Jim's Place

My PNA article for January 2008

Summer 2002

After the March camping trip it was time to get back to job one - getting my medical condition under control. I found a new endocrinologist and began the slow process of adjusting my Synthroid to the proper dosage. Theoretically, I should be fully functional and back at work within a few months – only a matter of time. I jokingly told my friends that that is why the doctors call us patients - because we have to be patient while they practice! For the next few weeks, I shifted into escape mode - taking things day by day and trying not to worry about the future. I had just enough energy to get out of the house occasionally, visit with my friends and hang out at the Jacuzzi. I didn't feel anywhere near up to exercising, but figured at some point I would recover enough to get back in the gym. But as April rolled into May, I became concerned because I didn't seem to be improving much at all. Yet again, I wondered if the doctors weren't missing something important. With all the focus on the pituitary problem could they have overlooked cardiovascular issues? My father and my brother Jerry had both died from heart disease and at over 270 lbs I certainly had significant risk factors! I made an appointment to see a cardiologist even though my instincts told me that my heart was not a problem... Maybe the biggest issue was simply the impact of losing my brother a few weeks earlier...

 

My PNA article for December 2007

Here's the article I wrote for the PNA (Pituitary Network Association) newsletter for November 2007 documenting my experience with pituitary illness in Spring 2002...
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Spring 2002

I expected that it would be difficult to get back into the swing of things after returning home from my brother's funeral. Although I didn't feel well or have much energy I wasn't that concerned. It only made sense that it would take a while to recover from the loss of Jerry and get back to my old self. Besides, I'd only been on hormone treatment for a couple of months and I figured it would take some more time to get my dosages adjusted correctly. My work environment was more stressful than ever. It seemed like my boss was doing everything she could to make my life miserable. It was obvious that she had a personal agenda and that she felt I was in her way. Almost daily, she was calling me into her office and blaming me for some problem that usually wasn't even my responsibility. Day by day I could feel my energy fading. I knew that because of my pituitary disorder my body was much more sensitive to stress but I figured that if I could just hang in there things would calm down and I would recover. But I finally reached the point where I suspected something in my treatment wasn't right. My doctor suggested having my thyroid levels checked even though they had been normal only a few months earlier. What a shock it was when the tests came back and showed my levels were extremely low. My TSH was at an astonishingly abnormal 72! How in the world could that have happened?! My doctor had no explanation but decided a dramatic increase in my Synthroid was necessary. He immediately doubled it from 150mcg to 300mcg. I couldn't believe he would jump it up so quickly. I was no endocrinologist, but I knew from past experience that anytime you made a dramatic change in dosage it would cause problems. But he assured me that it was the best thing to do and that I would be fine. So I got the new prescription and just hoped that it would do the trick.