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“If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.” Thomas Jefferson

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

September 2014 update

Well, the health issue isn't much better. However, my thyroid numbers are now so bad that the endocrinologist finally agreed that I have a problem. My thyroid has grown in size and I will be having another ultrasound in the next month or so. She put me on synthetic thyroid and I am not tolerating it well. About an hour or so after I take it I then have a headache that lasts all day. I also tend to have some nausea, but not sure if that is the medication or the headache. We will see how things go with my next appointment as to whether she will remain my doctor. Most likely not because she is a TSH only doc. I am still trying to keep things together around here. I had been making some pretty decent progress on the before winter to do list, but now I am considerably much slower. There is a lot to do. The problem is that I have so little energy, my heart rate increases easily leading to heart palpitations which make me dizzy, I run out of breath very quickly, and then there are the headaches. Just feeding the livestock can be very difficult and wipe me out for about an hour or so. So, in this post I thought I would put a few thoughts on how to cope when you simply don't see how you can keep coping. Like I have said before the best thing I ever did while I was well was to make things pretty efficient. Even so, I now see some ways that I can improve on that. For instance, previously all the hay was put into one barn and this meant that twice a day I had to move hay from one side of the farm to the other. So, we have put a pallet in each rabbit colony so that the rabbit can use the floor space under the pallet and the hay is stacked on top. They actually seem to like this and it means that all that needs doing is to pull from the loose square bale on the top of the stack. We are also going to get small metal trashcans and put the feed for the rabbits that are in the middle colony in the middle colony with them. We have put more hay racks in the goat barn so that if I am having a bad day then I only have to put hay out once a day. I am really weak these days and my balance is really off, so the less I have to be mobbed by goats shoving and pushing the safer it will be for me. We are trying to come up with some way that I can pour their grain from the feed room. The problem is that they either knock over their feed trough or knock buckets down. This means that I have to go into the barn and pick all of that up with crazy goats running around and knocking me over. The garden is slowly being closed up for the winter. I won't have a winter garden this year. I am tired of hunting for eggs so we are adding onto the chicken coop and will put a metal trashcan in there to store feed. We have it so that we can water from outside the coop as well. Then the chickens will be locked up at least most of the day and let out in the afternoon to free range. I just have no energy to go looking for eggs everyday. As soon as I find a place the hens get tired of me taking their stash so then they go find another place and the hunt is on again. The goats will be dry lotted this winter so that I don't have to move them around or chase them down. Everybody will be deep bedded. Flylady was a blessing. Most of the excess junk is gone from the house which makes it easier to keep tidy. The children keep their own rooms and bathroom clean. Even though I can't keep to the deep clean schedule that she has right now, I can manage to get at least 2 rooms a month deep cleaned and keep everything else on a normal cleaning schedule. Like I said we are still looking for some other ways to make things a little easier on me right now so that I can keep things somewhat going. I have faith that things will get better for me and I don't want to just give up what we have worked so hard to build up. However, the struggle to keep it going is really tough. There are days that just the morning feeding chores has me in tears. So my best advice at this time is to take the time to do some organization and streamlining around your home and homestead because you never know when chronic illness might raise its ugly head and render you unable to do what you do now. A year ago, I was building fences, taking care of the house and livestock, making cheese, canning, taking care of the garden, and splitting wood for winter. Now, I do good to feed the livestock and my family and do schoolwork with the children. Hopefully, I will have better news! Blessings, Kat

1 comment:

texomamorganlady said...

I am new to reading your blog, and happened upon this post. I don't know which thyroid issue you are dealing with, Hashimoto's? I have Graves and would like to encourage you to thoroughly investigate your treatment options, before the doctors make your choices. I had radioactive ablation, and wish every day that I had researched it first. Know that there are several synthetic thyroid supplements and those produced from animal thyroid. Some find the latter to be more tolerable, especially if you need T2, T3, etc. Best of luck with this, making informed choices and eating whole foods can be the best things for living with a thyroid related illness.