Back to Reality

Christmas has come and gone. It was wonderful to have my entire family together excluding my oldest brother. He didn't make it to the festivities. I am now resting my body up for the new year. It is just amazing how much the little things, like not getting a nap can affect my muscles and overall pain levels. It was so worth it though to all be together.
We of course had some usual family drama that ended very sadly that also made it hard on me because of the emotional roller-coaster, but it is all over and for the better.
Well, just before the holiday, I visited the Endocrinologist and he informed me that just by moving my thyroid time of taking it to the afternoon, it caused my thyroid function to drop out and therefore my metabolism and everything connected to the thyroid wasn't functioning. I changed my timing at the direction of my Rheumatologist. You would have thought that she would have known the metabolic reasoning for taking the thyroid in the morning with just water. He said that the weight that I have been rapidly putting on is due to the fact that I have no metabolism to process the food and it all turns to fat. So I suppose my New Year resolution is to get my thyroid in order and get my weight off and get back down to my "normal" weight of 160. That of course is if I don't need to take Prednisone during this time. But of course I now have the other health issues to navigate through so it may be slow. I am just happy that the weight gain could be easily explained.
The next part isn't so easy. I am running fevers and am unable to control my body temperature. The Endocrinologist along with my Internist is sending me to Infectious Disease Control. There they will run every test possible to rule out things. Apparently they will run so many tests that he couldn't give me any idea of the amount. I am ready though because I am ready to try and do everything I can to better my health. If Infectious Disease Control can't find anything then the next step is cancer screening for Lymphoma. It is possible that I am running what they call a "fever of unknown origin" or I could also have a type of "Lymphoma". This of course scared me a bit. However, I am going to keep that thought in the back of my mind so not to get my Lupus flared up.
The other day I spent quite a big of time on my feet and that evening my knees and ankles swelled up and got very hot as well as my fingers. I feel like I am fighting an invisible battle. I also went to my psychologist thinking that I was having a bi-polar episode at the same time that we figured out that my thyroid wasn't functioning. It truly is an amazing process and we have to always be at guard watching and waiting. Today I am hurting quite a bit and woke with a 100.7 temperature. Oh well, today I can rest.
I wish that everyone had a great holiday and I am looking forward to what 2010 brings in the treatment arena for Lupus and it's overlapping illnesses. Take care for now.