Blood Work @ MindSay 
So I got my bloodwork done today...
A whopping 10 vials of blood drawn in one sitting....
Thank goodness I have good veins and she found it on the first try...There was no way I was going to be able to stand her taking it in and out for every vial if she was a trainee. I met with my family doctor today and we discussed the blood tests I wanted done. It checked for a wide variety of things that may be affecting my thyroid/energy levels:
• Total Testosterone
• Bioavailable Testosterone (AKA "Free and Loosely Bound")
• Free Testosterone (if Bioavailable T is unavailable)
• DHT
• Estradiol (specify the Extraction Method, or "sensitive" assay for
males)
• LH
• FSH
• Prolactin
• Cortisol
• Thyroid Panel doing this.
• Comprehensive Metabolic Panel
• Lipid Profile
This is one of those comprehensive blood labs where they look for basically every single hormone in my blood, every single possible mineral deficiency and so on. I'm actually worried that the blood tests might come back normal, which would make me feel like it's all in my head. But I know my body well enough to know that there is definitely not something working right. Whether it's my thyroid alone or the whole endocrine system working inharmoniously . We talked a little bit about why my metabolism is so slow and he blatantly said it might be due to poor dieting, which to a certain extent I can agree. I definitely don't eat enough meals during the day, but it's because I'm usually just not hungry. I can't force myself to eat. I only burn 1900 calories a day, which is still far below the norm for the average male my age. In fact it's way below the norm for both men and women.
My theory is that since my thyroid has been out of whack for so many years, my body has simply adjusted to living off of very low energy levels and it's basically stuck in gear. I've maintained a regular body weight of 180lbs for nearly three years. Never going up and never going down. I couldn't lose or gain weight if I tried, but recently over the last 6 months I've put on more weight than I'd like to admit. I haven't changed my eating habits or my exercise level, so it makes me worry that something went out of line.
There's nothing else I can really do except try to eat a little more and try to exercise a lot more until I can get the blood work results back. That will let me know if my hormone levels and mineral levels are in balance. If somethings missing it could mean a whole lot of shit that I just don't want to know, yet at the same time I NEED to know.
Oh well, here's to one week of waiting!
Tschuess!
Thank goodness I have good veins and she found it on the first try...There was no way I was going to be able to stand her taking it in and out for every vial if she was a trainee. I met with my family doctor today and we discussed the blood tests I wanted done. It checked for a wide variety of things that may be affecting my thyroid/energy levels:
• Total Testosterone
• Bioavailable Testosterone (AKA "Free and Loosely Bound")
• Free Testosterone (if Bioavailable T is unavailable)
• DHT
• Estradiol (specify the Extraction Method, or "sensitive" assay for
males)
• LH
• FSH
• Prolactin
• Cortisol
• Thyroid Panel doing this.
- * TSH
* Free T4 and Free T3
* Thyroid Antibodies (anti-TPO and TgAb.)
* Reverse T3
* Ferritin (and do stress FERRITIN, not just RBC)
* B-12
* DHEA-S
• Comprehensive Metabolic Panel
• Lipid Profile
This is one of those comprehensive blood labs where they look for basically every single hormone in my blood, every single possible mineral deficiency and so on. I'm actually worried that the blood tests might come back normal, which would make me feel like it's all in my head. But I know my body well enough to know that there is definitely not something working right. Whether it's my thyroid alone or the whole endocrine system working inharmoniously . We talked a little bit about why my metabolism is so slow and he blatantly said it might be due to poor dieting, which to a certain extent I can agree. I definitely don't eat enough meals during the day, but it's because I'm usually just not hungry. I can't force myself to eat. I only burn 1900 calories a day, which is still far below the norm for the average male my age. In fact it's way below the norm for both men and women.
My theory is that since my thyroid has been out of whack for so many years, my body has simply adjusted to living off of very low energy levels and it's basically stuck in gear. I've maintained a regular body weight of 180lbs for nearly three years. Never going up and never going down. I couldn't lose or gain weight if I tried, but recently over the last 6 months I've put on more weight than I'd like to admit. I haven't changed my eating habits or my exercise level, so it makes me worry that something went out of line.
