The good, the bad, and the ugly

The good: The fact that my almost fifteen month old daughter loves a fart joke, or as we call them around here, bottom burps. She giggles everytime she lets one rip, especially in the bath when the bubbles cause her to squeal with delight. She now tries to do them deliberately, sucking her stomach in hard and squeezing her bottom cheeks whenever anyone is around to share the moment. Toilet humour truly is universal- and it gets them in young.

The poo monkey's third tooth is on the up, as is her mood. Little miss is on the go, happily walking everywhere provided that she can hold your hands. Sometimes only one assisting hand is necessary, and we have had a few more unassisted leaps between various pieces of furniture. Her vocabulary has expanded to include woofing noises whenever we encounter a dog (or Daddy). Go figure.

The bad: Trying to get little miss to consume more liquid...actually any liquid other than her morning and evening bottles. Dealing with the inevitable head bumps that come with trying to walk. Having to deal with temper tantrums, crying jags (both mine and the poo monkey's) and doctor's appointments (mine)when hubs is away. More on the latter shortly.

The ugly: It's official, I have a thyroid problem. My latest blood test results showed that I have a shedload of antithyroid antibodies, massively decreased TSH and elevated T3. In other words, I have an autoimmune response happening with means my thyroid is producing way too much of one of its hormones, sending my metabolism into overdrive.

This fun little shindig is called hyperthyroidism and T3 toxicosis, and the happy minor side effects should this condition be left untreated include eye problems, early onset osteoporosis, recurrent miscarriages, heart failure... and the clincher is that it is eventually fatal. Yay team.

So there I was, my doc not only telling me that IVF is on hold until the condition is under control, but that I have to start medication right away, drugs which I would need to stay on when pregnant even though they could cause, amongst other things, congenital goiter for bubs, and oh yeah, you won't be able to breastfeed. As my doctor put it rather bluntly, it's a choice between taking a slight risk during pregnancy, and then having to bottlefeed....and a dead baby. Harsh, but I can see his point. Doesn't make it any less upsetting though.

I am told that the most likely cause of this happy state is an autoimmune condition called Graves' Disease
, and that I needed to go for a neck ultrasound to check on the size of my thyroid and to check for nodules which could also be causing the problem. Oh yeah, and that sometimes these nodules are actually cancerous.

That was when I made my RE promise that a) he would get me in for a scan that day, and b) he would organise me a valium if anyone was going to come near my neck with a needle for a biopsy.

So I had my scan that afternoon, and I have another appointment with my RE next week. Of course I opened up my scan results (gotta love those stickers they seal them with, "to be opened by referring doctor only". Yeah fucking right, as if that stops anyone). Thankfully I don't have any nodules, however my thyroid is at the upper end of normal size (yep, I am goitering up), and there is heterogenous vascularity going on. Or something.

As luck would have it, I met up with a couple of doctor friends yesterday. Upon showing them all my test results they both reckon that it's Graves' Disease. Apparently it tends to develop in your 30's and 40's (happy birthday hissy), and it tends to run in families. Lo and behold, I have just discovered that I have an auntie on each side of the family with thyroid condition. I'm a goiter girl, in a goiter world, or something like that.

And here I was thinking that I'd just been a bit wound up an wired lately, that maybe I was drinking too much caffeine. Ha!

Although this means that #2 is now on hold, I guess the good news is that they've caught this sucker early on, and that I will soon be rid of annoying symptoms whilst arresting the potential for more major health problems. The better news is that I have also just found out that there are safer drug alternatives if/when I do get pregnant, or the option of radioactive iodine therapy to permanently get rid of the problem (and create the opposite condition of hypothyroidism, but let's not go there yet).

The best news yet is that hubs is now not the only one in the house with an autoimmune condition. Couldn't have him asking for special treatment or anything.

ETA: If there is anyone out there (and I know you probably aren't) who has this condition, especially if you have dealt with it at the same time as IVF, please please delurk and give me hope...