Thyroid and blood pressure madness.

Yesterday I went to see a new doctor.  She is great.  She is an NFP only practitioner which means she does not prescribe birth control and I knew that I wanted to become a patient of hers to support her in this, because I feel morally, that is the only way to go.  But it was hard for me to think of leaving the OB/GYN practice that I have been with for almost 10 years.  They have seen me for 8 pregnancies.  I knew exactly where everything was in that office.  I knew office staff.  I knew the routines.  I was comfortable there.

I told Rob I was nervous about leaving and going somewhere new, and he told me that sometimes God wants us to be uncomfortable.  Doing the right thing is not always comfortable.

And so I made my appointment after nearly 2 months of having a bounding pulse.  My bounding pulse is not a fast heartrate, but a insanely annoying throbbing of my pulse which I mainly feel in my neck. I can usually see it pulsing on my wrist as well.  So that was my impetus for making this appointment.  It felt like last February when I was in the hospital for the partial molar pregnancy and my blood pressure was high and my thyroid was hyper.

I left my kids with a paid babysitter (for the first time ever I think)....and went to the office.  When I got in there the waiting room was small and I thought, "Oh boy, was this a good idea?"  But once I got back with the nurse and doctor; my opinion of the place greatly changed.  They were so nice and the doctor ended up spending 30-40 minutes I think, talking to me and discussing my history.  One of the things I noticed right off about the doctor's office was that she had a huge picture of Jesus with little children gathered around Him.  Right there, hanging on her wall.  No wonder I had such a sense of peace.  That and beforehand I prayed that this office visit would be fruitful and that I could adequately relay all that had been going on with me physically without forgetting or getting "brain fog".  And God gave me the grace to do that!

So on to the health stuff....the nurse took my vitals and noted that my blood pressure was high.  Like 166/100 high.  They ended up taking my pressures 6 times and it was high every time and with 3 different cuffs.  I was told to go about my daily routine but not to exercise/overexert myself.

She went over all my symptoms and history and checked my neck.  Only to find that I have a thyroid nodule.  So that could be what is causing my blood pressure to be high.  Or I could just have developed high blood pressure based on my familial history.  Or I could be stressed from all that I have been through and not properly grieving Francis Marie.  Or it could be something else.

I am being referred to an endocrinologist to check out the nodule.  They will determine without it is solid or fluid-filled and whether or not it needs to come out.

In the meantime I had a ton of blood drawn and she is running thyroid tests and who knows what else.

And I have to go on P+3, 5, 7 and 9 of my cycle to get blood drawn.

This doctor is on top of things. 

I am to call her if I get a headache that won't go away, shortness of breath, more chest pain, vision changes, etc.

So that's where I'm at.  I'm not really nervous about any of it....this doc really has me confident that we can get to the bottom of this and get it straightened out and then we can try to conceive again.

And in the meantime, here is Photo #3 and #4