In the beginning......

This is my first blog so it may be a little long! In mid 2005 I started feeling very tired and worn down so I went to my PCP for a physical. After getting a clean bill of health I decided to schedule a visit with my gyno to check a small mass I could feel in my chest. That journey lasted approximately 6 months when the local cancer hospital finally gave me another clean bill of health but when I explained to them how I felt they referred me back to my PCP to have my thyroid checked again. Since my first PCP said my thyroid was fine I kinda blew off the visit, I had gotten two clean bills in a years time!!

Now comes 2006 and the journey begins!!!!!!!!!!!!! I started feeling very fatigued and figured something had to be wrong so I decided to find a new PCP and get a fresh pair of eyes on this. I had just recently lost the few extra pounds I had gained from the stress but I was getting weaker and weaker. My thyroid tests came back all normal but my new doctor, who was very understanding, decided to prescribe me Armour since all my symptoms were classic hypothyroid. The Armour seemed to help for a short time but when they symptoms came back, they came back hard! My PCP felt I should see an endocrinologist for a blood panel, again nothing. My thyroid antibodies were high but noone seemed to care. Who knows how I was working during this time, I could not keep my eyes open! I started developing some neurological symptoms - numbness, confusion, tingling and was sent from endo to neuro without anyone being able to find anything except those dumb antibodies, but what are they??? They really weren't elevated enought to cause that much of a problem. Noone seemed to care about them. My PCP during this whole experience was the most caring person I have met but he was even perplexed. I was gaining weight like crazy, I was having all kinds of neuro problems and I could not stay awake. I was convinced it was the Armour causing the weight gain so I requested a change to Synthroid but that didn't help, we were at a loss. I was beginning to think it was all in my head, as many doctors suggested. After extensive research on the internet regarding these antibodies I decided to seek out some doctors on my own. I found (with the help of a television show) an endo in town that specializes in this thing called Hashimoto's so I gave her a call, trying my best to get an appointment because I was going down fast. On top of everything else, I could not remember a thing! (Thank you to my job for understanding, though throughout these two years I had learned to mask alot of what was going on!) The specialist was booked for the next few months so I asked for the next best and got an immediate appointment with her. Boy what an eye opener! It turns out these thyroid antibodies are a big deal -- that thyroid thing controls your whole body! We did some medication adjustments and I was on my way to feeling better, finally!!!

Then in 2008 the "episodes" hit, they were mini stroke type episodes ---- they weren't frequent but they were troublesome. I was referred to a neuro who was an angel from heaven. She could tell something was wrong and she was determined to figure it out! Could it be this rare condition I found on the internet (yes the internet again!) called Hashimoto's Encephalopathy? Noone has ever heard of it but I was determined. I printed off hundreds of pages from the net and brought them to my new neuro along with the pages and pages of test that have already been performed. I was beginning to feel like a guinea pig. I went through weeks of more testing and finally something came back --- RERA's. What is that??? A form of sleep apnea. (how, I was tested for that in 2006) Hmmm according to her that could cause the weight gain, the memory loss, the fatigue, the blackouts -- everything. I have never been so excited to hear of something. Since i seemed to have had it for so loing it was causing a reversable type of brain damage. With treatment, I would be fine. Whew.

I don't really remember much from late 2007/2008. It seems that my short term memory short circuited. It was at this time I started filling people in on the secret I was hiding, how bad I was really feeling and how scared I really was. Why isn't the miracle apnea treatments working?? Why are things not reversing??? I can tell you that even with treatment for the apnea, I was still sleepy all the time. I started taking Provigil to make it though the day. I developed high blood pressure from the medication so I had to discontinue it. Even though the Provigil went away, the blood pressure problems did not! Again, a side effect from this massive weight gain I experienced. I decided to call that specialist from that tv show again, what the heck it couldn't possibly cause any harm. I have been through hundreds of tests by this time and the only definate blood test was that dumb Hashimoto's. She got high praises from my neuro and this was the last step before starting the grueling treatments for HE. If there was something wrong we had confidence she could find it. Believe it or not, I was able to get in!!! I learned with this great auto-immune disease it was next to impossible to lose the weight I gained so I started looking into the Lap Band. Could it work? I would ask her, my neuro seemed to think it would. Her only new finding was now i developed insulin resistance, the precurser to Type II diabetis. Now something had to be done!!!! If all this new stuff could be controlled with weight loss, why not try it??? Since I was not "ideal" weight for auto approval, both my neuro and endo gave my insurance their blessing and whalla -- I got approved. During all my research I found a thyroid advocate, Mary Shomon, who I had been following faithfully and I asked if she had every heard of a Hashi's patient having Lap Band but she had not. So here I go again, feeling like yet another guinea pig. I could not find many stories out there of people who have been though this, so I thought I would blog my progress!!!! I went from having a clean bill of health to having Hashimoto thyroiditis -causing neurological issues, weight issues, sleep issues, blood pressure issues and now insulin issues all in two years. All which could be reversed by losing a few pounds.............. Will it work????