Distress

The last post was actually written on Tuesday, when I was feeling so good.  I had a nice day, even found out that (out of the blue) I am getting a raise at work, despite the fact that I just got one last month.  My new/old boss has been shadowing me and we're bouncing lots of ideas around about improvements.  And we finally have our final staff member coming on board in August.  

Despite sleeping really well, I woke up feeling so completely exhausted.  I couldn't shake that feeling like I was sick; stricken; completely spent.  After eating a simple lunch I had a sharp pain in my extreme lower abdomen ( appendix area) then quickly got a huge cramp in my stomach that made me feel like I was going to pass out.  I was happy to shake that feeling but the whole incident left me feeling extraordinarily weak and shakey.  I managed to get through my shift and get home, eat a little something, it had been 6 hours between meals and I was famished.  Eating did not make me feel better, it made me nauseous.  At that point I thought maybe I had the flu.  I had some toast with ginger, hoping it would settle my stomach, and went to bed thinking I had solved my problem.  Ten minutes later I was upright, panicked, feeling like I was having a heart attack.  But I knew what this was because I had just experienced this in April.  Gastritis.  Ugh!  Inflammation of the stomach lining. Luckily I had some of my medicine left from the last incident, a potent anti-nausea pill for chemotherapy patients, and it definitely helped with the nausea. I still had a lot of discomfort, but at least with the nausea at bay I could relax and look up why this is happening.  The results range from mundane stuff to autoimmune diseases to cancer.  One sight mentioned thyroid and even Hashimoto's and thyroid issues have come up far too many times in symptom search results for me to ignore.  So as I lay there hurting, I was planning out what I'd say when I went to the urgent care after work the next morning( today) and in my head I was shouting, I just want to feel normal!  So that was my plan, to go to urgent care, see if they'd call in a refill for my nausea medicine and explain in dramatic detail how badly I am falling apart and how frustrated I am that my doctor can't find out why.  I'd request more tests under the guise of going in for the gastritis so that my doctor wouldn't be hurt that I didn't come to her.  But this morning, as I was driving to work, I realized none of that was in my best interest.  My stomach was halfway back to normal and I even got a few hours of sleep.  I decided to give my doctor another shot to crack the mystery.  I sent her a message to tell her how aweful I have still been feeling, and request more tests.  I told her that I'd met someone who's Thyroid Stimulating Hormone tests came back normal, but that she was recently diagnosed with Hashimoto's Thyroid, and that her symptoms were so incredibly similar to mine.  I asked for more thyroid testing and any other tests that might help us figure out why I feel so lousy.  It wasn't easy for me, because this is the third time I'm asking her about these same symptoms and I feel like a hypochondriac with all my issues, but I need to get better.  I can't think about getting back to a healthy weight when my underlying health is poor.  I feel relieved that I persisted in this matter, and have hope that I'll get some answers soon.  I have made some great gains mentally, once my body feels better I can start healing the outside as well.  

So that is my current woe.  Gastritis is scarey and painful and it was enough to make me take action.  

Happy Thursday!  Ooh!  I can almost feel the weekend like a beach party in my head!