15 Dec 2011
STRESS CAN KILL YOU
My blog entries may end up being brief for a while as I journey on the a "road to recovery." No, not drugs or alcohol. The road to recovery from the toll "stress" takes from the body.
Mind and body are intimately intertwined. I recently read a quote that I really liked. The idea was regarding scientists/doctors (no offense intended to my medical readers). A boy sees a fly, and wants to know how it works, how it can fly. So he catches it, and carefully dissects it. But he can't seem to get it to work, even though he can see all the different parts, and even trying to put it back together doesn't do any good. It's kind of sad, as the boy is just curious and took an apparent natural path to discovery. The problem is, it could have been a top scientific mind, and the fly still would not be able to work again. All the parts and pieces work together in some sort of 'invisible' synchronicity that we can't discover.
I'm just as curious as the boy, but I know full well you can't take something that is alive (Frankenstein's monster not included), take it apart, and have it work the same, if at all. Electronics, machines, sure. Animals and people? "Absurd."
Back to the subject line-- Stress can kill you. This is indeed the case, one that I've known about because of my family history, and hearing others talk about how they nearly lost a love one. Most often, it's expressed as "His/Her heart just couldn't take any more."
The heart. THE vital organ of the body. Affected by a cascade of chemicals and electrical happenings in our body and all affected by our minds and brains ("mind" being that part of our being that doesn't have a known physicality; "brain" being the physical command center).
Let me see if I can simplify the very complex process. Stress forces the body to produce certain hormones, and after the stress (real or perceived) passes, the body releases a different set of hormones/chemicals to bring the body back to "homeostasis" (also known as normal). But when one endures chronic stress, whether to only "mind" or to body or to both, finding homeostasis doesn't happen. The body is constantly flooded with chemicals meant for "quick" survival, not for living. Left this way, the body degrades and its systems begin to break down or attack itself.
To be more direct about stress and my family, our adrenal glands (itty bitty things responsible for releases over 50 hormones; aside from adrenaline!) and our livers and our thyroids. Livers are the detox organ, basically. It's a big deal. Thyroid is a gland responsible for setting and maintaining our metabolism; that is, the base body temperature, how quickly or slowly we digest food and eliminate waste, et cetera.
Generationally speaking, both my grandmothers had "glandular" problems-- that is, they both had thyroid problems; one had half of her thyroid removed. Both passed of congestive heart failure (more age-related than anything). One grandmother had type II diabetes, and diabetes runs on the other grandmother's side as well. Both my parents have thyroid problems (of either hyper- or hypo-); one has heart problems and Addison's (Addison's is the complete failure of the adrenal glands), the other has had strokes that have caused damage to every "slice" of the brain. My parents and I, in spite of being overweight/obese, have low blood pressure-- something not typically seen in people, much less in people of our size. This can be just as dangerous as high blood pressure.
The 'joke' of "it's genetic" isn't so funny for our family! These key components of the body to life are severely impacted for us. We've had a stress-filled life, always. By the time I left home to join the Navy (at 17-years-old), I had moved 18 times! I think I got all the moves, but we're going to stick with 18; and that counts the "homeless" period as well. Military life is, as most people know, also filled with moving, thus when we bought our first house I made my 29th move just shy of my 29th birthday. Seeing a pattern? Now I'm 34 and making my 30th move (the move started in April and is still ongoing, because...).
This past Friday (9th) I took a trip to the urgent care at the clinic where my Primary Care Doctor works, or rather, used to work as I found out when I went there. The advantage was my favorite medical doctor was on duty. A doctor who takes the time to listen, answer questions, is patient, and does an actual hands-on exam and doesn't rely just on lab work. He has a brain! :-) I went in because of multiple symptoms, but the whole deal with having difficulty breathing, dizziness, and earlier in the week feeling like I might lose consciousness and the increasing utter fatigue had me worried. I didn't want to hear "It's just stress," (that's what I heard from my PCM concerning a different set of symptoms) because I know I have a stress-filled life. The problem was it was affecting my body to such a degree that I couldn't take care of my family, as I was barely even able to perform even daily hygiene (like shower and teeth brushing, which I consider necessities). My energy was GONE.
