It was another trip to Melbourne Beach to see my chiropractor who does the treatment called applied kinesiology on December 4th and we threw in a side trip to the ocean for a little photography session to ease my soul. Although his treatments are doing me a world of good in getting better, it is the the trips to the ocean that I look forward to the most. After a three hour drive each way, just for an hour long appointment, it is nice to get out on the sand for about 30 minutes to listen to the surf and watch the birds fly above the shoreline which makes all the difference.
I always make it a point to bring my camera so I can gather some photos to add to the blog. I wish that I felt well enough to get out of the house more and take pictures on a daily basis. There is something about taking photos that makes me lose all sense of time and troubles. I shot 137 pictures that day and could’ve stayed even longer if we didn’t have a three hour journey ahead of us to get home. We were losing daylight and we didn’t want to be driving back into town in the pitch dark (which we ended up doing in the long run anyways).
My poor mother has to make the drive and I usually fall asleep on the way home because the treatment really wipes me out so I often feel terrible that I have left her alone to make the journey by herself when she is just as tired as I am. I offer to fight the fatigue and stay awake to keep her company but she tells me that she is “OK” and that I should rest if I can. I know that the drive takes its toll on her so I always feel terrible when we get home and I have slept for most of the journey and she is completely exhausted when we pull into the garage when we get home. Hopefully, I will be well enough soon that I can make the trip myself.
In the meantime, here is another picture of some seafoam that I was able to capture as the tide was coming in:
We had beautiful weather and my appointment went pretty well. I tested negative on a few items that were not exactly a surprise. I reacted against gluten (DUH), ginger (that was a surprise because I always used to live on ginger ale) and millet (I had to look that one up when I got home). We confirmed that my thyroid was a problem and it was coming from a pituitary gland that has decided to stop working, along with my adrenal glands which have also stopped doing their job. I was recently put back on Armour Thyroid because my labs were terrible so this wasn’t too much of a surprise.
Lately, my fatigue had been overwhelming, my hair started falling out again, my libido is non-existent because I am lacking in estrogen, testosterone and progesterone and I have no muscle tone (all related to the lacking hormones). The worst condition which has been really driving me crazy is overwhelming hand tremors. It is like I have Parkinson’s Disease. It was getting to the point where I couldn’t even sign my name on checks to pay the bills and I was afraid to use the scissors to cut things. I was dropping everything I tried to pick up or carry and I just knew that something was desperately wrong. We narrowed it down to the thyroid so I begged the doctor to start the thyroid medicine. My TSH, Free T4 and T3 were all extremely low. That’s why we started the Armour. It is going to take some adjusting of the meds to get the dosages right for my body but at least the hand tremors seem to be a little better. His testing only confirmed my suspicions that my pituitary gland had stopped working.
Back to another photo and this seems appropriate because I was on a stairway to no where…
So, we gathered the one supplement that he had given me which was supposed to help kick-start my adrenal system and help get my body working a little bit better from the pituitary standpoint. I hope that between the Armour Thyroid and this new supplement, I will start to get a little bit more energy because we are supposed to be moving in just 12 more days! There are boxes all over this house and there is still so much packing to do.
I have had no energy to get the rest of my room packed and God bless my Mom for being able to pack up the rest of the house on her own. She is suffering so much emotionally with the loss of her beloved dog and I wish that I could be doing more to help her right now with her grief. It was an enormous blow to lose Grady at this time but we are trying to find the “good” in it, considering how difficult it would have been on an elderly dog to make a move to a new home. He had a lot of medical conditions and there is no telling how he would have adapted to the new surroundings. Regardless, our hearts are still heavy without him in our lives and every day is a struggle without the little furball following us around the house.
If you are a “praying” person, please keep my Mom in your thoughts and prayers right now because she is really suffering. I know that only time will help ease the pain in her heart but it is making me so sad to see her like this every day. I hope that I can find some physical strength pretty soon because the move date is fast approaching and I will not be able to delay the things that need to get done much longer, whether I feel good or not.
Here’s is a little bird getting his work done for the day at the beach:
All in all, it was a nice trip to Melbourne Beach on December 4th to see the doctor and with any luck, I will continue to get better from my Chronic Lyme Disease. I am still recovering from the severe damage that I suffered from the PICC line and the three months of aggressive IV antibiotics. I have been able to do more on a daily basis over the past two months than I could over the past year so there is something to be said for that. I actually ate my Thanksgiving dinner on a TV tray in the living room this year instead on lying in my bed like last year.
Mom keeps reminding me that I can actually leave the house now without a cane or my rolling walker. I can drive my car on short trips around town and I do not spend every day in bed like I used to. Last Christmas I had a PICC line in my arm and I could barely eat a few bites of food while lying flat in my bed so I have to think about where I was just one year ago in comparison to where I am today. My blood work is improving and I am not in danger of bone marrow suppression like I was just a few months ago. Sometimes it is hard to see the improvements because they are happening so slowly. It is good to have Mom around to remind me that some progress is actually happening.
I guess there is some light coming through the clouds afterall, even though I don’t always see it.
