Drug Addict!

Hello, my name is Lara and I take drugs. Not just any drugs, of course. I take Eltroxin for my thyroid problem. For my hypothyroidism to be precise.

People often don’t know what this means, and I don’t blame them. Hell, if I hadn’t grown up watching my mother and grandmother popping pills for this very problem, I wouldn’t have known myself! But thankfully, I did grow up knowing what hypothyroidism is, which meant that I realised that I had it pretty early.

So, what are the symptoms? First of all, there is the exhaustion. And when I say exhaustion, I do not just mean tiredness. I mean waking up tired, spending your day tired, coming home tired and collapsing on the bed not wanting to move because you are so tired. The tiredness seeps down to your bones and makes your body ache all of the time. Waking up tired is usually a sign that something is wrong, whether it is a thyroid problem or something else, and if it is the case that you are getting the right amount of sleep (not under- or over-sleeping) and are still waking up tired, you should look into getting some tests done.

So the tiredness is one of the most obvious symptoms, but there are more. You may experience mood swings. I know that I did. So much so that I thought that I might have been bi-polar. I would be laughing one minute and crying the next without knowing how I got there. I was constantly on edge and looking for something to upset me or looking to get into fights without realising it. It was as though my body didn’t want me to be happy.

And talking about my body, another of the symptoms of hypothyroidism is weight gain. Your metabolism does not function properly, which means that your food is not digested the way that it should be and this can and often does lead to weight gain. If you have hyperthyroidism, on the other hand, you will experience many of the same symptoms, only instead of gaining weight you will lose weight at a ridiculous rate. More specifically, it will be almost impossible for you to put on weight because your metabolism is in overdrive. While this may sound like a wonderful thing (I know it does to me – eat anything I like and never put on weight) it also leaves you vulnerable to heart-attacks and has other symptoms that are not so fun.

The trouble with these symptoms is that they can also point to a number of other conditions, including a B12 deficiency, iron deficiency or diabetes. However, if you are experiencing the systems, you should really go and get yourself tested. It amazes me how many people I talk to about this who go, “Oh… but I have been experiencing that and thought that it would just go away.” It won’t. Whether it is your thyroid, your vitamin levels, your sugar levels or your blood, it is something that you should have looked at.

So, how do you find out if you have hypothyroidism? Go to your GP and request a blood test. It is likely that if you discuss the symptoms with your doctor, he/she will recommend doing a number of other tests at the same time to rule out other conditions. In my case, knowing the symptoms and knowing that thyroid conditions are hereditary (if your mother/grandmother has it, it is highly likely that you do too or will develop it) I was fairly sure that was it. However, I also found out that I had a B12 deficiency which was also affecting my body and making me even more tired than usual.

If you do have hypothyroidism, I am afraid that you will be on pills for the rest of your life. If you have hyperthyroidism, there are treatments available and diets that supposedly help you maintain a healthy lifestyle without pills, but there are no such treatments or diets for the hypo alternative. Your dosage will differ according to how bad the condition is. This means that your levels will need to be tested via a blood test every 3-6 months. I started on the lowest dose of eltroxin and, over the last couple of months, have had to increase the dosage. The pills are small and easy to take without liquid and thankfully don’t taste too bad, but it is essential that you take them every morning to ensure that your levels stay the same. There are also specific types of food that you should avoid if you take eltroxin because they tamper with levels and prevent the medication from being effective. One of those foods is soy, and you should avoid soy products as much as you can. Many people say that wheat also affects the intake, and I think that this is true, though I have had trouble staying away from wheat, which possibly affected my levels and is part of the reason for my increased dosage. But I can’t guarantee this.

I hope that readers take this to heart and if they have experienced or are experiencing any of the symptoms that they will go to their doctor and get tested. Hypothyroidism may not be a fatal condition, but it is one that can easily be rectified and, once the medication becomes effective, can better your quality of life.

Injection vs Pill

I have mentioned it before in the blog, and I am likely to mention in many more times in the future. I am utterly terrified, horrified by needles. And yet, not only do I have to be stabbed at least once every 3-6 months, but I choose to get stabbed twice. So I thought that I would write up a quick blog about the injection and why I chose to get on it.

