update
So here's the deal.
1) It turns out I do have hypothyroidism. My tests finally came back with below normal thyroid levels. I had pretty much given up convincing doctors that I must have hypothyroidism because even though I have every symptom you can have, my tests were coming back normal every time. I told my doctor that my memory problems had come back, and I'm always cold, and I get completely exhausted for no reason. But for me, fatigue is almost like... *despite* reason, because I'm on Adderall and I shouldn't feel tired at all. So he was like, "Let's check your thyroid again..." and that's how that happened. I started taking the synthetic stuff this weekend. I'm still feeling pretty tired, but I blame staying up until 3AM Friday night to finish Heavy Rain, and then staying up until 12:30AM last night to watch Idolatry with my... person. Boyfriend? Person.
In any case, so yeah. Hypothyroidism. Maybe now I can stop working out 5 hours a week so I don't gain weight every time I decide to eat something other than carrots. That would be nice!
2) But the real reason for my doctor's visit was that, well. How do I say this without sounding like a whiner? I'm in a lot of pain. Some of you probably know that I've been having shoulder issues for almost 3 years now, but all my scans came back clean. They'd give me muscle relaxers, which didn't help at all, and I was eating so much ibuprofen that I was just constantly nauseous. That on top of a lack of appetite from the Adderall and I wasn't doing very well, to put it simply.
My knees have always been fucked up because I shredded the cartilage in both of them at different points in my life. I've had repairs on both knees, the left when I was 11 and the right when I was 19. And my surgeons were both like, "People your age NEVER tear cartilage, why the fuck do you have 3 tears with no injury?" Well, I found out!
About 4 months ago, my elbows started hurting, and my hands started getting really stiff. It's been especially bad the past few months because it's been cold (for Texas) and my office is freezing regardless. So I finally went into the doctor because my mom was getting very worried, saying it sounded like how her symptoms for rheumatoid arthritis first presented (she had carpel tunnel syndrome first, which she had surgery for, but it progressed and now she can't move some of her fingers). And... yeah. I tested positive for the anti-bodies. Since rheumatoid arthritis is an auto-immune disease, they can do a blood test to see if you've got the anti-bodies for it. It's not 100%, I guess, but considering my symptoms, the amount of pain I have, and my family's history, it's pretty likely that I have rheumatoid arthritis.
I'm 29. I can't pretend that this doesn't make me sad and worried. My mom does okay, but she's disfigured. I mean, she can't move some of her fingers and they're sort of stuck in these positions like claws? She's had a hip replacement and both her knees replaced. She also has that thing where the spinal column narrows and presses on the sciatic nerve, which she had surgery to fix.
I'm trying not to worry about it too much yet, but I am worried. Part of the reason I don't write fic anymore and don't post to LJ as much is because my hands get so stiff and my shoulders and elbows start to hurt if I type too long. I sit at my computer for work all day, and when I get home, I just want to be warm and not move for a long time. Ugh, I sound like an old lady. *sadface*
In good news, though, I got offered Useless Girl's job when she leaves in August to go back to school, which means more money AND my own office, so that's a positive! It won't happen for a while, and I think there may be some weirdness with the receptionist, who really wanted that job and just found out she won't get it, but my boss said some really nice things to me when she offered it to me, like about how I'm really good with the faculty (see! someone thinks I'm good with people!! Adderall really DOES work!) and how they knew they'd have to find a way to give me more money if they wanted to keep me, and they definitely don't want to lose me. So that makes me happy. They want to keep me around!
But the best part about the new job? NO MORE WEBSITE BULLSHIT!!! No more adding 250 syllabi to a repetitive and poorly-structured database, no more dealing with the College's refusal to lift the stylesheet restrictions so I can align photographs on our own freaking website, no more Cascade and having to hard code HTML tables to get around the stylesheet. OMFG, YAY.
Anyway, I have to get back to work now. And since this somehow got really long, if you made it all the way to the end, you're awesome and should tell me what's going on with you. I haven't checked my flist in probably 3 months; I don't know what's happening with anything. Speaking of which, did anyone see Thursday's Idol results show? WTF, America? What the actual fuck?? LACEY BROWN is still there, while Alex Lambert and Lilly McQuirky are both out?? OMG, the fuckery. It is sad-making.
