Monday, January 20, 2020

ow ow ow

That nice plan didn't work out... the lab had to draw six tubes of blood from the back of my hand.  Not too bad, actually, but I have no idea why my doctor ordered so many blood tests.

So I just realized I could log into the patient portal and all the results would probably be posted already, and they were! Well, some of the labs, anyway.  My TSH has finally budged up to 0.04, but I still have a long way to go to get to 0.5.  I was wondering if my pituitary gland was just not up to the task of producing TSH anymore, but my T4 (the primary hormone that TSH is regulating) was still quite high, so that explains the low TSH.  I predict another drop in my thyroid medication dose, but the official blood test for that won't be for another month.

My blood work that was posted looked fine, but my glucose is at the high end of the range.  I was fasting today but they never even asked me if I was or not, and I think the range for fasting is a little tighter.  It will be interesting to see what the endo says.  I have been eating way more sweets over the holidays, and my weight is up alarmingly.  Usually I can lay off sweets for a few days and it goes right back down, but I think the lowered thyroid dose is affecting that.  Anyway: clean eating (and way less drinking of anything other than water, tea, or coffee) for the foreseeable future, lest I have to invest in buying all new pants. 

The MRI was... not bad as MRIs go.  It is impossible to concentrate on anything in there, so I mostly tried to pray, kept getting distracted by the loud, non-rhythmic noises, and then trying to get back to it.  The worst part of the day by far was the IV placement, which took 2 tries and about a half-hour, even using the ultrasound machine.  My best veins are in my left arm, of course: I'm left-handed.  Now every time I go to do something I'm reminded of both the blood draw and the IV.  I'm going to have some spectacular bruising.

BUT everything is apparently OK, even though I have no idea why my TSH is still so stubbornly high.  I have an appointment with the endo to talk about all this next week.  I'm hoping we can back way off on these fishing expeditions.

In other news: the FLL state tournament at ASU was a long, exhausting, and sort-of-fun day.  The team did very well in some areas, and not so well in others, but it was a good experience for them all.  And now, finally, we get a break from robotics for a while! 

My students handed in their science fair project reports on Friday, but I didn't grade them this weekend.  Yesterday was just too long a day and today really wiped me out.  I'll grade them over the course of this week, and all should be well.  I purposely didn't set the next assignment (putting together display boards) until next week, so I could have the time to grade that I need.

Last but not least, admin at school announced we are receiving another grant and will purchase all kinds of things with it, like new desks (desperately needed) and also some new technology.  I'm thinking that's going to have an impact on the electives, because what good are 3D printers if they just sit there?  Someone has to use them for something, and it had better not be me, since I know next to nothing about them!  We'll see.

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