A Smattering of Happy Thoughts

NOTE: Many of you have wondered how to get your hands on Unsung Lullabies. I got mine at Amazon.com. Run a search there for the title, and it should pop right up. Then you can order a used or new edition. Happy reading!

First of all - Valentine's Day was lovely. I know many people think it's a silly day and that you should support your loved one all year, but we like to celebrate it quietly. We do nice things for each other the whole year long, and profess our undying love often. However, since we don't have much money, we like to take an excuse such as V-day to go out to eat and buy each other a nice card. It's just a good reminder to pamper ourselves as a couple once in a while. We ended up eating at a Mexican place we've been meaning to try. It had FABULOUS food and even better service and value. We could eat lunch there for a few bucks each! That's our kind of place! I have to say we also both managed to snag some awesome cards this year. I think we made each other a little verklempt.

Secondly, I just finished participating in the annual Great Backyard Bird Count. I didn't see as many species as I would have liked, but I had fun anyway. AND - when I went on a wildlife census, I got to see a short-tailed hawk (dark morph)! They are not common at all in Florida. In fact, they aren't all that common anywhere. This was a nesting pair - too cool!

Thirdly - I'm almost finished with My So Called Scarf and plan to wear it out tonight! I'm sure this will be one of our last cold nights.

Finally, I've saved the biggest news for last. I went to the CE today to get the results of all that bloodwork. Get this: Everything looked completely normal. Can you believe that? And the coolest thing was, by pure chance I had my draw done right around ovulation, which shows quite clearly in my FSH:LH levels! YAY BODY!

The levels I had done were: Complete Metabolic Panel (CMP - including glucose), Free T-4, TSH, Lipid Panel (not too bad, but still some work to do here), C-peptide, DHEA-S, FSH, LH, Insulin, Prolactin, Testosterone (free and total). Not one of these levels indicates PCOS. When you put that together with the fact that I have minimal PCOS symptoms (which can also be somewhat attributed to the hypothyroid) and that only my left ovary has the minimum amount of cysts to be considered PCOS, CE suspects that I don't have the full syndrome, or at the least, it's a mild form of it.

What we both think may have happened is that the hypothyroid stopped me from ovulating. When that happened, I developed more of the cysts, which in turn, released more androgens. So for now, she's going with the thought that I have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis with a polycystic ovary, but maybe not the syndrome. She says we'll know more as we see if I start to even out and ovulate earlier as time goes on with this new protocol. She also gives a lot of credit to the flax seed oil and B-complex that I've been taking. She think that B-complex is one of the most important vitamin groups to have for ovulatory and cycle disorders.

Furthermore, if I ever do get pregnant, she wants me to call her immediately so she can run a TSH and bump up my Synthroid dosage. I like me a prepared doctor. :)

I'm just so glad to have a shot at being healthy. For now, pregnancy worries are on the back burner, and happy, healthy Barb is the focus.