1) It turns out I do have hypothyroidism. My tests finally came back with below normal thyroid levels. I had pretty much given up convincing doctors that I must have hypothyroidism because even though I have every symptom you can have, my tests were coming back normal every time. I told my doctor that my memory problems had come back, and I'm always cold, and I get completely exhausted for no reason. But for me, fatigue is almost like... *despite* reason, because I'm on Adderall and I shouldn't feel tired at all. So he was like, "Let's check your thyroid again..." and that's how that happened. I started taking the synthetic stuff this weekend. I'm still feeling pretty tired, but I blame staying up until 3AM Friday night to finish Heavy Rain, and then staying up until 12:30AM last night to watch Idolatry with my... person. Boyfriend? Person.
In any case, so yeah. Hypothyroidism. Maybe now I can stop working out 5 hours a week so I don't gain weight every time I decide to eat something other than carrots. That would be nice!
2) But the real reason for my doctor's visit was that, well. How do I say this without sounding like a whiner? I'm in a lot of pain. Some of you probably know that I've been having shoulder issues for almost 3 years now, but all my scans came back clean. They'd give me muscle relaxers, which didn't help at all, and I was eating so much ibuprofen that I was just constantly nauseous. That on top of a lack of appetite from the Adderall and I wasn't doing very well, to put it simply.
My knees have always been fucked up because I shredded the cartilage in both of them at different points in my life. I've had repairs on both knees, the left when I was 11 and the right when I was 19. And my surgeons were both like, "People your age NEVER tear cartilage, why the fuck do you have 3 tears with no injury?" Well, I found out!
About 4 months ago, my elbows started hurting, and my hands started getting really stiff. It's been especially bad the past few months because it's been cold (for Texas) and my office is freezing regardless. So I finally went into the doctor because my mom was getting very worried, saying it sounded like how her symptoms for rheumatoid arthritis first presented (she had carpel tunnel syndrome first, which she had surgery for, but it progressed and now she can't move some of her fingers). And... yeah. I tested positive for the anti-bodies. Since rheumatoid arthritis is an auto-immune disease, they can do a blood test to see if you've got the anti-bodies for it. It's not 100%, I guess, but considering my symptoms, the amount of pain I have, and my family's history, it's pretty likely that I have rheumatoid arthritis.
I'm 29. I can't pretend that this doesn't make me sad and worried. My mom does okay, but she's disfigured. I mean, she can't move some of her fingers and they're sort of stuck in these positions like claws? She's had a hip replacement and both her knees replaced. She also has that thing where the spinal column narrows and presses on the sciatic nerve, which she had surgery to fix.
I'm trying not to worry about it too much yet, but I am worried. Part of the reason I don't write fic anymore and don't post to LJ as much is because my hands get so stiff and my shoulders and elbows start to hurt if I type too long. I sit at my computer for work all day, and when I get home, I just want to be warm and not move for a long time. Ugh, I sound like an old lady. *sadface*
In good news, though, I got offered Useless Girl's job when she leaves in August to go back to school, which means more money AND my own office, so that's a positive! It won't happen for a while, and I think there may be some weirdness with the receptionist, who really wanted that job and just found out she won't get it, but my boss said some really nice things to me when she offered it to me, like about how I'm really good with the faculty (see! someone thinks I'm good with people!! Adderall really DOES work!) and how they knew they'd have to find a way to give me more money if they wanted to keep me, and they definitely don't want to lose me. So that makes me happy. They want to keep me around!
But the best part about the new job? NO MORE WEBSITE BULLSHIT!!! No more adding 250 syllabi to a repetitive and poorly-structured database, no more dealing with the College's refusal to lift the stylesheet restrictions so I can align photographs on our own freaking website, no more Cascade and having to hard code HTML tables to get around the stylesheet. OMFG, YAY.
Anyway, I have to get back to work now. And since this somehow got really long, if you made it all the way to the end, you're awesome and should tell me what's going on with you. I haven't checked my flist in probably 3 months; I don't know what's happening with anything. Speaking of which, did anyone see Thursday's Idol results show? WTF, America? What the actual fuck?? LACEY BROWN is still there, while Alex Lambert and Lilly McQuirky are both out?? OMG, the fuckery. It is sad-making.