More pills?

Dragon Mood? -- tired; why am I up so early?

I rolled over in bed and wondered "Where am I?" Then I wondered "What day is it? Is it a work day?"

Duh. More and more regularly, I am waking up or waking myself up on Saturday mornings, disoriented. This morning I just couldn't go back to sleep.

I wandered out to the fireplace room and looked at the big clock. Holy cats, it was just after five ... A.M.!

Is it the new pills I'm taking?

I met with my doctor yesterday ... well, actually I was supposed to meet with my doctor, but because of a really bad accident on I-96 and the resulting traffic jam, I missed my appointment entirely. What is ordinarily an hour-and-a-half drive turned into a three-hour marathon. I was frustrated and pissed, to say the least.

I ended up meeting with the nurse-practitioner. She was available and willing to meet with me at 5 o'clock on a Friday afternoon. I give her a lot of credit for that!

To make a long story short, I am now taking a slightly higher dose of Synthroid (0.075 mg or 75 mcg - micrograms) which hopefully, will alleviate some of the fatigue and incredible coldness I've been feeling. I'm also beginning a six-month course of Iodural, an iodine supplement, four 12.5 mcg tablets per day. There is evidently a pretty strong correlation between hypothyroidism and low iodine stores in the body. My doc had me do one of those iodine/urine tests and my iodine stores were definitely down. She told me that we live in the "Goiter Belt" here in the Great Lakes region because we don't get iodine from living near salt water.

I'm also beginning to take some fish oil supplements that both the doctor and her husband doctor take, again because of low iodine levels. I honestly can't remember what the connection was between the fish oil and iodine, so I'm gonna have to get back with you on that.

Suffice to say that I've got more pills to incorporate into my daily regimen. *big sigh*