ok, first things first. one year and two days after my hyperthyroidism diagnosis, i am finally, totally, absolutely free from taking meds again. what a birthday gift! praise the Lord for that! as i have mentioned in a previous post related to my journey with hyperthyroidism, or graves' disease (creepy name if you ask me), my ft3, ft4 and tsh levels have normalised on my 5th month of treatment and have been that way since. my doctor has closely monitored my progress at roughly every 2 1/2 months since may of 2018.
there have been no updates since my last check-up last december because the verdict from my two subsequent check-ups were practically the same except for the dosage which changed to once a week. but in my most recent check up last may, my doctor finally said that i am not to take any more medication and man, saying that i'm so happy is the understatement of the year. i am elated. over the moon. i am grateful.
i don't think i will ever forget it, all the dramatics, histrionics, and all. not since the two months of enduring by myself the general weakness that left me quite useless, extreme weight loss, mood swings (which i think are normal anyway lol) and extra ailments such as the two-hour nightly fevers, tonsil stones and anaemia before the official diagnosis. i will not delve into why i did not see a doctor immediately, although around late february to early march, i went to an ent because of a throat ailment which turned out to be tonsil stones. it went away after a week of antibiotics, but not the swelling in my neck area so i thought it wasn't really tonsil stones to begin with. of course they weren't. cos by then it was my thyroid beginning to swell.
i've also been experiencing anaemia around the same time, which really didn't help much with my arnis training at some point. that some point being training to become a yellow belt in march 2018. thank goodness the promotion itself went really great.
after that high, however, things began to go haywire in my system. i began to tire more easily and those anaemic episodes and fevers became more frequent that i chugged biogesic each night. my appetite began to wane. and i stopped attending arnis training from the second saturday of april onwards because i simply had no energy to do anything. i know i mentioned something about being tired all the time in one of my past sunday currently posts.
even a simple commute to meet a friend became really difficult. i normally take the stairs to get to the ticket office at the mrt station but on that day, i almost fainted at the top step. and then i had to go down and take the bus instead because the line to get to the platform was long and i had no patience for that. the bus was full but i didn't care anymore and sat on the step just before the last row. when i finally got a proper seat, i laid on the three-seater row face down and stayed that way until my stop. stopped over at jollibee for a cheeseburger since i thought it was because i didn't have breakfast before leaving the house. finishing that one small burger was a chore though. getting food into me for that matter regardless of the mealtime was a chore anyhow because all i wanted was to lie down and i had no appetite whatsoever.
it was on that day as well that my friend commented on me losing weight, and i attributed it to my training in arnis. i even drank sprite to alleviate the nausea. but one sunday after that, around late april to early may, my cousin and tita were so surprised to see that i've lost so much weight. attributing it to arnis training doesn't seem feasible anymore since by then i wasn't attending training.
several diagnoses by non-doctors aka my mum and aunts helped none. tb and diabetes were the worst. my mum and i even went to this doctor who came highly recommended by a friend but i don't think it was a good idea in hindsight. to each their own, i guess. then, a doctor who is a family friend of hours said that it might be dehydration after consulting with him. he also recommended a cbc which confirmed anaemia. but it was my mum who adamantly told me to finally add a blood test for ft3, ft4 and tsh because she herself had hyperthyroidism some decades back. i remember that aside from the weight loss, i don't think my mum exhibited any other symptoms of it such as bulging eyes. in my case i didn't have that symptom at all, just the weakness/fatigue, loss of appetite, and severe weight loss.
so...
official diagnosis: 3rd week of may 2018
doctor set out the ground rules.
1. i was to take four kinds of medication: iron for my anaemia, a kind of steroid that i forgot its purpose, some other tablet to slow down my heartbeat, and tapazole to stop my overactive thyroid gland from producing too much thyroid hormones.
2. dietary restrictions were made. no eating food in which iodised salt has been used, no seafood, no eggplant, no egg yolk, and... NO DAIRY. i had no problems with eating savoury food since we cook using rock salt anyway, and seafood at home was and still is pretty rare except for the occasional bangus and homemade tuna spread. am not even a fan of eggplant even if i learned to eat it a little more than a decade ago. the only restrictions i had a beef with was the no yolk and no dairy part. funny how the first thing that came to mind when i heard that was, "no more pastries and other creamy desserts?! nooo!" the second being, "what the heck am i going to eat now?" third: "you mean to say i can't eat out anymore?!" my appetite may have been non-existent, but to me food is really important, especially my favourite comfort foods which happen to be mostly made of whole eggs and dairy.
