After John returned from Iraq I nagged him until he gave in and went to the doctor. He was always stuffy and sneezy, which I assumed was from allergies, and he snored loudly all the time. They put him on allergy medicine. It helped a little.
A few months after that John went back to be tested for sleep apnea. It came back that he needed a CPAP machine to sleep with because he was having more episodes during the night than the typical person would.
Before long, we began to notice that the list of things "wrong" with John was rapidly growing, but we thought we had an explanation for each of them:
-He was working out 2 times a day, and was getting worse. He even failed a PT test.
-His skin was dry and cracking.
-His skin was yellow in color and he couldn't get a tan. He was so pale and sick looking.
-He was unable to concentrate on anything anymore.
-Work became a huge source of stress due to the inability to concentrate.
-Because he couldn't focus, a simple task would take him hours (sometimes) to do.
-His face was fatter, swollen and puffy.
-He wasn't sleeping well at night.
-He had been diagnosed with sleep apnea.
-He put on a few pounds and couldn't get rid of them. No amount of dieting and exercise helped.
-He had leg cramps and sore muscles all the time.
-The hair on his legs was patchy and falling out.
Everything was a chore to him. Because work left him so tired and irritable, he wasn't the most pleasant person to be around in the evenings. Even on weekends he would be stressed and worrying over the next work week. We started talking and figured two things: he probably had ADD and he was getting older (hence the weight gain and inability to stay in shape).
We even went as far as seeing a counselor and having tests run to see if he was ADD (the tests said he was). John was dreading the move to Virginia and starting all the classes for the Captain's Career Course. He knew it would be a huge challenge to him to do all the reading, projects, and studying.
Once arriving in Virginia, John made a routine visit to the doctor to get a refill on his allergy medicine. He mentioned in passing to the doctor how much trouble he was having getting back in shape and how sore his muscles were all the time. The doctor oddly asked John if he could look at the palms of his hands. Apparently the doctor saw a warning sign there (puffy hands and yellow palms) and decided to order up some blood work on John. (Picture: John's face at it's "fattest")
Later that day while we were out running errands together, John's cell phone rang and it was the clinic telling him they need him to come back immediately. We were scared. We didn't know what was so urgent that they needed to see him so soon. We pulled over on the side of the road and prayed, and then headed to the clinic. It turns out that John has been suffering from the side effects of an under active thyroid. Thyroid disease usually affects women more commonly than men, so it's understandable how this could have gone unnoticed for so long. A normal thyroid level should be between 0.5 and 4.0- John's TSH (thyroid levels) was +250!!!! The doctors and nurses at the clinic were astounded. They treated him as if he were the walking dead and even went as far as to say that he could have easily gone in to cardiac arrest at any time due to the amount of exercise he was doing with levels that high.
With strict orders from the doctor to do limited physical activity (absolutely no exercise), John was sent home with a prescription for synthroid. Within two weeks of taking the new medicine (and doing NO physical exercise) John dropped 20 pounds. As the weeks went by we started to notice one symptom after another disappear. After three months, John was given the go ahead to start running and working out again. It didn't take long before he was back in shape and finally feeling good.
When we found out about his thyroid condition, the doctors decided to postpone him until the next class that started in July. They said that no one could expect him to concentrate with thyroid levels that high. So we enjoyed the rest of June and part of July together! We did a good bit of sight seeing and went up to DC and Virginia Beach. We found some cool malls in Richmond and familiarized ourselves with the community we would call home for the next 7 months.
John was a different person.
A few months after that John went back to be tested for sleep apnea. It came back that he needed a CPAP machine to sleep with because he was having more episodes during the night than the typical person would.
Before long, we began to notice that the list of things "wrong" with John was rapidly growing, but we thought we had an explanation for each of them:
-He was working out 2 times a day, and was getting worse. He even failed a PT test.
-His skin was dry and cracking.
-His skin was yellow in color and he couldn't get a tan. He was so pale and sick looking.
-He was unable to concentrate on anything anymore.
-Work became a huge source of stress due to the inability to concentrate.
-Because he couldn't focus, a simple task would take him hours (sometimes) to do.
-His face was fatter, swollen and puffy.
-He wasn't sleeping well at night.
-He had been diagnosed with sleep apnea.
-He put on a few pounds and couldn't get rid of them. No amount of dieting and exercise helped.
-He had leg cramps and sore muscles all the time.
-The hair on his legs was patchy and falling out.
Everything was a chore to him. Because work left him so tired and irritable, he wasn't the most pleasant person to be around in the evenings. Even on weekends he would be stressed and worrying over the next work week. We started talking and figured two things: he probably had ADD and he was getting older (hence the weight gain and inability to stay in shape).
We even went as far as seeing a counselor and having tests run to see if he was ADD (the tests said he was). John was dreading the move to Virginia and starting all the classes for the Captain's Career Course. He knew it would be a huge challenge to him to do all the reading, projects, and studying.
Once arriving in Virginia, John made a routine visit to the doctor to get a refill on his allergy medicine. He mentioned in passing to the doctor how much trouble he was having getting back in shape and how sore his muscles were all the time. The doctor oddly asked John if he could look at the palms of his hands. Apparently the doctor saw a warning sign there (puffy hands and yellow palms) and decided to order up some blood work on John. (Picture: John's face at it's "fattest")
Later that day while we were out running errands together, John's cell phone rang and it was the clinic telling him they need him to come back immediately. We were scared. We didn't know what was so urgent that they needed to see him so soon. We pulled over on the side of the road and prayed, and then headed to the clinic. It turns out that John has been suffering from the side effects of an under active thyroid. Thyroid disease usually affects women more commonly than men, so it's understandable how this could have gone unnoticed for so long. A normal thyroid level should be between 0.5 and 4.0- John's TSH (thyroid levels) was +250!!!! The doctors and nurses at the clinic were astounded. They treated him as if he were the walking dead and even went as far as to say that he could have easily gone in to cardiac arrest at any time due to the amount of exercise he was doing with levels that high.
With strict orders from the doctor to do limited physical activity (absolutely no exercise), John was sent home with a prescription for synthroid. Within two weeks of taking the new medicine (and doing NO physical exercise) John dropped 20 pounds. As the weeks went by we started to notice one symptom after another disappear. After three months, John was given the go ahead to start running and working out again. It didn't take long before he was back in shape and finally feeling good.
When we found out about his thyroid condition, the doctors decided to postpone him until the next class that started in July. They said that no one could expect him to concentrate with thyroid levels that high. So we enjoyed the rest of June and part of July together! We did a good bit of sight seeing and went up to DC and Virginia Beach. We found some cool malls in Richmond and familiarized ourselves with the community we would call home for the next 7 months.
John was a different person.
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