Dreamtime in Missouri

Productive Sleep

I have started dreaming again.  I had not realized I was not dreaming until I started again.  I am sure I stopped because I did not have enough thyroid hormone.  Dreaming is one way I know I am getting restful sleep (when I actually sleep).  With hypothyroidism you may sleep for hours, yet wake and not feel rested.  T4 replacement therapy fixes this somehow.  With The Headache and hypothyroidism, I get to sleep for a couple of hours, and not feel rested.  Sigh.

I remember how tired I was when I was first diagnosed with thyroid deficiency.  I knew the thyroid medication was working because I started dreaming again. It had been a long long time since I had had a dream I remembered.  I also woke up from sleep feeling refreshed, like I had been breathing buckets of cold fresh mountain air after thyroid hormone replacement.  Restful, wonderful sleep!  I love it!  I miss it!!!

The dream I had last night stuck with me.  I was driving in the mountains in the dark next to a river that was mirroring the mountain road - going up and down hills.  I could hear the rushing water in the darkness and saw the dark blue gleam of the moon off the current.  I parked my vehicle in a warm yellow cave where the river ended, and next I knew I was flying along a road that was surrounded by tall buildings and waterfalls.  So many waterfalls - everywhere I looked there were beautiful clear blue waterfalls.  Somehow I knew the river fed the city of waterfalls.  Like the river, the sound of the waterfalls filled the air, and the water hugged hills and valleys in a way that defied gravity.  Near one glass towering building a pyramid of waterfalls was topped by a hovering revolving orb of water.  The road kept going on and on and on and the waterfalls sparkled and fizzed and burbled with new structures and new waterfalls every so many blocks. As I flew from the darkness into sunlight sparkling off dancing waters I woke up happy and relaxed.  Ahhhhh.

I started taking cyclosporine today.  I am to stay at my initial low dose for a couple of weeks, but may have to increase the dosage.    Dr. Calm gave me a prescription for it last Thursday. My face has been swollen the last couple of days from mild angioedema, hoping this will fix my fat lippitis.  I used ice last week to bring the swelling down before going to work, but that then starts issues with my facial pain from The Headache.  Wish I could disconnect an illness and put it on a back burner or maybe cure one disease before I start working on the next one.

Low Thyroid and Hives

I Need Patience

Spent the day today taking a relative to a "Parkinson's Clinic".  This is some clinic administrator's idea of how to market adjunct services to an already ill clientele.  If you weren't ill before you got there, you would be ill and exhausted after you escaped.  Got there at 8:00 in the morning and finally left at about 3:00 in the afternoon.  According to my relative a lot of time back in the warren of offices there was spent waiting on the doctor to appear.  They get you captive back in one of the little exam rooms and it becomes almost impossible to leave, and at a certain point you have so much time and effort invested in "sticking" it out to see the doctor you hate to just walk.  The supposed advantage was getting to see a social worker and a physical therapist at the same time as seeing the doctor, except there weren't any physical therapists there. Augggghh!!!

My blood tests have come saying I am not taking enough thyroid hormone (synthroid).  Since I have autoimmune thyroid disease and autoimmune hives, my hives are believed to be linked with thyroid dysfunction.  More circulating thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) can mean more autoimmune activity, which in turns causes more hives....which may be why my hives have doubled since discontinuing the prednisone.  My TSH should be in a range of .5 to 3, and it was an 11 - meaning my pituitary glad is working overtime trying to jump start my thyroid. I am to give try a week on the new dosage and if the hives don't get better, I'm to go back to the immunologist.  Sigh.  I have been on a stable dose for the last two years, I guess my body has decided to go into attack mode again.  Why can't it attack something other than me??

I am itchy and grumpy and all of the seven dwarfs combined tonight.  Sitting in a waiting room was hard on The Legs today and The Belly hasn't been a happy camper for over a week.  I have hives bumped up all over me, my face is redder than normal, and I have the attention span of a gnat.  I actually feel sick enough I don't even want to think about work, and work is my only escape from feeling sick!!  Sigh again.

I am sooooo tired my thoughts are "echoing" in my head, ricocheting around my skull like a superball in a handball court.  I have tiny little red hives all over my forehead, in my hair, on my back, and on my legs.  I have even bigger hives on my stomach and my arms.  The Headache is not happy with me (too much walking I fear) so I am going to take many antihistimines and try to go to sleep.  Maybe I can sleep for years just like Sleeping Beauty.  You really have to be sleep deprived to wish that a witch with a poison apple would drop by for a visit!