There's nothing else I can really do except try to eat a little more and try to exercise a lot more until I can get the blood work results back. That will let me know if my hormone levels and mineral levels are in balance. If somethings missing it could mean a whole lot of shit that I just don't want to know, yet at the same time I NEED to know.
Oh well, here's to one week of waiting!
Tschuess!
Seen the vet
Well, I took Ipyana to the vet. Come to find out that the bad results from the blood test is nothing I'm doing! I was sooo worried! I want to do the best for him. The vet said that there are healthy birds and natural born sick birds. She thinks that the balance thing (he has REALLY bad balance sometimes) sounds like it is caused from the cerebrall cortex in the brain. The cerebrall cortex is in charge of the balance part. She thinks that it is genetic. "It shouldn't affect his life span" she says. The blood work should come back next week. I asked her why the CPK was sooo high. and she told me that it's not surprising since he is breaking off some of his blood feathers (which is caused from the balance). If there is muscle damage (which breaking off the blood feathers causes), the CPK will go up. There isn't anymore that I can do I guess. I'm doing everything right, but that doesn't affect genetics unfortunately 
. When I get the test results, I will post them. Ipyana recovered from the anesthesia way better this time. There is bruising underneath his wings again, which is caused from the vet having to take the blood from underneath the wings. He looks a little scraggly because he has some blood stained feathers from the blood taking. But hes still as adorable as ever!
. When I get the test results, I will post them. Ipyana recovered from the anesthesia way better this time. There is bruising underneath his wings again, which is caused from the vet having to take the blood from underneath the wings. He looks a little scraggly because he has some blood stained feathers from the blood taking. But hes still as adorable as ever!
More Blood Work Getting Done
Ipyana-
Ipyana is going back to the vet on wednesday (tomorrow) to get more blood taken. B/c the last time the vet did it, the blood clotted in the needle and they couldnt get anymore. Since a cockatiel (or any bird for that matter) cant lose much blood without it being fatal, its important to be careful. Im really hating to put him back through that b/c its very traumatic. But I guess you do what is nessesary. They are going to have to put him under anesthesia again. The anesthesia wont even fully knock him out, it just makes him not care what is going on. Kind of like at the dentist! lol. I am hoping that the results are not more bad news! Thats the last thing we need! He also has lost two more not fully grown feathers. I am concerned that he is plucking them out. Coincidently or not, they are pretty much at the same stage of the feather cycle when they are ripped out. They also have blood on them when they come out. Please pray for him.
Me-
(Im on the right)
Mother - 2; Cancer - 0
This turned out much longer than I originally intended. If you make it all the way to the end, leave me a message with your thoughts.
When I wrote the other day about my mum not having to have chemo again I was slightly misinformed, so I'd like to fill everyone in on a more complete story (I'm not bothering with full back-story, however -if anyone would like to know more, feel free to ask).
The other day my mum went to the oncologist. Her regular doctor wasn't there, so she spoke with a different fellow. She goes to a pretty good cancer center and all the doctors are well-trained, so this isn't a problem. He looked over her blood work for the past several years and her blood work since she has been taking this set of chemotherapy. She's been taking 3 types of chemo during three days of every month (all three the 1st day, two kinds on the 2nd and 3rd days) and she was expecting to be on this regiment for 6 months, including the entirety of the summer.
The thing is, she has responded extremely well to the treatment –much better than had been expected. He actually told her that he could see her living to be 95 and dying of something else. It was not that long ago that her prospects were questionable at best. They plan to switch her to another form of treatment that is still technically chemotherapy, but is not considered caustic chemo. This means that she won’t have to feel like she was hit by a semi-truck every time she gets treatment and with the structure of the treatments she should be able to do it every summer, allowing her to teach during the school year.
There are a lot of people who have been praying for my mum, many of them having more faith about it than I have. I am ashamed to say it, but I haven’t had faith that God would heal her. I knew God would take care of things, but I guess I am so accustomed to people around me dying that I tried to prepare myself for what I considered inevitable. She isn’t “cured” as in completely free from cancer, but (as I told her this morning) I think it is better this way. It seems more like God is saying “know that I will always take care of you, but I am going to leave a little bit of the cancer to remind you to value life and to trust Me.”
