Backstory

Right Around When Things Started to Get Weird

I started having joint pain in about 2007 and was told repeatedly that it wasn't arthritis and not to worry about it. In the end, my doctor and I eventually decided that it was tendonitis from reading books that were too heavy and I needed to stop holding my books with one hand! This seems silly now. Anyway, I ignored the joint discomfort and the swelling in my hand. f the Doc wasn't worried, why should I be?!

After I had my second child (via c-section, one more reason NOT to have surgery), I started having what I would call major health problems. The arthritis worsened and spread from my hand to my knee and ankle, I had gastro-issues, and I was super tired. An MD diagnosed me with hypothyroidism (actually Hashimoto's thyroiditis) and prescribed a pill.

At first, I was given too much Levothyroxine and dropped about 25 lbs in one month. I went to the doctor about three times in one month because I was having chest pains, trouble sleeping, and my heart was pounding. He told me that I needed to keep taking the Levothyroxine because he 'needed to see if it was working'. Because I was having CHEST PAIN, I kept breaking the pills in half to reduce the dose. I kept losing weight. After the requisite month I went back and had blood drawn. My TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) was very, very low (.07) and I was HYPER-thyroid.

The most aggravating thing about this experience? I KNEW I was hyperthyroid but it wasn't until there was a number on a sheet of paper that the doctor believed it. By then I looked emaciated. Not the healthiest weight loss strategy.

Thus started a game of 'Guess What's Wrong With Nicky?' by various doctors. Because my blood tests showed an autoimmune process (positive ANA, high TSH, presence of TPO antibodies, and Anti-SMA), this doc (and every one thereafter) was kind of freaked out. Lupus? No. Hepatitis? (Autoimmune Hepatitis, not from all the intravenous drugs I've done...) No. Lyme Disease? No. Cancer? No. Ulcerative Colitis? No. Vasculitis? Nope. Celiac Disease? No. (Not in the bloodwork at least. There's a 15% chance one could still have CD and not have a positive blood test...)

I was sent to numerous specialists, all of whom were very nice, but only had more medicines to offer me. Some doctors listened, some didn't really bother. Some I see today, some I saw once.