Hypothyroidism

I've struggled with insomnia for the last year or so. I usually lie down to bed, read until my eyes are tired, switch off the light and let my mind wander its way to sleep. Most nights, I fall asleep pretty quickly.

Other nights, instead of turning the corner to la-la-land, I head straight into start-the-brain-spinning-again-land. And suddenly it's three hours after I laid down to sleep and I'm wide awake thinking about work, finances, life-planning and a whole host of other issues; none of which are usually worthy of losing sleep over.

I believe it's primarily stress-related. I already do many of the things recommended to alleviate stress. I exercise regularly (5-6 days a week, for an hour), eat pretty well (if not too much), interact with a pet and have a husband I adore. I garden.

I even fiddled around with yoga, to no avail. I felt like I was wasting calorie-burning time.

Yet here I am, a year later, still having trouble sleeping. My doctor asked about my sleeping habits during my annual physical in May. "Just fine," I chirped. Then I got home and was like, wait, why didn't I tell her I've been having a sucky spring sleeping? I've been blaming it on stress and a mattress that desperately needs to be replaced, but...?

Let me give a bit of family medical history background for you too. Most of the women in my family have a form of hypothyroidism. Your thyroid is a butterfly shaped gland at the base of the Adam's apple, which releases all kind of hormones which interact with your pituitary gland and other hormones. In the case of hypo, the thyroid doesn't release enough hormones, and symptoms include lethargy, weight gain, difficulty keeping weight off and sometimes high blood pressure.

Why yes, I have all of those.

I've taken a synthetic thyroid supplement since I was 19. It's supposed to balance things out, and my TSH and T4 levels are checked every year as blood work during my annual physical.

You should have figured out by now that my levels were out of whack at my last physical. My primary care physician, an internist, upped the dosage, and asked me to come back for a blood panel again in the middle of July. I'll do that Wednesday morning.

I'm reticent to start popping Tylenol PM pills more than once a week. They give me a nasty hangover-like effect the next day. And really, I don't want to treat the symptom (that I can't sleep), I want to address the cause. I need to find a non-eating way to handle my stress. I need to evaluate all of the medical reasons I can't sleep.

Because damn, I need more sleep!

Vision update

The eye surgeon (optical surgeon?) in Great Falls called me yesterday afternoon to follow up, unfortunately with frustrating news. 

They will only operate on a "stable" eye, meaning one that has stopped changing. My vision prescription has been stable enough over the last two to three years to make me a good candidate for LASIK. The scar tissue found last month, however, negates my current eligibility for corrective surgery. 

The cornea specialists that he works with seemed to think it was caused by a virus, which he said "got your eye pretty good." Since I have no recollection of an eye infection, he thinks it was a passing virus, and the tissue will eventually heal on its own.Additional steroid treatment might help. 

On the off chance the virus that caused the scar tissue was something in my system, like the same virus that causes cold sores, the virus will just be in my system. The kicker? A steroid treatment would make the virus worse. 

There isn't a lab test they can do to figure out which kind of a virus this is, so the diagnosis is to wait out a recovery period of at least a year, monitor every three months with cornea mapping, and anticipate having a stable eyeball in a year to 18 months. If after that time period the scar tissue has cleared up, they'll do LASIK in both eyes. If the scar tissue hasn't cleared up, but remains the same as it is today, PRK in the left eye and LASIK in the right.

Yeah. A year. 

The crummy thing is that dropping $4,000 on LASIK is pretty far outside of the realm of our financial resources. FLEXing it, as a medical expense, significantly improves our ability to afford the procedure. Ironically, our FLEX withholding is currently on a January-December rotation, which would have meant I could have FLEXed out the money necessary beginning in January, combined it with the leftovers from the 2010 year and had the procedure anytime before March 1. But the City is changing our flex withholding next year to match the fiscal year of July 1- June 30. 

That means that if a year from now my cornea is stable enough to have surgery, I have to wait until July of 2012 to FLEX out the money for the procedure. 

Have I mentioned that patience is a virtue that I really, really don't have?

But I do now have $500 in 2010's FLEX to spend. New glasses, I suppose?

Seeing the sights

Last night I drove to Helena after dinner, to stay the night with Ali before driving to Great Falls for a consultation with an optic surgeon. 


I've beer wearing contact lenses to correct my vision since I was 12. I have glasses that I'll change into before bed or wear occasionally, but I much prefer my contacts. Especially when it's sunny out and I want to wear sun glasses. 


I've considered corrective laser eye surgery for a number of years now. I figure that the $3-4k I spend now will even out in contact solution, optometrist appointments, etc. over time. A few friends of mine have had it and RAVE about being able to see the clock when they wake up.


This fall my health insurance notified me of $500 in unused FLEX for 2010. I overestimated some things last fall when I signed up, and now had a pile o'money to use. My insurance let's me use 2010's flex in the first 2 months of 2011 in conjunction with my 2011 flex money. So after discussing what it means to our budget for me to flex out $3,000 in 2011 with DJ, I made an appointment with my optometrist in early November. 


During that appointment he found scar tissue in my left cornea. Unexplained, spontaneous scar tissue. I can't remember a big impact to my left side that would have cause it. Or an infection, or anything worse than a two ibuprofen headache.


So I wore my glasses for a week and used a steroid drop to try to get it to clear up. No dice. 

At the follow up appointment my optometrist suggested that although the scar tissue disqualifies me for Lasik surgery, I would still be a candidate for PRK corrective surgery because the surgeon could laser off the scar tissue during the procedure. 

My optometrist in Bozeman, who by the way played football for my dad at MSU in the 80's, referred me to an eye surgeon in Great Falls. 

I should footnote this next part by saying that I was already annoyed with the surgeon's office. They sent me an informational packet on November 17. I never received it. I called on Tuesday to ask them to resend it. I still haven't received it. I called on Friday to have them email it to me. Guess what I still haven't received!? 

Then when I arrived in Great Falls today, they realized that although I was in Great Falls, my appointment was in Spokane. 450 miles away. Really inspiring confidence here guys. 

Thankfully they were able to get me in to see the surgeon anyway. But before hand they did all of the same exam procedures I'd already done (and paid for once, already) in Bozeman. And the technician couldn't get their new fangled machine (circa 1987, I swear) to focus in and I kept getting dizzy. 

Long story short, he looked at me, we chatted, and he felt comfortable saying they'd do Lasik on my right eye. But he'd need to consult with the other six cornea specialists in his clinic network before agreeing to to do PRK surgery on my left eye. He's concerned that the spontaneous scar tissue could form again; that my cornea isn't stable. 

So it's a mixed bag. Lasik on my right eye means a 48 hour recovery and not being nearly blind for a week. PRK on my left eye means they can laser through the scar tissue and remove it. And maybe my vision insurance will cover my left eye. 

But. But I still drove 3 hours/ 220 miles to do essentially the same tests and have the same conversation that I had with a guy I've known 20+ years less than a mile from my house.

No wonder health insurance is so expensive.