Friday, August 10, 2018

Progress report on he who progresses

Previously weight was over 230 and is now mid-220s.  And yet another medication has been ditched, as usual preceding next week's scheduled consult with physician.  I tend to think levothyroxine was never needed, but let's see what the endocrinologist has to say.  For those cases with not-so-interesting lab values and no symptoms... Hmm...   And some troublesome new developments arose  (several episodes of heart rate 160 while sitting around doing nothing?), prompting the ditching of this questionable med.  All good and healthy-seeming for now, so let's see what Dr. Lab-Result-Scrutinizer has to say next week.

This was another development, but let me tell you, this is not him:


Not insomnia as the pictured bed may imply, but that facial expression is a carbon copy:  Just a constant "on alert" or "on edge" feeling as it was described to me, as if waiting for a knock on the door... Unable to relax.  And it was not related to the 160 heart rate, which showed up out of nowhere.  The 160 beats per minute (or higher, he wouldn't let me see the BP machine so he may have understated, but I felt it on the wrist and it was scary to count, made me sick) came and went within 20 minutes or so, but happened three times over the course of about one week, and has not happened since the discontinuation of those tiny tablets.

BP, by the way, still good. Was sort of high (130s) during one of those unsettling tachycardia episodes and better (110s) during another, so no correlation that I can detect. Normally I get to see the BP machine and it's average 120, often 110s, highest ever seen was 141 or low as 96, over something appropriate like 70-something.  Heart rate generally 80s, but that's better than when it used to be 100 all the time.  The 160-BPM runs are obviously not due to exertion or momentary anxiety, but an outright malfunction.  The first time he blamed it on drinking a pot of coffee prior but the working theory now is the levothyroxine.

5 comments:

  1. Whenever a patient tells there is a problem I immediately look to their meds to wonder if it is from that. I am often correct.

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    1. I'm slower to think of that than you are. Maybe because I don't have your job (and a certain person should visit the doctor more often instead of putting off six-month visits till they're more than a year apart.)

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  2. I hope you get to the bottom of things soon. It doesn't sound like you're having any fun.

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    1. Thanks. Thankfully, that was only a transient problem and has gone away. First impulse was the stop the med since it may have been unneeded and producing unwanted side effects, and so far, great results from making that move.

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  3. And sure enough, yay... All results are in, and the doctor said "no need for that med anymore." Yee haw, score one for the other doctor: The amateur Dr. *ME*

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