Hypothyroid

I was reading through my avocado8 & 255 characters or less archives and looking at the gallery of silly faces, and I noticed a theme over the past year: intense sleepiness. It turns out that I'm hypothyroid, and that this can be responsible for a host of symptoms, including lack of energy, depression, mood swings, dry skin, dry hair, high cholesterol, weight gain, you name it.

I've had all of the symptoms listed above for quite a while, perhaps years. When the doctor asked me about my energy level, I honestly couldn't tell him if it was normal or not; this is just the way it is. Am I supposed to be more energetic? Less sleepy? I don't know. I play hockey at least twice a week, so I can't be absolutely dragging. But I wonder: will being on thyroid medication give me more pep? Boy, that would be cool. This is my second week of therapy; supposedly I should see a difference after 4-6 weeks. I can't wait.

Btw, it was kind of a fluke that my hypothyroidism was discovered. I hadn't had my cholesterol checked since 1992, 5 years after becoming a near-vegetarian (occasional fish), and I figured that after 13.5 years of this diet and another 6 months of eating nearly vegan, it had to have come down from the 1992 level of 205. When I went in for my yearly gyn exam, I asked if I could have my cholesterol checked. My doctor said OK, we could do a whole blood profile, including lipids. From that profile, we found two things: that my cholesterol was now 215, and that my TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) was 6.148.

I was surprised about the cholesterol level -- though not too concerned, since my HDL is quite high, and my risk of heart disease extremely low -- until I went to an endocrinologist for further tests and found out that hypothyroidism can affect cholesterol levels. It made me wonder how long I've been low. My sister was diagnosed with hypothyroidism at the age of 22, when she was trying to get pregnant and couldn't. Could I have been hypo as long ago as 1992? Will my cholesterol level go down as my energy level goes up? Another thing I can't wait to find out.

Anyway, the point of mentioning the accidental discovery is to suggest that if you haven't had a blood panel done in 10 years or more, perhaps it's time to ask for one. If nothing else, you'll have a baseline for what's normal for you when you're healthy -- something for the doctors to compare against if you ever get sick.

Jet Engines Make Me Flinch

Yes, everything's different now. The talking heads on television keep saying that, seemingly in the same breath that they say, "we've got to get back to our normal routines." For the most part, things *have* returned to normal for me, except that I now flinch whenever I hear a jet engine. It started a few days after the attack, when we went to Orlando International Airport to try to catch a flight home to San Jose. I guess I hadn't noticed how quiet the skies had been until then. Suddenly, while standing at the gate, I heard the noise: the noise that preceeded the crash of United flight 175 into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. I don't know if it was a plane landing, taking off, or taxiing to or from a gate. All I know is that it was The Noise. I flinched big time, hunching my shoulders and head and looking up through my bangs.

Since one of the approaches to SFO is over my office, I see planes regularly, and I sometimes hear them. If I see them *before* I hear them, I'm OK. But god help me if The Noise comes out of nowhere. I duck and cover.

Being afraid of jet engine noise isn't the only thing that's different. Yesterday I was in the Nob Hill supermarket down the street, and my cell phone rang. I fished it out of my purse and promptly lost the signal. It couldn't even tell me who had been calling, so I dropped it back in my purse. Suddenly I snatched it back out again to check the time: 12:27pm. Here was my thinking: Al had a flight to Boston at 1pm. If it was after 1pm, that meant it could be Al calling from the plane, and this might be the last time I'd ever get to talk to him. I'd need to run outside, get a PCS signal, and try to call him back. Since it was only 12:27pm, he couldn't possibly be on the plane yet, so I could finish buying my stuff and then see if it was he who called when I was done.

I suppose this is only the start. From now on I'll not only check my bag for inhalers (which look like mace), but also for nail files (even ones with rounded edges) before heading to the airport. When I get on a plane, I'll not only look for the nearest emergency exit (which may be behind me), but also for magazines, pillows, and blankets: weapons with which to subdue a hijacker. But worst of all, I'll be looking over my shoulder even at ground level, because I wonder what the group that was brilliant enough to hijack four commercial airplanes simultaneously and fly them into buildings has in store for us next.