the cold.
4. Memory problems or having trouble thinking clearly.
5. Heavy or irregular periods.

I suffer from most of these but I chalked each of them up to something else. Numbers 1 and 4? Well, that's just run-of-the-mill motherhood, isn't it?

Number 2? I thought I inherited those dry knuckles from my dad.

Number 3? It's freaking December. In New England. Isn't everyone cold?

Number 5? I'm still nursing which makes everything wacky.

You see?

But now I've got some prescription thyroid hormone waiting for me at CVS. Once it kicks in, I look forward to being alert, strong, happy, smart, warm, and THIN! (The doc also mentioned that my weight issues might also be attributed to low thyroid.)

So... yay?
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