Friday August 15, 2008 11:29 PM

I had my much-anticipated appointment with my endocrinologist today. He's got me on pig thyroid pills (armour thyroid) since he first diagnosed me with Hashimoto's thyroiditis a few months ago. At first I had seen a lot of changes for the good...my knees stopped hurting, my hair got curlier, my triglyceride level dropped back to normal, but my weight didn't budge at all. I upped my dosage. No change. In fact, it's getting worse. My knees have started hurting again, I'm exhausted all the time, and last week I felt sick for a few days, couldn't get out of the bathroom, ate nothing but toast and chicken broth and GAINED THREE POUNDS. Unbelievable. I've gone up two clothes sizes since February. Even when I saw this guy for the first time I could tell he thought I was exaggerating about the weight thing...I may look trim enough, but I was trim-MER before. Now I've resorted to Slim Fast and a max of 1000 calories a day. That's no way to live, and that's no good for you either....I know that...but what else can I do? The scale is out of control.

So I see the guy today and I'm kvetching and of course he's got the "you're getting older" face on and then he asks if I exercise. Well, here's the thing. Yes, of course I know that exercise is good for you and I should really do more of it...maybe it would help in a small way...but the bottom line is, if I sat on my ass in February and was able to maintain 140 lbs. then it shouldn't really matter if I sit on my ass in August. I'm just as middle-aged now as I was then. Even Dr. McAndrew who drew the original labs that showed my triglyceride levels were 434 had an attitude that I must not be eating right. I get that discriminatory crap that since I'm Italian I must eat a lot of pasta...yes- she actually said that to me. But I'm not even Italian. Just because I married a man named Primiani does not make me Italian. When she saw the new labs taken after the thyroid meds that showed the level down to 88 she asked me if I had changed my eating habits. "No," I told her. She looked amazed. Yeah lady...not all bad lab results are caused by bad habits. She told me to get off the Lopid....I don't need it. The thyroid must have caused the high triglycerides.

So anyway...the endocrinologist drew more blood. I asked him if he could change me to the synthetic thyroid because I don't think Armour is the thing for me. He just said he'd call me when the labs came back. Now, I don't know if synthetic will help me, either, but it's worth a shot. Worst case scenario, McAndrew said she'd switch me if this guy wouldn't. We'll see. I guess I just have to keep eating Slim Fast bars. I'm soooooo hungry!

Jim and I and Jimmy are off the St. Louis on Sunday. I rented an RV and we're going to do the whole RV thing. Jim's bitching and moaning because he's apprehensive about driving it. I swear...you have to drag that guy away from the house.