A Mompreneur’s Chronicle Of Life With Her Boys

Got Milk? Not Me

Apr 16 2012

I have been struggling again with my weight and my thyroid (wrote about it here). Even while I have been working with my doctor, I also thought that it might be good to try a naturopath. Our body systems are so interconnected that I am sure there are multiple things going on, plus she might be able to help me with some ongoing leg pain issues that I have had for years (for another post later).

After some blood tests for food sensitivities, she felt it would be good for me to try a no-dairy experiment. For two weeks I completely cut dairy out, including foods that contain dairy like pancake mix, bread and cereal. I was supposed to note how I felt. After two weeks I would be able to reintroduce dairy and see if it changes how I was feeling.

The two weeks were hard, very hard. The first week I was grouchy, because I had to find an alternative to my latte and I am having trouble embracing soy. We attended a dinner and auction where I couldn’t eat half the dinner; luckily Jim asked for a salad without dressing for me otherwise I would have eaten only a serving of beef all night. The second week was easier, but I wasn’t feeling any better AND the weight wasn’t coming off.

Finally it was time to reintroduce dairy and see what happens. I strategically waited until a time when I was home, just in case. Guess what, nothing happened. I had a latte after lunch, a string cheese for snack, a serving of lasagna at dinner and frozen yogurt for dessert (wasn’t following the diet that day). It was a fair test of dairy with a variety of items. I had no changes, no gas, discomfort or anything.

While these results are great and I can go back to eating dairy and not worrying, the question is still there, what is going on.

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Battling My Thyroid, Again

Apr 11 2012

Last summer I wrote about how I have been living with Hypothyroidism for the past ten years. Until last spring I was stable and living comfortably with this disease. Then it changed.

Over the course of a few weeks last spring I gained twelve pounds and other symptoms returned — acne, decreased energy level, difficulty sleeping and general mood malaise. After my doctor upped my thyroid meds I felt a lot better and dropped about ten pounds. Then I got sidetracked with the weight loss, but maintained my weight over the summer and fall.

Then in December and January my symptoms returned and I gained another twelve pounds. Could this really be happening again? The most frustrating thing is that nothing has changed, my diet, my workouts, nothing. I was doing all of the same things I had been last summer and fall when I was maintaining and now I was gaining. I was beyond upset.

Naturally I ran to the doctor’s office to have them retest my thyroid. The results showed I was still in the normal range. After speaking with my doctor and telling him my symptoms, he agreed to up my dose if I would get retested in six weeks. However this time, my symptoms didn’t go away with the increase in dosage and the weight hasn’t been coming off. After dieting and increasing the intensity of my workouts for nine weeks I have lost six pounds and most of that came off right away.

For anyone who has tried to lose weight before you can understand how deflating it is to get on the scale each week and have none of your hard work show. It is demotivating. But I don’t want to be on a diet for the rest of my life. I want to get to a healthy and maintainable weight where I can live my life.

I returned to my doctor last week to talk about my lack of progress and what we should do. I know there is something going on, but can’t put my finger on what it could be. He has seen me through losing the initial 50 pounds of thyroid weight and both times of baby weight, so he knows I am doing all I can.

My six week thyroid retest came back at the same level as it was before the increase in dosage. However he said he thought it would be worth increasing the dose again to see if that will help. I had to promise to come back in six weeks for a retest to make sure I am not over-replaced. Based on those results we will decide if it is time for me to go to an Endocrinologist. My sister feels that I should be going to one now as she has had thyroid disease longer than I have. I think I am going to ask to see one either way.

If the results come back that I am over-replaced, then I have something else metabolic or hormonal going on potentially. If the results come back that I am at the same levels as before, then I want to know why my thyroid is shifting every few weeks/months. I love my doctor, but I think either way it will be time to add a specialist to my treatment team.

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Genetics of Ocular Albinism

Apr 04 2012

My boys have both been diagnosed with the genetic condition, Ocular Albinism — Will in August of 2009 and Jack in November 2010. Ocular Albinism is a condition in which the eyes lack melanin pigment in the fovea of the retina causing decreased visual acuity. I have received many questions about the genetics of Ocular Albinism given the complexity of the eye and this rare disease, so let me try to provide some clarity, no pun intended.