I know that God used her cancer to start healing a lot of wounds. My family was pretty much broken prior to her diagnosis and I think that He used it to show us a few things. I know that it has had a positive effect on my mother, although it has been an extremely difficult road. It has helped heal some of the brokenness in her. It’s ironic how death can teach you the most about life. I think that if He took away the leukemia completely we might become like the Israelites who kept forgetting how much they had been delivered from. That might not be the best commentary on us, but He already took away her breast cancer and rather than fully appreciate that we shifted our focus to the leukemia.
I’d like to say that I’ve been praying the entire time with the expectation that she would recover, but I have this crazy habit of not lying to myself. It sounds horrible, but I have been preparing for her death. I love my mother very, very much and in no way at all did/do I wish death or harm upon her. She is a strong woman and she has a lot of fight in her. I was definitely hoping that she would get several more years, but I had accepted that she would die and was trying to make the best out of what time was left. Her response to the treatment is a huge relief, but part of me is concerned that I will start to think of it as too good to be true or forget that I don’t need to worry about her death. Granted that we have little control over death and perfectly healthy people die all the time, but you know what I mean.
The funniest part about some of this is that I’m the one who is considered an eternal optimist by my family and friends.
When I wrote the other day about my mum not having to have chemo again I was slightly misinformed, so I'd like to fill everyone in on a more complete story (I'm not bothering with full back-story, however -if anyone would like to know more, feel free to ask).
The other day my mum went to the oncologist. Her regular doctor wasn't there, so she spoke with a different fellow. She goes to a pretty good cancer center and all the doctors are well-trained, so this isn't a problem. He looked over her blood work for the past several years and her blood work since she has been taking this set of chemotherapy. She's been taking 3 types of chemo during three days of every month (all three the 1st day, two kinds on the 2nd and 3rd days) and she was expecting to be on this regiment for 6 months, including the entirety of the summer.
The thing is, she has responded extremely well to the treatment –much better than had been expected. He actually told her that he could see her living to be 95 and dying of something else. It was not that long ago that her prospects were questionable at best. They plan to switch her to another form of treatment that is still technically chemotherapy, but is not considered caustic chemo. This means that she won’t have to feel like she was hit by a semi-truck every time she gets treatment and with the structure of the treatments she should be able to do it every summer, allowing her to teach during the school year.
There are a lot of people who have been praying for my mum, many of them having more faith about it than I have. I am ashamed to say it, but I haven’t had faith that God would heal her. I knew God would take care of things, but I guess I am so accustomed to people around me dying that I tried to prepare myself for what I considered inevitable. She isn’t “cured” as in completely free from cancer, but (as I told her this morning) I think it is better this way. It seems more like God is saying “know that I will always take care of you, but I am going to leave a little bit of the cancer to remind you to value life and to trust Me.”
I know that God used her cancer to start healing a lot of wounds. My family was pretty much broken prior to her diagnosis and I think that He used it to show us a few things. I know that it has had a positive effect on my mother, although it has been an extremely difficult road. It has helped heal some of the brokenness in her. It’s ironic how death can teach you the most about life. I think that if He took away the leukemia completely we might become like the Israelites who kept forgetting how much they had been delivered from. That might not be the best commentary on us, but He already took away her breast cancer and rather than fully appreciate that we shifted our focus to the leukemia.
I’d like to say that I’ve been praying the entire time with the expectation that she would recover, but I have this crazy habit of not lying to myself. It sounds horrible, but I have been preparing for her death. I love my mother very, very much and in no way at all did/do I wish death or harm upon her. She is a strong woman and she has a lot of fight in her. I was definitely hoping that she would get several more years, but I had accepted that she would die and was trying to make the best out of what time was left. Her response to the treatment is a huge relief, but part of me is concerned that I will start to think of it as too good to be true or forget that I don’t need to worry about her death. Granted that we have little control over death and perfectly healthy people die all the time, but you know what I mean.
The funniest part about some of this is that I’m the one who is considered an eternal optimist by my family and friends.
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Re: An Awakening. - As usual, Joseph, it feels you are speaking my exact sentiments; therefore, I can relate...
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