Patient Non-Compliance

About two years ago, I tried to get into a study at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital of a drug in Phase I trials, a smoking cessation aid. Part of the intake was bloodwork. My bloodwork came back and I was told that I was ineligible for the trial, and that I should contact my doctor. I did. It turns out that my bloodwork indicated that I was hypo-thyroidal. This means that my thyroid gland, which regulates metabolism, had slowed way down on the gladular secretions.

At this point I did a web search on hypothyroidism. Here are the symptoms:

Fatigue
Weakness
Weight gain or increased difficulty losing weight
Coarse, dry hair
Dry, rough pale skin
Hair loss
Cold intolerance (can't tolerate the cold like those around you)
Muscle cramps and frequent muscle aches
Constipation
Depression
Irritability
Memory loss
Abnormal menstrual cycles
Decreased libido

Uh... No. No. No. No. No. Yeah, but it predates my diagnosis by a decade. No. No. No. No. No. No. Not applicable. Definitely not.

At the time, I asked my doctor if it couldn't be the case that I was hyperthyroidal. That I was putting out too much of the stuff. Clearly not. She started me on hormone replacement therapy, and over the past two years, my dose has steadily increased.

Blah blah blah blah. What is this? Senior citizens grousing over Mah-Jong? Here's the thing. When I went away, I forgot to take my meds with me. So I had a two week thyroid medication vacation. Bad patient! So I come back from vacation (I felt fine, I wasn't depressed or irratible, and my libido was definitely in good working order) and I went for the gym for the first time in two weeks. I jumped on the scale, fearing the worst: that my weight had dropped into the 170s during two weeks of not working out. I weighed 188. The most I've ever weighed in my life. Two pounds away from 190, my goal weight for the past decade of lifting weights. I look great. Special Guy was like, "Damn! You're huge!" (I am not huge.)

So I've kind of been skipping doses of my medication. I once jokingly suggested to my doctor that I hold off on treatment until I put on some pounds. She laughed. Here's another fun fact: my thyroid medication, Levoxyl, is an abused pharmaceutical: it's taken by women who want to lose weight. Because it speeds up your metabolism. I read in some body-building magazine (no more unreliable source, I know) that what you try to do if you want to gain is slow down your metabolism. Sort of ironic that among my last blogs before I went on vacation was all about me mulling doing steroids.

Huh. I just noticed that the skin on my arm is dry and flakey.