Well, I knew stress was a major factor, so I summarized for the doctor only the most recent 6-8 months: "My husband returned from a back-to-back combat tour, was diagnosed with chronic PTSD; I have chronic PTSD; we're homeschooling our teen children while performing my 30th move." He leaned back in his chair a bit with big eyes and said, "Wow!" I needed him to know that when I say "I'm under stress" just exactly what I mean. My life is filled with extreme stressors.
He did the hands-on exam, after getting personal and family medical history from me. He ran the lab work I requested (I forgot to request my cholesterol and triglycerides to be ran, I assumed they'd be a part of it), then after over an hour in the exam room (like I said, this doctor takes time, as did the nurse!), I was allowed to go with the "I'll call as soon as the lab work is done, and mail a copy of the results to you." He fulfilled his word.
That afternoon I got a call from the nurse, "Your labs came back and everything is okay. . . except your TSH [the standard thyroid test used to diagnose problems, often without taking into account other symptoms and family history]. The doctor wants to get you started on a medium dose thyroid right away and he'll send the script to your pharmacy." I asked, having done a little bit of research in years past (I've been trying to get doctors to see my hypothyroid symptoms and family history for over 6 years; had they treated the sub-clinical problem, maybe I wouldn't have gone to this extreme), for him to request natural thyroid and that I refuse to take synthetic thyroid. She said she'd let the doctor know and see if it was okay with him, and I could just pick it up.
It was okay, and I got the dessicated thyroid, which I began taking the next morning; can't combine thyroid with other medications or supplements (other than vitamin C), so morning works best for me.
Though I experienced an immediate benefit, I am still worn out and extremely, extremely low on energy. Yesterday, I got the lab results in the mail, which let me know why, and that Death was knocking on my door before I ever had the strength to get in to the doctor's.
The thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) is the "gold" for testing thyroid function in western medicine (aka, allopathic medicine). The lab where my TSH function was tested had a "normal" range being:
0.4-4.0 (values below .4 indicate HYPERthyroid, values above 4.0 indicate HYPOthyroid).
My value, when I saw it, almost put me into shock. *48.63* Yes, that's forty-eight point sixty-three. As Hubby kindly pointed out last night when I informed him, "That's over 12 times the maximum," and he later said it was some 100+ times (he had the actual number) over the minimum value.
I guess there's a reason that I didn't literally drop dead earlier that week; Life continues to keep me in its grip. Perhaps the self care is what saved my life, including two great kids who let me rest for the 2-3 hours at a time and would try to help me keep hydrated and check on my breathing.
It's difficult for me, that I can't do my "all out" Christmas decorating this year-- I LOVE Christmas decorating. I can cook a meal for my family only every couple of days, because it takes about 2 hours of laying down afterward to recover enough energy to just stay awake. I had to do Christmas shopping online this year, because I don't have the energy to go out and get the supplies to make presents, nor the energy to make them! I hate this! HATE it.
Though this entry is long, I felt it important to share. This is the reason I won't be able to post my 'regular' updates. I am cutting out ANY and all extraneous stresses in order to regain my health so I can properly take care of my family. How long will it take? I haven't got a clue. From what I've read so far, it can take a minimum of 6 months. *sigh*
What I want for Christmas is to not have another chronic health condition added to my list.
But there's still the stress issue to deal with, and that is something no medication will take away. Yes, stress can literally make a person drop dead.
Still Alive,
~Cedeham~
p.s.
Apparently, I still have a lot to learn about hypothyroidism and just how serious of a condition it is. As the Urgent Care doctor mentioned, and my mental health manager has tried beating into my brain, this puts me at a high increased susceptibility to heart problems. Thus the "dropping dead" or the "her heart couldn't take any more." Then there's also the risk for diabetes and adrenal problems.
p.p.s.
My weight has been the least of my concerna the past few years, as I have concentrated on improving my health. Perhaps I should have a scale, as unintentional weight gain is one of the indications for a variety of health issues, including hypothyroidism. I didn't know my weight jumped in a hurry in the past couple of months. The bloating and edema was more of my concern, and I go by my tape measurements and how the clothes that I've had for 5 years or so have fit.
No comments:
Post a Comment