I had off Monday and Tuesday, but called out yesterday cause I started getting a fever around 10 pm and still had it at 7 am yesterday.

I guess it was around Friday I started getting congested, sneezing and had very minor chills and fevers—they sort of felt like extended hot flashes. I thought, oh shit, please don’t be a new sinus infection. I really didn’t feel like it was one, and after having 15 months of off/on sinus infections, I’m an expert on my own symptoms.

I think I attracted some kind of virus via an allergy attack. I think the allergy caused the congestion and some virus visited my sinus passages and decided that ick was a great place to crash. I’d run out of Fluticasone, which is prescription Flonase. Ironically, the over the counter one costs me about $12. The prescription is completely covered by my insurance, so it’s free. I kept forgetting to call the ENT doctor to get it refilled. So, I’ve had plenty of gunk in my sinuses.

I had off today, but I’m scheduled to work 9-4 tomorrow. I can’t call out. I used five of my seven hours of sick time to cover yesterday’s lost shift. The fever seems gone, but I feel weird; I’m kind of having an out of body experience. I haven’t eaten much over the last three days, so I probably screwed up my blood sugar.

Juxtaposed on this, or maybe underlying it, I started on a thyroid hormone, levothyroxine, yes, my thyroid finally made a decision: it’s slow!!! After decades of toying with being slow, it creeped over the line. Honestly, I’m relieved. I feel as though I have answers. I think a lot of my exhaustion during the 15 months of sinus issues was my thyroid going bonkers,

In November my primary care physician told me I have the antibodies for Hashimoto’s disease, which is related to slow thyroid, but not everyone who gets Hashimoto’s gets a slow thyroid. In fact, in November, my thyroid was close to being slow, but not over the line.

It is also true that sinus infections do wipe out my energy, but this 15 month period—whoa! I got NOTHING done on my life. This is why I’m happy to have the hormone. I’m also grateful my insurance covers it.

I did hit a bump that may have been related. Levothyroxine has to be taken on an empty stomach, which means, my bipolar medicine schedule got juggled. I think it screwed with my brain chemistry enough yo make me seriously think of checking into the looney bin one night last week. I just started having very dark thoughts that seemed to come from thin air. I talked myself into thinking it was a medicine change issue and it would get better in a few days. That’s what happened. Although, I still want and need counseling. I’ve always been very sensitive to drugs—one reason recreational drug taking was never a hobby of mine. I recall several times during childhood being sick with things like strep throat and within hours of taking the first pill I felt a huge improvement.

I’ve wanted to write a few posts during my days off, but this is all I really have energy for.

I know the energy will return within a couple of weeks. I’m on a low dose of levothyroxine (it could turn out to be too low). I have my next appointment with my primary in June.

In other medical news: I finally have my knee replacement surgery scheduled for May 16th, which used to be my wedding anniversary, in another life.

I guess it will be a different kind of wedding this time.