My first adverse symptoms after RAI began to appear on June 6, 1998.  The first symptom was fatigue such as I had never experienced .  My nephew was getting married on June 12 and my son and daughter in law were arriving from Vancouver on June 6th.  We left for the lake on Saturday, June 7th and stayed one night.  To my horror I slept most of the time.  By Monday, June 8th I had a migraine from hell and was beginning to bloat up.  By Tuesday, June 9th I realized that the dress I had been planning to wear for the wedding would not fit.  This sent me on a mad scramble to find a new outfit suitable to wear to a wedding.   I have vague recollections of the wedding on Friday, June 12th.  My darling grandson was the ring bearer and I remember the supper and part of the dance.  By Friday the migraine was completely out of control and I had also begun to hemorrhage.

I called Blonde Bimbo’s office on Friday only to be told that she was on six weeks of holidays.  I asked the “nurse” who answered the phone if what I was experiencing the symptoms of hypothyroidism.  She assured me that hemorrhaging, fatigue, bloating and migraines had nothing to do with becoming hypo.  Fool that I was, I believed her.

The nightmare continued and on June 25th I presented in emergency at the country clinic with this continuing migraine.  The doctor on call gave me a shot of Demoral.  I managed to sleep for 3 hours and woke up to the same intensity of pain as before the shot.  I then placed another call to Blonde Bimbo’s office reiterating my symptoms and asking again if this had anything to do with becoming hypo.  I also told Blonde Bimbo’s “nurse” that I was retaining fluids and that my face and hands were very puffy.  I was assured that these were not the symptoms of becoming hypo and that I would have to wait to see Blonde Bimbo on July 25th when she returned from her six week vacation.  I was becoming afraid; very afraid.

By the time I saw the Blonde Bimbo on July 25th I had had a full blown migraine for 32 days.  I had also been bleeding like a stuck pig for 32 days.  I could barely walk into her consultation room.  By July 25th I was so swollen from the water retention that the skin between my fingers and toes was splitting.

The ultimate insult was Blonde Bimbo’s report from July 25th, 1998.  To cover her butt and the butts of her nurses who gave me wrong information when I called in for help, Blonde Bimbo wrote in her report and I quote, “Unfortunately Widebertha missed a couple of appointments in the follow up of this and represented in the middle of the summer with menorrhagia, severe headaches and marked fatigue.  At that time her free T4 was less than 1 and her TSH was 37.  She was placed on Levothyroxine at that time.”

Trust me; I NEVER EVER missed an appointment.  This bimbo goes on holidays for six weeks.  When I get very ill during this time she accuses me of missing appointments!!!  This is when I started to realize that doctors did not necessarily have my best interest at heart.

My blood test results from July 25th, 1998 were as follows:

• TSH was 37 with lab normal being .46 to 3.6
• T4 was <1 with the lab normal being 9.4 – 25.9
• T3 was 0.7 with lab normal being 1.5 – 5