Been sick for a year as of today - auto immune disorder

Charli

Charli

cool little "title"
I went to the hospital a year ago today for Grave's Disease, an auto immune
disorder (also called hyperthyroidism) in which the over production of hormones
causes the body to attack itself - weird, freakish disease.

I was on 9 pills a day for it and now I'm on 2, not including the fact that now I'm
insomniac (part of the symptoms) and take Ambien and Xanax to put me to
sleep (off Xanax during the day, those meds can kick your ass).

What I have mostly is chronic fatigue - bleh.

I have only so much energy stored during the day that I have to pace the day. I
do believe extroverts like myself suffer more than introverts because we
naturally expend a lot of energy, so it's been a real pain in the ass not to be as
active.

I wish I could have gone to meets, showings of your films, etc, but I have a few
more months before all of my levels even out and I have a clean bill of health.

Can I just say the health care system sucks? I went to three doctors who did
squat, seriously! Bunch of vultures when they look at your disease with money
eyes and talk about handing out prescriptions out of the whazoo.


Good news is that I am on the way to full recovery (this is not cancer people,
just auto immune crap) and I'm writing again, almost finished with a feature and
currently writing another - cuz I have so much FREAKING TIME on my hands - lol.

I'd rather be at the arcade or beach playing beach football.

I want to thank this community. It's made going through crap so much easier.
I've talk with a few of you on Facebook, sure helps move the day along. You
guys are a great bunch of guys and I don't think the year would have been
comfortable without you (misty moment here).

So, my directorial debut will have to wait another half year or so. I have the
same thing as Oprah, she just got over it sooner.

So for now I'll produce and write and get well.

Thanks for helping me along the way without knowing.
 
Thanks, SadMax. I'm just fatigued is all and a have a funky nervous system. You'd be surprised how much they thyroid controls.
I was. I hate idleness. I'm task driven so it's a real killer.

ZaZa - lol. I wish. She had the same condition but had a TEAM of doctors. Who has a team? Dang. She went to four doctors before she was properly diagnosed, sad really.

I went to four doctors who didn't know what the hey they were doing.

Our health care system really SUCKS, I mean, I've heard that it sucked but didn't know it until now.

The only doctors I've ever known are chiropractors and acupuncturist - sports shot my joints.
 
You hang in there & heal!
I'm sure one of your features will be picked-up and you'll have no worries.
 
Thanks, Terry!

ZaZa - you know, the thing is that I am finally a "marketable" writer, and I don't think I was before. I finally got this whole screenwriting gig, so fingers crossed on the two scripts I am writing.
 
Wow Charli

I had Hyperthyroidism in 1998

Short version:

Was an overactive thyroid; it got nuked with Iodine-131 and now I live on 225 Micrograms of Levoxl (Synthroid) everyday for the rest of my life.

Anyways

I'm all good now.

I wish you will.
 
Any time you have to live through something like that you learn a lot about yourself and the people around you.

My girlfriend (and now my wife) was diagnosed with SLE (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus or just Lupus), another auto-immune disease, back in '84. About four years of intense medications and another two being weaned off of them set her right, but it was quite scary there for a while. She had a very minor flare-up after each of our daughters were born, but otherwise she's been fine.

Our own adventure into the world of health care dealing with SLE back then was quite positive, as were my wifes pregnancies 17 and seven years ago (complications due to her age and the SLE) and very positive with our first daughters complications right after birth, she is a normal healthy person due to the dedication of the doctors and neonatal staff. My own have been mixed - positive with the doctors, somewhat disappointing with the hospitals.

Good luck with your continued recovery!
 
Good luck to you. I also lost most of a year to an autoimmune disease, dermatomyositis. I wouldn't wish it on my enemies. For a few months there I could have played the monster in DVXUser horror movies without any makeup.

You'll certainly appreciate life more when you get to the other side of a major illness. God bless.
 
JR - iodine treatment never came up. The PTU pills for thyroid condition is helping all my levels to even out. Last visit to Endocrinologist she was actually happy. I need to get down to one pill a day and then no pills. The thing with this disease it can flare up a couple of years from now, so iodine will one day be on the table.

I'm glad it's a treatable disease, jut makes your crazy.

Uncleb - when I was in the hospital for this treatment, they took me and admitted me right away. The diagnosis was clear. But when I went a few months earlier for food poisoning, they had one nurse for near twenty patients, one critical patient, they TOTALLY forgot about me and I spent the entire night in the hospital when all I needed was a flush of IV.

And they tried to charge me the whole night over $1000 - I've never stayed in a hotel room that cost that much.

Health care systems suck!
 
Once had an ER try to charge me an extra $500 or so because I came in at 0857 instead of after 0900.

Hardy-frickin'-har-har, to that.
 
Best Wishes. My Wife has Lupus, another auto immune disease. She has been doing well for years. It took aa little while for her to get lined out but it happened. Glad to see that they finally figured this out and you are on your way to recovery. Hang in there!
 
kyo - yours is a connective tissue disease, had to read up on it. I definitely know what you mean about playing the 'monster' for I've had a year of the be-otch which is out there in outburst and crap. I did learn how to use the word F=== effectively, not accustom to profanity but I sure got the hang of it.

dst - lupus is a real chronic fatigue killer. I feel for your wife.


Auto immune disorders are not curable, but they are treatable and manageable. You just have to go through crap before you go into remission.

Famous people who've suffered with a thyroid disease:

Oprah
John F. Kennedy Jr (he also had Addison's disease like his father)
President George Bush
First Lady Barbra Bush
Rod Stewart (singer)
Kim Alexis (model)
Linda Ronstadt (singer)
Kim Cattrall (sex in the city actress)
Jilian Michaels (trainer on biggest loser)
Mary-Louise Parker (weed's actress)


Thyroid diseases can affect anyone, there's no medical conclusion to why some people get it and others don't though a commonality is a stress trigger, however people without stressful lives are also susceptible.

For those of you who have any of these condtions: increased heart rate, irritability (more than your usual self), insomnia or a type of heightened an enhanced anxieties for no good reason, next time you're at the doctor's office ask to have blood work done to check for auto immune disorder.

If you watch the show "House" you will see they discuss various auto immune disorders all of the time.

You could be walking around with what's call sub-clinical auto immune disorder. I had insomnia for a couple of months which by the way, all my life I was a heavy sleeper. The insomnia and lack of the ability to rest took me to hospital.

Know your body.

Listen to your body.

Sure lack of sleep could be stress, but have you checked your heart rate lately? Mine I checked at the grocery store when I had insomnia, you know that machine they have where you sit on that chair and put your arm in the blood pressure thingy. My blood pressure was normal but my heart rate was at 100 and it's never been that high and I didn't do anything about it until it was too late.

Insomnia, increased heart rate and chronic fatigue are symptoms to look out for.


So listen to your body.
 
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