3. check-ups almost every two weeks for the first few months were a must. taxing if you don't have an hmo to cover the costs.
there was no mistaking the drama that went on after that. from choking on my medicine (yeah so arte i know) to having mini internal temper tantrums because i had to limit my food intake to those that are ok to eat... ok, ok, because i can't have pizza, so there; to literally crying that i wish i had dehydration instead of hyperthyroidism because it seemed easier to treat (although it might have been as expensive). doc even suggested that i could have my tonsils taken out because a week after taking medication i had another fever scare. the only different with this one was that it happened in the afternoon, and come evening i was ok again. another blood test confirmed infection that i had to take a new set of meds that won't affect my taking the current meds at the time.
also that time did i feel my body start to respond to the medication. there were hunger pangs two hours after meals so i had to eat more. i remedied the concern while in church service by bringing a pancake or two that i ate just outside the sanctuary.
speaking of pancakes, right after my diagnosis i immediately researched for recipes of my favourite foods that don't include egg yolks and dairy. paleo and vegan recipes bounced out the web pages i visited. breakfast was my main challenge because i grew up eating sandwiches for breakfast and continue to do so up to now. upon checking the ingredients of our store-bought bread, it is made with iodised salt along with other dry goods from the grocery. so i had pancakes made out of sweet potato, flour, egg white, almond milk or coconut milk for weeks until i got tired of it and made skillet bread instead.
in short, i really adjusted my diet according to the restrictions given in the name of getting well fast. some of my carbo repertoire also include home made mojos which turned out oh-so-yummy if i do say so myself. there's also homemade granola, energy bites, and oats and champorado splashed with almond milk which is quite expensive and of course the taste i'm used to is not what it is with almond milk. another would be coconut cream crepes with vanilla custard for a going-away party. even went as far as making my own peanut butter and ice cream with frozen bananas as base. all the food i made were largely tweaked when it comes to the ingredients.
my strength returned gradually, with no more anaemic episodes and was able to walk a little faster without getting tired. the hunger pangs that came two hours after meals eventually disappeared and my appetite became normal again. all these just a few weeks after taking medication with lots and lots of prayers from everyone we knew.
attend arnis training again: 1st saturday of july
i did not overexert myself for the first few weeks since returning, and then i really came back full force with guns blazing. i already missed two months of training by then and from that time on i only missed one or two training days up until this year that i had to test for my green belt earlier this summer. got my green belt, thank God, and man was it so satisfying. an early birthday gift, if you will. being able to achieve the rank of Sulong was really meaningful. and now i'm on to becoming a Tagapagsanay.
short reprieve from all dietary restrictions: 2nd week of july
i have rambled all about this in my july post last year. read if you dare.
next check-up: august
by this time my ft3, ft4 and tsh have all normalised. meaning i have responded that quickly to the medication, which led to...
the "highly unusual but not impossible" line: september check-up
because my levels were still in the normal zones. same treatment scheme but without the steroid, heart medication and iron anymore, just the tapazole. i think i already graduated from the steroid and heart medication sometime in june. anyway by this time, i was now allowed to eat the restricted foods in moderation. like, yay! doc also lowered my med intake to 3x a week.
october:
looking back at the timeline, i just noticed that all my check-ups were short of two months apart. i thought by this time, i thought the next follow-up from my last check-up in september would be in december. but nope, it was still october but then again, this time i had NO MORE DIETARY RESTRICTIONS. best pre-christmas gift ever, just in time for noche buena! hehe!
december - february:
same dosage and no dietary restrictions.
march - may:
doc lowered the dosage to once a week! i was also advised to take an additional blood test to the usual, called anti-tpo that measures the possibility of being constantly within normal levels, or the possibility of going back to hyper or down to hypo instead. well...
by may, even the anti-tpo is within normal levels, therefore no more medication to take!!! thank God!
of course there's still the follow-up to do but it will be 3 months from now. hopefully when this hits the 18-month mark i'll be totally off follow-ups that are quite near each other. 6 months or longer.
i thank God for everything that i learned this past year. of myself, of others who prayed for me ceaselessly, of God. i don't think i could have made it past through all the melodrama i mostly created and never showed anyone except to a select group of people.
Soli Deo Gloria