When I was 17 going on 18, I went off to University. Before I left, my mom and I had a very brief chat in the car one day where she told me in no uncertain terms that if I was going to have sex, I should be on the pill. Shortly after starting University, I met Grant, and shortly after that I started on the pill. Not because I was having sex, actually, but simply because I wanted to be prepared for when I would start.

In the beginning, keeping up with the routine of taking them was difficult. Having to remember to take a pill at precisely the same time everyday is not something that comes easily, and no matter how many alarms I set, I still found myself forgetting. And at that stage, it wasn't so much of an issue! There was no sex, there were no risks. It was just something that I needed to get used to, and in time I did. In time it came to the point where, whenever my alarm went off, even if I was half awake and it was, oh, say 5pm, I would take a pill. It happened more than once where I woke up after a mid-afternoon nap and popped one  of my pills before realising that I had already taken one that morning.

When I started taking my thyroid medication, it fit in nicely. I could take all of the pills together, and it meant that I wouldn't forget. It was of no inconvenience to me any longer to be taking pills in the mornings, and even if I were to go off the contraceptive pill, I would still have to take my Eltroxin whenever the alarm went off in the morning.

And then, in my second year, we found out that my sister had a brain tumor. She was really lucky. It was benign and in a spot that was easy enough to remove, and though she lost her sense of smell, her sense of taste is still intact, so the doctors are sure that her sense of smell is merely in hiding and not, you know, dead. Anyway, a couple of months after we found out and after my sister's operation had been a complete success and she had returned to working on the cruise ships, I was home for a vacation and came across a needle in my mother's car. It freaked me out a little, what with my needle phobia. And then my mom explained how the doctor had insisted the my sister get off the pill, since he was worried that the oestrogen in pills helped the tumor along. Considering that he also thought that the tumor was genetic, the thought of this freaked me out more than the needle itself. Not enough for me to go on the injection at that time, but enough for me to  know that I would have to at some point.

I stayed on the pill for a good 3 years after the incident. I was trying to avoid injections as much as possible. I jumped between different Nordette and Triphasil to try and switch from an oestrogen based pill to a progesterone based one. It didn't help my mental block much. And yet, my fear of needles kept me far away from the injection until earlier this year, when I finally gave in. You see, I am the age now that my sister was when her tumor was found. The thought of this freaks me out a lot. Whenever I get a headache, I can't help thinking, even if it's just for a moment, what if... And so I made the switch earlier this year.

Now, the injection has a number of side effects, some of which I was aware of, some of which I was not. And if you are in the stage of making the choice between the pill and the injection, you should know what you are in for. The pill also has a number of side effects, including (in my experience, and depending on the pills that you are taking) increased bladder infections, moodiness and menstrual pain. You also need to keep in mind that if you are kept on the pill for a number of years, there are side effects. Many doctors will tell you that you should not stay on the pill for more than 5 year consecutively. Women over 30 are also encouraged to go off the pill because of the health risks involved and the threat  of tumors and cancer.

In terms of the injection, the most commonly discussed side effect is weight gain. That is not all that there is to it, however. Though your periods will eventually end when you are on the injection, you should expect to experience spot bleeding, stomach cramps and tiredness. The tiredness and the weight gain can be helped with good exercise, and the spot bleeding and cramps will eventually fade, but you need to stick with the injection long enough for your system to get used to it, and particularly when you already have a hormone deficiency like hypothyroidism, you may find that your body takes  longer to adjust. There are also long-term side effects to be considered with the injection, of course. Many women experience  long periods after being on the injection for a number of months or years where they struggle to fall pregnant. Others experience no menstrual periods even after being off the injection for a number of months.

There are things that you definitely need to consider when deciding which contraception to use. Of course, some will choose neither of these options and opt for condoms or abstinence. This was the route that I decided to take with my life, and I just thought I would explain some  of the decisions that I made along the way and the reasons for them on the off chance that someone else may be thinking about these questions too. I hope that, if someone does stumble across this blog post and find this article, it will at the very least give them something to think about.

Getting Tested

I hate needles. I have said it before, and I can guarantee that I will say it again. If fact, I will right now. I HATE needles. I hate them with a passion. But there are some times when facing your fear is worth it, and getting tested is definitely one of them.

