I'm working on a post about dieting and it has me SO wound up.
The gist of it is - the diet industry is telling you that (on average) eating 1,200 calories a day is appropriate for a woman to lose weight. What I have discovered is that it is a LIE - 1,200 calories a day is TOO MANY CALORIES if you want to lose weight.
Well, maybe if you ate 1,200 calories worth of bananas or oranges or zuchinni. But 1,200 calories of frozen diet food has kept me FAT for over a year, even with biking 12 miles every-other day ALL SUMMER. On the off days I would go to the driving range and hit a bucket of balls. All. Summer. Long. And I lost, what? NOTHING.
I'll be back with a full post on this and it is SO off topic from our usual discussions, but srsly. My narcs are dead/ish and this is what's on my mind (and MY ASS).
*Title of this post unabashedly ganked from this blog which I found by actually googling 'what did women eat in the 50's' because I have gotten so frustrated. It's a pretty neato blog.
Haven't look at the reference. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteUmm, Gladys? Thyroid. Now, forget blood work. Mine was FINE for 30+ yrs. This skinny, shaking, sleep 3 hrs. max at night woman was referred to a shrink (yeah, and I AM one) for an "Anxiety Disorder." Based on Blood Work.
So...I ended up with a female PA. Who said, "Thyroid Blood Work" to which I responded, "Bull Shit. It'll come back normal." To which she responded, "Yeah, but in order to get your insurance to pay, here's where I gotta start..." and went on to order a Thyroid Uptake and a Thyroid Ultrasound and I don't have a Thyroid anymore.
I ended up with a great Endocrinologist. Who said to me, "You have ANY idea how many females who are fighting the battle of the bulge and actually would benefit from as little from .12mcg. of medication?"
Ah, no, I didn't. But I do now. "AND, how many women are referred to shrinks because of their symptoms?"
So I didn't feel too bad. But my bones and teeth have had all the calcium sucked from them. And I'm paying the price to the dentist and my infrastructure is collapsing.
Get thee to an Endocrinologist. Insist on a Thyroid Ultrasound and a Thyroid Uptake.
Then we'll talk. And how freakin' embarrassing for me to be a "Health Care Professional" with an alphabet soup of letters behind my name to say, "Oh yeah." ;)
Life has a way of keeping me humble. And accommodating what ever. We adapt over time to all kinds of stuff because it plays out against the back-drop of our daily lives: We don't have time for this shit until we make time.
OK? Please? Will you be willing to do this? Thyroid Blood work (which will come back WNL) followed by a Thyroid Ultrasound followed by a Thyroid Uptake.
THEN, we'll talk.
TW
TW, you are so damn smart. I was going to suggest Gladys hightail it to the doctor too, but you are much more persuasive than I.
DeleteGladys, do what TW says :).
Tea Dubya - I certainly will go see a doc, that's good to know about the thyroid.
DeleteBUT. I have been severely menopausal for the last 8 YEARS and every time I get my levels checked, they come back 'within normal ranges for the national average'. Well, I have a lot to say about that too, which will be included in my next post - but how can I have EVERY. SINGLE. SYMPTOM. and yet not be in the throes of menopause at all??
I HATE the MDA and the FDA and etc alphabet soup medical industry. I rely far more on actual anecdotal evidence by people who are in the trenches than I do on clinical trials (an industry I worked in myself) as clinical trial data can be skewed a gabillion ways to promote a particular outcome.
Thank you!! I will get my (possibly stupidly sluggish thyroid checked0 OH! Does hypoglycemia have anything to do with all of this?
Hear me, woman: My BLOOD WORK ALWAYS CAME BACK WNL. For about 30 yrs. It took a (female) PA to work the system and INSIST on the Ultrasound and Uptake. I grew a HUGE goiter within 2 months after the results of the blood work/Ultrasound/Uptake and guess what? My blood work was all "WNL." After this humungous goiter erupted while the PA was doing battle with my insurance company and I was in the process of moving lock/stock/barrel to participate in a Medical Clinical Trial MANY states away, where I knew not a soul (and for what finally dxd as an autoimmune disease.) I now truly looked like what my colleagues use to call me, "The Ethiopian:" Tall, skinny and a huge goiter to boot. I couldn't lay on my back or I would vomit, cough my lungs out, while living in a Hotel suite (with Trouble, the cat) until I could find a house to buy. (I flunked the Clinical Trial the day after I closed on the house.)
ReplyDeleteMy Endocrinologist didn't make me go through a FNA (fine needle aspiration) on the goiter/thyroid as I was studded back, front, both sides and just a mess. So I had a total thyroidectomy. If they can leave a piece of your thyroid, even a small piece, they will. We can live without a lot of stuff, but we can't live without a thyroid. So I take a hit of speed every morning, and never use generics as he advised.
As my PA said to me when I was getting ready to move for the Clinical Trial, "TW, fuck the Autoimmune Docs. Get yourself to an Endocrinologist FIRST." I begged her to give me something, anything to help on the long drive/move and she said, "No. It'll screw up the results." So I drove in an old car (no, I had planned to buy a new one or rent a vehicle for the trip but post 9-11, it didn't work) and as Troubs and I were Southbound, the poor people who had adjacent rooms to mine had to listen to a woman cough herself into vomiting.
My blood work always remained "WNL." Despite the huge goiter. Despite my symptoms which were NOW swinging to Hypo which meant I had all the functioning grey matter of a very confused 90 yr. old. Say "huh? Oh, yeah, I'll sign here...and my name is...ahh..lemme think here-oh! NOW I remember..."
I was puffy as hell. My periods ceased or did all kinds of strange stuff. It wasn't "Peri-menopause." My hair, nails, skin were doing weird stuff, You can't go down a list that says, "These are the symptoms of Hyperthyroid. Here's the symptoms of Hypothyroid" because I was swinging wildly between the two.
Get a referral to an Endo and one that's associated with a large teaching University. ASAP. Have them do the Ultrasound and Uptake.
We're talking "mcgs" here and like any other hormones, it doesn't take much to make a mess. The symptoms can be so subtle and we do accommodate. Until we can't and as I was swinging to Hypo, I thought I was just "lazy." And kicked my own butt for not getting stuff done. I ate, but not because I was hungry. Didn't mater, I was gonna vomit it up later anyway. But I remained a puff-ball. All kinds of fluid and funny fat in strange places.
Please do this, OK? And DON'T rely on Blood Work alone.
TW