17 Aug 2018
Sorry for the late update. It’s been a very busy summer so far.
Mom’s health has been in a steady decline since her falls last year. This summer, she was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and had to be hospitalized for a couple of days to get her stabilized. At one point, they were considering putting in a stent to help with her circulation but after an echocardiogram was performed, they found that she was in no immediate risk and deferred on the procedure. Instead, she has been placed on Lasix (diuretic) and Entresto (ACE inhibitor) to mitigate her edema (that’s what sent her to the hospital), and later added Carvedilol (beta blocker) to further improve her heart function.
Over the last couple of weeks, her condition has dramatically improved. She’s back to her normal bodyweight (as of this week) and is even back on her feet again (she had pretty much become wheelchair bound for most activities and using a walker in and around the house). She still needs to be closely monitored and will require more frequent doctor visits, particularly with the cardiologist – not something she likes. Happy with her progress and hope it remains stable.
On the flip side of the coin, all of this has done nothing to reduce any stress in my journey and trying to achieve remission. My TSH remains stuck at a ridiculously low number (0.009 in July v 0.018 in April). T4 has returned to within a normal range where it was slightly elevated back in April (1.77 v 1.83). T3 was again not measured. I asked my new endocrinologist why not and he said that it was not as relevant for treating Graves. Still, I would like to know so when time comes from my next labs, I asked that they include it (hope they remember!).
Needless to say, remission remains out of reach for now. Hopefully, my situation will change when I finally pack it in after 30 years with EY and I retire at the end of the year. Too young to retire you say? Pfffgh – never too late to enjoy the rest of my life! 136 days to go!
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