I had been tested before, twice in fact. The first time was in my first week of University - the Uni had an HIV awareness week, and a testing drive was being run. Even though I had no doubt about my negative status, I went for the test along with a number of my friends to support the process of testing. Though it was being done at a University, where the majority of students should have been aware of the importance of getting tested, rather than in one of the townships where the main problem arises due to lack of education, there were still students who didn't go, and going was still important. The second time I went was for a similar reason - joining a friend and her boyfriend who did not want to go through the process on their own. So Grant and I joined them.

After a year apart, Grant and I decided to do the responsible thing and get ourselves tested. Once again, I had no doubt about my status, and Grant had no doubt about his, but we just wanted to get tested and be completely sure rather than assume and find out later that it wasn't the case. And so, yesterday morning, we made the trip to the Family Planning Clinic.

For the women in Grahamstown who may not know what or where the Family Planning Clinic is, I don't blame you. I hadn't heard of it until I visited a Doctor a couple of months ago and, upon mentioning that I was on the injection, she let me know about the clinic, where I could get the injection for free rather than paying the R250 Doctor's fee. When she told me about the clinic, she mentioned that it had recently moved, but she wasn't sure where. She did mention Anglo African street, so when it came time to get my injection again, I made my way there, only to find a big fat nothing. I went to the pharmacy to ask about it, and they said that it was on Huntley street, just opposite Good Sheperd school. And so I went there, and walked up and down the street at least three times before I spotted a sign reading "Makana Public Health". Could this be it? Apparently.

The Family Planning Clinic provides a number of services including counselling, distribution of pills, education of the community and HIV testing. Unfortunately, they only do planned testing on Friday mornings between 8am and 10am. This means that, unless it is an emergency, you need to take time off work to go there. And you shouldn't expect it to be quick. On each occasion that I went there, I had to wait between 30 and 45 minutes to see the nurse. Even when there aren't people waiting, the nurses are not particularly organised and are running around like headless chickens. But considering that it is a free service and they are severely under staffed, that should be expected.

The actual testing process begins with counselling. This is because, by law, the nurses need to explain the process to you, need to explain what they are going to do now and what will happen if the test is positive. The first time I went for the test, the couselling was even more intense - they wanted to know how I would deal with it if I found out that I was positive, they wanted to know why I was getting tested, if I had ever done anything that could have led to contracting HIV. This time, since I told the nurse that I had done the test twice before, the inquisition was put aside and only the bare necessities were given - she knew that I understood what HIV was, how I could have gotten it and what I would have to go through if I had it. And so the test began.

The first two times that I had the test done, it was with a wonderful little device, rather like a stapler, that stabbed your finger and drew a small amount of blood. Not this time. This time there was a needle of supreme sharpness that the nurse used to slice my finger, issuing forth a rather large amount of blood. I am feeling a little woosey even thinking about it, I won't lie. After the blood had been drawn, I asked if I could lie on the bed, since I was feeling a little dizzy. The nurse wasn't convinced, but let me lie down anyway. After a few moments, she announced that the test was taking too long and she needed to do another. She brought me to the chair and opened my wound once again. Blood spurted out, going everywhere but on the test, and I started having a panic attack - could feel my limbs tingling and starting to go numb. I lay down once more and, after a moment, the nurse announced that the first test was in fact working. Ta-dah! I was negative.

I came out of the room to find Grant with a supremely worried look on his face - apparently the whole waiting room (of about 10 people) had heard me crying and announcing that I was likely to faint, and Grant had to hold himself back from coming into the room and comforting me because, of course, statuses are meant to be private, and only one person can be tested in the same room at the same time. I assured him that I was fine, took my seat and waited for his test to be done. Ta-dah! He was negative too.

For the rest of the day, I couldn't touch my finger. It ached and it throbbed and it just felt awful in general. I kept picturing blood spurting over my desk at work and everywhere else. Needless to say, I hope I never have to go through that again! And as long as Grant and I are together, now that we know our statuses, we shouldn't have to.

Having your status checked is one of the most important things you should do when starting a new relationship, or even if you aren't. Know your status. Know yourself! (Totally the new HIV testing catch-phrase!)