[s]Goal: 100,000 New Goal: 200,000[/s] New Goal: 250.000

[mmeeshal]

I am one of the most apathetic, unmotivated people I have ever encountered.

[mmeeshal]

It's ridiculous.

[Smiley73]

I do know tat sometimes it IS hard to get motivated though, those are the times you want to ignore the work and be alone for a bit, well at least that what I do

[mmeeshal]

And I just...objectively, I know it's not good and that's why I have an appointment on Monday with my doctor to discuss giving me higher levels of thyroid hormone (upping my dosage of meds, yay!), because apparently I am pretty much the picture of an incorrectly-treated case of Hashimoto's thyroiditis.

[Smiley73]

meh's will do that to you, just give it some time and/sugar/caffeine and that'll fix it right up, but you still might not want to do work

[Smiley73]

wait what?

[mmeeshal]

But...even though I intellectually care about my lack of caring....I just...DON'T CARE. It's like...I could sit in my room doing nothing all day. I really could. I'm not kidding. I could just lay there. It wouldn't bother me.

[Smiley73]

now that is apathetic

[mmeeshal]

wait what?

I have Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Was diagnosed with it when I was 9 after I gained 50 pounds in a year, 10 in one week. The doctors didn't agree to test my thyroid levels until then, but my mom had been bugging them forever, because I was always active and ate healthy, but I was gaining so much weight.

 

Basically, Hashimoto's is where the immune system attacks the thyroid. From my understanding, when people with Hashimoto's get to where I was at when I was diagnosed, that means they effectively no longer have a thyroid. It's still there, but it doesn't do anything.

 

So, I've been taking thyroid hormone via medication for 11ish years now.

 

However, all of the typical symptoms of hypothyroidism....

 

Excessive tiredness

Lack of motivation

Weight gain

Various physical ailments such as painful pressure points or excessively dry skin

 

I still have them. So I want to talk to my doctor because FINALLY I have one who will listen to me when I tell her that MY normal is not the same thing as someone else's normal, so just because my levels are "in the range" it doesn't mean that I'm okay.

Edited December 15, 2011 by mmeeshal

[Smiley73]

what is Hashimoto's thyroiditis?

[mmeeshal]

Basically, Hashimoto's is where the immune system attacks the thyroid. From my understanding, when people with Hashimoto's get to where I was at when I was diagnosed, that means they effectively no longer have a thyroid. It's still there, but it doesn't do anything.

[Smiley73]

i only saw that now sorry

[Smiley73]

so do you think the Hashimoto's disease (i'll call it that for simplicities sake) is behind at least some of your apathy?

[mmeeshal]

From Wikipedia:

 

Hashimoto's thyroiditis or chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis is an autoimmune disease in which the thyroid gland is gradually destroyed by a variety of cell- and antibody-mediated immune processes. It was the first disease to be recognized as an autoimmune disease.[1] It was first described by the Japanese specialist Hashimoto Hakaru in Germany in 1912.

 

**

 

Symptoms of Hashimoto's thyroiditis include Myxedematous psychosis, weight gain, depression, mania, sensitivity to heat and cold, paresthesia, fatigue, panic attacks, bradycardia, tachycardia, high cholesterol, reactive hypoglycemia, constipation, migraines, muscle weakness, cramps, memory loss, infertility, and hair loss.

Edited December 15, 2011 by mmeeshal

[Smiley73]

wait so does taking the howmones stop the effects or only lessen them?

[mmeeshal]

so do you think the Hashimoto's disease (i'll call it that for simplicities sake) is behind at least some of your apathy?

*nodnod*

 

I could maybe find it for you, my mom did a bunch of research and she said that one person who worked with Hashimoto's disease cases said: even when the depression and fatigue wasn't readily apparent, they were often very difficult to motivate.

[mmeeshal]

wait so does taking the howmones stop the effects or only lessen them?

Ha, that's the funny thing. Thyroid problems USED to be treated based on symptoms. If your symptoms went away, then you were doing it right.

 

NOW, they do it based on that stupid range thing. If your levels are in range, you should be fine.

 

But, doctors are still technically supposed to try to get the effects to go away. They're just too lazy to do it in most cases, or they don't believe you when you say you're still feeling bad.

 

Luckily, some doctors are cool with messing with the hormones until you feel better. Really, if you feel weird, that should be a signal right there for doctors that your hormones are not where they're supposed to be, but you have to point it out for them anyway. XD

[Smiley73]

wow, well thats something new

[Smiley73]

in general doctors should probably care more, maybe they're just desensitized though

[mmeeshal]

Yeah, I think that when you know so much about things, sometimes you get a little prideful, so to speak. So I think for most doctors the issue is that they forget that the patients know more about how they feel than the doctors do. They don't always know why they feel that way, but they still know that they do. But I guess doctors, without realizing it, can take the person's ignorance in the medical field as ignorance in all things related to that.

 

That's how the doctors I don't like have always been. They just assume they know better than I do, even though it's my body.

[Smiley73]

now I may need to spend a couple hours wiki-walking auto-immune diseases

[Smiley73]

tru but in some cases doctors will know better, than the random guy off the room, but I guess you shouldn't completely ignore what someone is telling you, especially if you know the patient well enough

[Smiley73]

also:

[Smiley73]

no I don't run Linux, this was just a pretty cool comic

[hotpocket2006]

You also gotta keep in mind that many people try to scam doctors for drugs and attention. They're also looking out for themselves.