A funny thing happened on the way to a dream last night. After about three hours of peaceful sleep, I was awakened to my own breathing. Have you ever felt your breathing when you've had a fever? The breathing is just a little bit quick, and a little bit shallow. It felt odd to me, especially since I had no fever, and felt physically fine the day before. But right now, not so much. I got up to use the bathroom, and felt a little sick to my stomach. Then it felt as though my heart was bouncing all over the place! I checked my pulse and was unable to discern an actual rhythm, so, being the nurse that I am, I remained calm and walked downstairs to the kitchen, where there is a clock with a second hand. I found my heart’s rhythm, and then counted… fast. 140 beats per minute. Okay, this is not normal. Could it be my thyroid again?
After about five minutes of rest, and to be perfectly honest, just a little bit of worry, I brushed my teeth and told my husband that I think it’s time we made a visit to the emergency room. Now, if you know me at all, or if you know any nurses for that matter, you are aware that we are the worst patients! Usually nurses don’t set foot in a hospital, no matter what the problem is. And if you know me personally, you know I prefer holistic cures that address the real root cause, rather than allopathic treatments that ameliorate the symptoms and ignore the cause. I walked into to the ER and called to the triage nurse, who was busy chatting with her colleague and watching some late night TV show. When she didn’t respond, I felt it was more important to use the restroom again than wait for her to acknowledge me. On my way back, she did acknowledge my presence and swiftly checked me in. Of course I was feeling better by then, but an EKG was done anyway and my heart rate was down to 106. My blood pressure and my temperature were checked – both normal, and she assured me that I did the right thing by coming in. Minutes later, after the doctor had examined me, she informed me that in addition to running a routine panel of blood work, she would also check my thyroid level as well as do a test to determine whether I had a blood clot in my lung. Oh, I hadn’t even considered that.
An hour after my blood was drawn, a different nurse came into my little holding area to administer Tylenol. But I didn’t need Tylenol, and I asked her why she thought I needed it. And this is what she said: “It will make you feel better.” “But I feel fine right now,” I said, “and I have no headache, or body aches, or anything that would require an analgesic.” She said “it’s safer than Motrin.” I reminded her that I am not in need of an analgesic to reduce any physical discomforts, because I was not experiencing any physical discomforts. She said to me “so, do you want me to cancel this?” I told her “yes, please cancel the Tylenol, and throw it away, because I’m not taking it.” This is a major bone of contention for me. It felt like a pharmaceutical assault, and I was not about to play victim. Too many drugs are pushed legally on too many unwitting participants in the game of pharmaceutical profit. A major bone of contention for me…
As I waited for my lab results to come back, against my better judgment, I submitted to a dose of radiation via x-ray to determine whether I had an enlarged heart. Standing there, it felt as if I was a character in a bad sci-fi film, and I could practically hear the music in the background, low, deep, and sinister… that sort of music the audience hears that warns them of impending disaster. After my lab tests came back, the doctor informed me that my thyroid level was low, which indicates an overactive thyroid (if the level is high, it means that the thyroid gland is pumping too hard to get even a little bit of the essential thyroid hormone secreted, and now it was not having to work so hard to secrete that hormone). So after 17 years of having hypothyroidism, I now have hyperthyroidism! However, the test to determine whether I may have a pulmonary embolism, however vague the meaning of the result, was elevated. So a CT scan was next on the agenda. So here I go again, back to radiology, to submit to an even more toxic assault on my body, with poisonous contrast dye ready to be injected into my veins. In retrospect, I should have refused the chest x-ray and told them that if the test to determine whether I had a clot in my lung was positive, I would agree to the CT scan, because after all, you can have a nice look-see at my heart that way too, and I could have avoided the extra radiation.
In any event, both tests were done, and both tests were negative for any problem. It was indeed my thyroid, as I had initially thought. So the nurse who tried to give me Tylenol for no good reason came back to remove my IV line, and she told me to continue taking my medications as I have been. I was quick to remind her that with a change in my thyroid level, my doctor would want to decrease my medication dose, and it may be actually dangerous for me to continue taking my mediations “as directed.” I’m pretty sure she didn’t like me, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t appreciate her very much at that time, either. When I worked in the hospital… ah, well, that’s for another time.
So the point to this whole long and drawn-out blog post? My nurse practitioner told me a few weeks ago that at some point, with all the weight loss and the incredible health I was enjoying, she would eventually need to decrease the dose of my thyroid medication. Now is the time, and she did, and I’m really sort of overjoyed! Because it just means that I have given my body a chance to heal itself with amazing super-nutrition, and my body, being the miracle that it was meant to be, isn’t letting me down. So my heart’s all a-flutter for so many reasons!
No comments:
Post a Comment