Dead Ends?

This is truly a journey of long roads with hills, quick turns and apparently dead ends.

I went to Dr. S (my regular doctor) to go over blood work she ordered a while back because of my low platelet count.  We went over my results, which all came back normal except that I still have a low blood platelet count.  We were both surprised.  Dr. S was leaning towards the belief that I had Lupus because of how I felt and the low platelet count. While I am happy she was wrong, I still secretly wished something would have shown up because I would have an answer to how I feel. No answer = Dead end.

We spoke about Dr. O (new endocrinologist) and my results with him.  My initial labs showed that I was low in cortisol and ACTH, but after the 2nd set of lab work, both results came out normal.  My antibodies for my thyroid are still high, but there appears to be no issue with my adrenal glands.  The numbers suggest that my body stopped producing cortisol and ACTH because of a cortisol shot I received in my hip a few days prior to the initial blood work. So, here is another dead end.

After a lengthy conversation with Dr. S, I asked her if the low platelet count was related to my Hashimoto's and she said no.  According to Dr. S, a low platelet count has nothing to do with thyroid disease and she suspects that something else is wrong, but she doesn't exactly know what it is.  She suspects that I may have another autoimmune disease related to my blood.  Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura or ITP happens when your immune system destroys platelets.  Did you even know there were autoimmune diseases that affected your blood? I actually started laughing in the doctor's office because this is all starting to become like a bad soap opera where I play the character who has every weird named disease known to man.  I felt like all we needed to do was insert the sad music and friends with too much make-up on, who somehow relate my situation to themselves and start a fight with another cast mate for being insensitive.  I mean, at this point my health has become something to blog about. It's ridiculous.

Dr. S wants me to see a Hematologist and at this point I just don't want to.  I've got so much going on that I need a break right now.  I need to have surgery on my hip, which I've never even mentioned in this blog because I simply don't want to think about it.  I have this thyroid crap going on and now I have to see another specialist because my immune system is attacking my blood.  I'm 33 years old for goodness sake and I'm breaking down on the side of the road with a low dose of Levothyroxine as my only aid. Dr. S said she was fine with waiting, but she needed to monitor the numbers, so that means I will be seeing more of her and more of her crazy phlebotomist. So, this is a dead end right now and I am going to take some other routes on this journey for a second.  I got some really good information about some supplements and I'm going to start taking Selenium and modify my diet even more.  I am more than likely going to go all Paleo, which Dr. S. suggested was a really good idea.

And so, the journey has been put in maintenance mode...