Whew, has it already been a month and a half since I last posted? Time is just flying past, so it's time for a little update on our situation and, of course, my weight.
We have been spending so, so much of our time on medical stuff. It is easy to become completely consumed with it. My daughter had 5 medical appointments this week and has more next week. We've driven hours to specialists, stayed overnight in the hospital, started and stopped medications and gotten some additional information about her medical condition that is helping us have a more clear and direct path forward. I am finally feeling hopeful and the goal is to have her well enough for school by the end of summer, with accommodations. Physical therapy has been a great blessing; the therapist is amazing. We see her twice a week and my daughter also does the exercises at home daily. We are ordering "more aggressive" orthotics to support her as she works towards better mobility and less pain. She also is slowly starting to use my recumbent exercise bike for 5 minutes a day, and we joined a local summer-season pool where she is to swim at least 3 days a week. So we are keeping busy! Thank you so much to those of you who offer up prayers for my daughter. I believe they are helping! And I so appreciate that you keep her in your thoughts and prayers even not knowing specifics about the conditions she is dealing with. She is old enough to want her privacy, and while there are only a few of my real-life friends who read this blog, I just want to respect that. So thank you!
All of this has made my life more active, too! I swim with her most of the time and am working up to longer stretches of being in the pool. I've had more and more symptoms of my autoimmune thyroid disease cropping up, mainly extreme fatigue and always feeling cold (so the pool feels icy to me!) I finally went to the endocrinologist this week and found out that yes, wow, my numbers are a wreck!! Even with Hashimoto's, aside from my TPO antibodies all of my thyroid bloodwork has always been pretty much in the normal range. Last year my TSH ranged between 1.36 and 2.52... but this time, it was 7.9!!! That is a huge increase and, along with very low T3 and T4, out of range enough that the doctor said I needed to go back on Synthroid. I started that this week and already feel much better.
I also am on my last day of antibiotics. I feel like I have been on antibiotics forever!! I have an ENT appointment for the sinus stuff to make sure that is cleared up. I am working on getting more sleep, too. After my last post, I laid off the sugar (not 100%... I still have something sweet on occasion) and increased the veggies. I've also been getting on the scale at least weekly to keep an eye on the number. Today I weigh 253, about the same as I have been all of this year. I did have an uptick early in the year to 260, but got that off pretty quickly. Looks like my weight is just staying stable and hanging out in the low 250's since about February. I wonder if the Synthroid will help get that number down a little bit. Surely the swimming and activity will help, too. My next focus is to cut the carbs in my eating. I have gotten back to eating things like a baked potato or mashed potatoes with dinner, or a simple sandwich for lunch. I eat pasta once or twice a week, too. It'll be no big deal to get back to lower carb substitutions like cauliflower or zucchini noodles... it's just a matter of habit and taking the time to prepare those extra foods for meals (because my family does NOT like squash or cauliflower... but they do eat other veggies!) It just takes a little more planning.
I hope to see my weight get back down into the 240's shortly. Maybe even by July! We'll see.
Weight Loss
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