An anniversary review of health notes + tips

So, we are just about at the anniversary of my life doing a complete upheaval due to the medical foo, and that makes it a good time to do an update of what I've learned, in case it helps other people somewhere. (In other words, feel free to link to other people who might find it useful or have questions. I don't have all the answers, but might have ideas.)

(So many things are tied into November for me these days: it is a month that begins with my father's death, includes the anniversaries of my 2nd degree, 3rd degree, separation from the ex-husband, and the anniversary of the first month we lived together (our actually wedding was in early December.) And now this. Awfully complicated month.

Anyway: for those who don't remember, a year ago, on the Monday after Thanksgiving in 2009, after feeling just as horrible with five days off work as I did when finishing work on the previous Tuesday, I walked into work and said "There is something really wrong." The eventual diagnosis turned out to be hypothyroidism and vitamin D deficiency (after a side trip through "Could it be depression?" and a lot of stuff I wish I'd handled differently at work, sort of, if I could figure out what 'better' would have looked like.)

This is going to get long, but breaking it up in to separate chunks seems less useful.

( Much more within )