The most common form of Ocular Albinism is X-linked where the affected gene is on the X chromosome. Due to the fact that boys have only one X chromosome inherited from their mother, they are most affected by Ocular Albinism. Each time a mother carrying the mutated X chromosome has a baby boy there is a one in two chance that the boy will have Ocular Albinism. Unless the father has Ocular Albinism, girls will either just be carriers or not affected by this type. Based on the diagnosis at Seattle Children’s Hospital, we believe the boys have X-linked Ocular Albinism.

x-linked

A more rare form of Ocular Albinism is autosomal recessive. In this form both parents carry the recessive gene. In this case, the baby would have to receive an affected gene from each parent to have Ocular Albinism. There is a one in four chance that any children would have Ocular Albinism. Both boys and girls have an equal chance of inheriting the affected genes. Oculocutaneous Albinism (the most severe type of albinism that affects the pigmentation of the skin, hair and eyes) is most commonly autosomal recessive.

autosomal recessive

The only way to truly identify the type of Ocular Albinism is to conduct a genetics test, however, examination of the mother can help narrow the possibilities. The gene for X-linked Ocular Albinism has been identified at GPR143. We have opted not to do the genetic testing at this time, due to the cost of the procedure and the fact that it doesn’t alter our treatment plan for the boys. We will eventually do the testing so the boys know what odds they are dealing with when it is time for them to start a family. While that choice is ultimately personal, Will has proven that children with this disease can be fully-functioning human beings. And hysterical, larger than life, crazy and the love of our lives.

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Battling My Thyroid

Aug 15 2011

My name is Sarah and I have hypothyroidism. Luckily this is a treatable, easily managed condition, but I deal with the side effects of it every day. Hypothyroidism is when your thyroid doesn’t produce enough of the thyroid hormones. It can affect everything from weight gain and fatigue, to fertility.

For me it all started a few months after I got married. We were busy moving into our first house so at first I confused the fatigue, weight gain and general malaise as stress. As I was getting ready for a friend’s wedding I started to try on my clothes from the previous summer and nothing fit. The reality was I had put on 60 pounds in six months. I went to my OBGYN a couple of times, telling her I felt off, but she assured me everything was fine and suggested we change my birth control pill.

Over the next 18 months I was bounced from doctor to doctor and none of them were able to accurately diagnose my problem. I was 200 pounds, fatigued, battling depression, had strange acne and generally miserable. Jim finally stepped in and sent me to his doctor, Ralph Rossi, MD. At my first appointment with Dr. Rossi he suggested we check my thyroid again, even though I assured him that all of the other doctors had. Sure enough something was up. My T3 and T4 hormones were in the normal range, but my TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) level was way too high. TSH tells your thyroid how much hormone to produce and influences other body processes.

I was happy to have a diagnosis, but wondered why the other doctors couldn’t find it. The answer is they weren’t testing for TSH levels; they just tested my T3 and T4 hormones. Over the next six months we ramped up my medicine to get everything back in line. There is a wide “normal” range for TSH levels so if you have issues you need to find out where you should fall in that range.

Once my levels were correct most of my symptoms got better; the one that didn’t was the weight. Unfortunately your body doesn’t just start dropping the pounds. After another year of hoping it would just come off on its own I started on Weight Watchers. Over the next year I lost 55 pounds (then I got pregnant with Jack.)

Thyroid imbalance can affect the baby’s development, so it must be monitored throughout pregnancy. Throughout both of my pregnancies my levels stayed the same. After the boys were born I found the same problems with losing the weight. I had to really work at it and I haven’t quite reached my goal.

As a child I didn’t struggle with weight. That is not to say that I was small, but I was a healthy weight for my height (I am tall for a girl.) So now struggling with weight in my 20s and 30s has been hard. I look at the women at the gym every day in their spandex with nice flat tummies and fit legs, wondering if I will ever get back to that.

This spring I started to feel off again. I wasn’t sleeping, my acne was back and I felt like I was “in the grey,” not depressed, but not happy either. I suspected I had put on some weight because my clothes weren’t fitting well. When I stepped on the scale I had put on 12 pounds, so now instead of being eight pounds from my goal I was now 20. I just knew something wasn’t right, so back to the doctor I went. Sure enough my thyroid had shifted again — it was still in the normal range, but higher than it had been. Time for a new prescription.

Within two weeks I was feeling better, my mood was up. I was starting to sleep better and with the help of Weight Watchers (for the fourth time) I had lost 10 pounds. Then I got stalled out with camping, trips and work. So here I sit still 10 pounds from my goal and feeling frustrated that I am still not there. Each time I get close something happens and I get derailed.

I get very frustrated when I think about all the time I lost back at the beginning of this. What if I had been diagnosed months into this process instead of years? Would weight loss and maintenance be easier for me now? But we all know that you can’t look back, you have to look forward and take life by the horns, pushing through any bumps that are on the road.

Now I am renewing my quest to get the last bit of weight off and to feel good in my skin. I want to smile every time I look in the mirror and when I put on a pair of skinny jeans.

I am linking up with Pour Your Heart Out Wednesday at
Things I Can’t Say.

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