My regular doc in HCMC sent me off to a heart specialist as he found I had a low heart rate. At the time, my resting rate would get as low as 43 beats a minute and I was not in any way, shape or form, fit. It had always been low and just kept getting lower over the years. The heart man found nothing untoward apart from the fact that I made a basking lizard look fast.
My doc said the next most obvious thing to check was thyroid function. (I had been trying for years to get my thyroid function tested while I was still in NZ as I had symptoms and a family history but that just wasn't good enough for them.) Results came back that I was just outside 'normal,' and would I like to go see a specialist in Singapore or should we be begin with a low dose of Levothyroxine and monitor closely? I went with the second option, of course.
Within a few weeks I felt better and over time had more energy, less pain and was sleeping better, however it took a long time to get used to having a faster heart rate - now in the 50's. I wasn't losing any weight and in fact was still putting it on.
I decided to see a local specialist which was a huge mistake as the woman was clearly incompetent or else a pedlar for the drug companies. She did more specific tests and said yes, I have Hashimoto's (anti-bodies present and my thyroid is very small), and then flip-flopped around more than a fish out of water trying to say that I was depressed, which I'm not and never have been. Now I do not tolerate fools well at all, least of all a fool that I'm paying, so I was very clear with her that I thought she was doing less than a good job. Her response was to prescribe anti-psychotics. I also don't take self-serving attitudes or incompetence very well. I went ballistic.
The one positive thing that did come out of that whole mess was a small increase in the dosage of the Levo. It took 3 months of hell to adjust but because I knew I definitely had Hashi's, I persisted 'til I felt better. Until I went on Levo, I could not tolerate it if my heart rate went above about 75 - it would feel like it was hammering out of my chest. With the higher dose, this increased to about 90 over the first 3 months and has since gotten up to about 110 before it feels that way, with my resting heart rate being around 60 on a good day. My bloods, meds and symptoms are now reasonably well aligned which is the best you can hope for with this thing. It's a continuous balancing act and one that I think diet plays an incredibly important role.
I read somewhere that when you have Hashimoto's you get to eat half as much as everyone else and exercise twice as much. That's a real bugger as I'm exercise challenged, so I've really made an effort with diet and so far I've lost 20kgs.
No comments:
Post a Comment