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Aren't they supposed to be hot flashes?
I don't know if it's menopause or the heart stuff, but I am so cold all the time these days. Sometimes it's just my hands, but lately it's been my core--my torso--to the point that I sorta pull in, round my shoulders, gather myself to myself. Then my chest starts to hurt and I think, "uh oh," but working with my counselor on Wednesday we realized I was just COLD and my chest hurt because I was all hunched in.
Right now I'm thanking my lucky stars for my huge kitchen window. It's a sunny day here, cool but sunny, and the light and warmth is just streaming into the kitchen. I've got my back to it, and I'm just soaking up the heat. I've even turned up my shirts to let my bare skin get the sun (no worries, nothing naughty exposed). aaahhh. At night I've been sitting in the TV room with my "Warm Up Lynn" blankie over my shoulders and another over my knees. And in the shower I am practically bathing in the hot water tank.
It's weird. Why am I so cold? I thought menopause was all about the hot flashes, and I've had a couple of those, but this constant chill...
Suffice it to say I've ramped up my knitting efforts. I'm surrounded by wool, so there's no excuse for me to be cold.
Comments
I'm a bit younger, but...
Being cold like that makes me think of how I felt before they diagnosed my thyroid problems. I was always cold, especially my hands and feet. My feet would get so cold when I went to bed at night that I'd lie awake for half an hour or longer trying to warm them up. It felt like there was no heat in them and I was trying to warm them up solely from the outside in (if that makes any sense). I hate being cold like that! I hope you're able to warm up soon!
More or less
I guess it's slightly different from what your body would naturally produce, but similar enough to be used by the body. I hear there's a natural product, too, I think derived from pigs. It's meant as a replacement, though, yes.
But I think Lynn was talking about other medications? I know I've done what I can to get rid of any other hormonal influences, myself, like switching to organic milk and (mostly) avoiding soy. I felt like my hormones had been monkeyed with enough!
Personally, I feel a whole lot better with the thyroid meds. Like I'm really awake and have energy for the first time in years. My hands and feet are also warmer, and I'm not catching every bug that comes around. My doctor told me I was "borderline," too, but with all the symptoms I was having she thought I should try the levothyroxine. (My TSH levels had declined from 3.4--where they said "no problem," to 3.8, where they said "borderline," over a year or so. Apparently there's controversy about the "normal" TSH range, though--used to be .5 to 5, but the endocrinologists have recently revised their normal range to .3 to 3. Not all labs and doctors are using the new standard, but I digress...) Plus, I have autoimmune thyroid disease, so it's only likely to get worse over time. There's some preliminary evidence that starting on the thyroid meds before thyroid levels decline into the "low" range can help stave off some of the autoimmune damage.
If you don't know the number, you might want to find out what your TSH levels are, Lynn, from whenever they were last tested. Or possibly ask to have them tested again. I've always had to prod my doctors a little to get the actual number and not just "normal," but I think it really helps me have a better handle on how I'm doing when I know how I feel at different levels.
thyroid
I've had thyroid problems for years, but allopaths won't treat it. I'm either "borderline" or not showing up at all in standard thyroid tests. When I've been put on thyroid I do feel better. And with all the medication I'm on I'm leery of going on anything else. It wouldn't surprise me if that's what was happening, I don't know why it didn't occur to me. I'm not sure what to do about it, though .
Lynn Siprelle, Editor
is synthetic thyroid hormones really medication?
I just thought it was a replacement-type thing, like insulin.
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