Friday, May 11, 2012

Exhaustion Checkup

Well, today I did something about the exhaustion I wrote about recently.  I said then that if I wasn't feeling back to "normal" by the end of last week, I'd call the doctor.  I haven't been feeling as all out exhausted as I was when I wrote that post, but I definitely have not been feeling my normal self and I've noticed that I just don't have the energy that I should.  I've been sleeping, and for me that's not normal.  Not only have I been sleeping, but it's all but taken an act of Congress several mornings to get me out of bed.  Not the "it's warm and snuggly and I just don't feel like moving" not getting out of bed, but the "I can't open my eyes or even think about moving to actually get out from under the covers" not getting out of bed. 

So, since that's definitely not normal for me and the mere fact that I just haven't been able to get my butt to the gym to swim or get out of my own way in the morning to get an exercise video in, I called the doctor's office on Wednesday and Dr. F. actually had an appointment open this morning.  So, I took it.

I had a very pleasant conversation with Dr. F. like I usually do.  I had actually written a list of "problems" or at least observations on what wasn't quite "normal" with my system lately as well as Dad's recent medical information.    She did say she was thrilled with all the weight I've lost and happy to see it moving in the right direction.  She still hasn't told me what kind of number she'd like me to aim for, but that's OK.  At the rate I'm loosing currently, I'll have another year or so before I even get close to the maximum "healthy range" for my height.  I've got time to figure it out.  (I probably will never set an actual "goal".  My real goal is to be healthy and fit at whatever weight the scale shows...)  She looked me over and listened to my breathing and my heart and said she believed me when I said I was feeling exhausted all the time.  She said that this could be anything from a simple vitamin D deficiency to possibly Lyme or maybe something like an auto-immune disorder like Rheumatoid Arthritis or Lupus or maybe something else entirely.  She wants me to keep a bit of a journal on how I'm feeling and what's going on (it doesn't have to be too detailed, just something general) to see if there's a pattern I've missed.  She sent me down to the lab to have about 8 vials drawn and a pee test for various tests.  Since none of them had to be fasting, I went ahead and got the blood drawn right then.  We'll see what the results say.  I have a follow-up appointment on 6/5.  I'm sure I'll have more news by then.
I'm just glad to hear that she doesn't think it's all in my head (I knew she wouldn't, but there is always that fear going to doctors...) and that she does take this seriously.  I mean, I know I'm the mom of an almost four-year-old very active little boy, a wife, a full-time employee, a Girl Scout leader and I even have a bit of a social life now and again.  Sure, I expect to have tired days, but when I'm actually sleeping like a rock and still having problems getting out of bed at my normal time, something's not right.

Anyhow, Boo's first day of soccer is tomorrow.  I hope to have some cute pictures of him in his uniform.  I'm sure it'll be cute and crazy and all kinds of chaos.  I just hope he enjoys himself and can warm up to the other kids in a relatively quick fashion.  We shall see.

I'm going to keep this short and sweet tonight.  I think I'm going to play with yarn a little bit before I go ker-thud into bed.  Tomorrow will be a busy day and I'm sure Boo will be up bright and early.  He fell asleep before dinner.  (He was upset that I was making macaroni and cheese for dinner along with ham, so I sent him to his room to "settle" himself.  Well, he settled himself right to sleep before I could finish dinner.  I decided the lesser "evil" was to let him sleep and wake up at the crack of dawn instead of waking him and dealing with a cranky, tired boy who didn't want what I made for dinner....)

Peace to all and may you have doctors who listen and hopefully answers to questions.

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