Blog changes

Thanks to everyone who followed Training Because I Can! over the last nine years. This blog started with Addison's Disease, hypothyroidism and a crazy idea of doing an Ironman distance triathlon. My life has changed and so has this blog. I am using this blog strictly for Addison's Support topics from here on out. I hope to continue providing people with hints for living life well with adrenal insufficiency.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Addison's, hypothyroid and minor injury

Just a quick post here with some observations about the last week.  As you all know, I whined about spraining my ankle.  It seems to be fine and healing quickly!  It looks gross and green but the swelling is down and I'm not limping any more.  It never got so bad that I had to stop doing my mile a day...the streak LIVES! 396 days of one mile a day!!

This post is not an effort to get sympathy.  I don't want any.  I'm fine and my ankle is getting better quickly.  Tomorrow I'm starting heat training.  This hiatus from running has given me an opportunity to organize my stuff for MdS.  I leave on March 29th!

Here's the point, although the physical pain of a dumb sprained ankle was not disabling and my life is going well, I have had some big troubles with my emotions.  I don't know if I'm self-medicating with the exercise or my hormones are greatly affected by injury and pain but 5 of the last 6 days have been emotionally tough.  I'm not one to admit this stuff and Addison's people think everything is usually hunky dory with me.  It's not always great and I don't always feel awesome.  You Addison's people all need to know that!!

I've been tearful, sleepy and unmotivated, very untypical of me.  Here's the timeline of my meds:

  • Wednesday, fall down go boom, take 40 mg HC extra on top of 25/day usual
  • Thursday, owie and mental stress of 17 year old son and doctor appoitnments, 50 mg HC for the day
  • Friday, extra 10 mg on top of 25/day.  Son suspended for 5 days (Me punished for 5 days for being a bad parent is more like it, the kid gets a vacation!). I WAS A WALKING DISASTER.
  • Saturday, talked to Ashley and had a good talk, suspect thyroid might be implicated in my crying and whining behaviors.  Took temp, 97.1 took an extra 6.25 mcg of T3, crying slowed to a crawl and temp went up to 98.1
  • Sunday, tired and took it easy, whiny
  • Monday, feeling more like myself especially after a good, strong mile.  Slightly tearful.
  • Tuesday (today) temp low, took an extra 6.25 of T3.  Still feeling a little icky.  Ankle feels much better.  Meeting with PT today and will discuss self-medication with exercise!
What I'm getting at is that my emotional state DOES NOT MATCH MY PHYSICAL INJURY.  There's more going on here whether it's lack of exercise or injury causing other hormones to be off.  Addison's people, it's important, when you're injured, to talk to someone else and get an objective opinion about your situation so you can feel better quickly.  Are you taking too little HC, too much, need to increase T3, need to go for a walk?  Remember, you're not alone.  

There's little to no research on Addison's and exercise, Addison's and minor injury, we've got to work together and share our experiences to come up with practical solutions!