You Are Not a Beautiful and Unique Snowflake

In December I was having a conversation.  We hadn't met before and we were making small talk.  The chat turned to leisure pursuits, and I mentioned that I enjoyed swimming in the sea.  Then I sat back, expecting to be revered as a sort of viking crossed with a killer whale.  "Oh, wild swimming?" She asked. "That's cool - my gran does that in Brighton"

You could actually hear the peg or two that I had been set down tinkling to the floor.  Peggily.

I've had much the same experience making public my illness.  What seemed huge, monstrous and, dare I say it, heroically overcome thus far, has not exactly ignited the fires of those around me.  I've run the gamut of "My auntie/mum/gran has that" and even "yeah, my cat had it but it died soon after".

So I started to draft questions.  Mostly but not exclusively unrelated to cats.

Firstly, how common is this?  I don't know anything about it other than a doctor called me up after 18.00 on my mobile and got me in for a face to face the next morning, and her eyes above the facemask seemed to communicate that this was severe.  But maybe I've imagined that bit.  She could have been trying not to tell me sob quite so loudly.  So many new eye messages to learn.

So, how common?  Then, where do I fit in, demographically and and symptomatically.  Cats, aunts, mums, but no one yet said brother.  So there's that.  And my blood readings - I'm currently wearing them with as much pride as my old cub scout badge for arranging wet twigs in a fire-like shape; I don't actually know what they mean.  Am I about to explode, turn blue, or just feel a little floppy?  Where am I exactly on the linear progression of hypothyroidism?  Typically, I want to "win" having the most extreme version, but realistically I'm quite happy not to.

Next - why?  How did it happen?  Did I overdo the stress, too much training without recovery?  Was it my diet?  Genes?  Or did I get it from relicking a second hand stamp?  Was I predestined to get it, and what would have happened to me if I hadn't been tested?

Then the stuff that holds the real interest for me - how do I tell?  The symptoms I recognize - weight gain lethargy, lack of motivation, joint and muscle pain, slow thinking and moving, tiredness (yes I know that's lethargy but I'm really tired!) libido loss, weird things with my hands not working.  How much of that is hypothyroidism, how much is other factors?  

How do you measure motivation? Is there an empirical system, like there is for volume, exertion, and chili peppers (it's called the Scoville scale...).  And how will I know when I'm better?

And this took me full circle.  My blood levels should find their way back under the regime of medication I'll be taking.  But how will I know if I'm better?

The blood levels seems measurable, the remainder isn't quite so easy to scientifically assess.  So the next week will be not so much planning the journey, as asking questions about where I am, right now.

 Thank you to everyone who read my first post, over a hundred of you, and who fed back and gave me ideas.  You're all awesome.