The 2010 Winter Olympics Debacle

The whole month of February has been a surreal, unhappy experience for me!

To set the stage for all this, you need to understand that Armor Thyroid was reformulated at the beginning of 2009, and although it had the same amount of thyroid hormone in it, the fillers and binders inhibited the absorption of the medicine. Which means that I've been getting too little effective thyroid medicine for over a year. And then with the lack of availability of it, I've been taking a bit less than half the dose I need for more than two months.

This would usually guaranteed depression. I don't think I've really been depressed, but I will definitely say that it's been harder to keep things from getting the better of me.

On top of that, it appears that I've also been getting too little vitamin D, which can also cause SAD, and make you feel down and depressed. Not to mention the bad effect it has on bones.

So, it was in this shape that I signed up for the Knitting Olympics. You can see Stephanie's last blog post on her experience with it this time around here. If you read the whole thing, and click the list of athletes near the end of it, you can scroll down to my name and see my pathetic entry into this whole dismal failure for me.

Keep in mind that during this time period, we had a lot of snow!

It started off with me waiting longer than I should have to decide to enter, and pushed me into making a hasty decision and ordering yarn later than I should have. Even though it was late, the yarn could have arrived on the day of the opening ceremonies for the Olympics, but, sadly, no, it didn't.

Before the Olympics had even officially started, there was a death of an athlete. I'm sure you've all read about it, and during what was listed as the "Opening Ceremonies" on TV, the first hour and a half was spent on preparations for the Olympics (not opening ceremonies), and they showed video of the accident over and over. It was bad enough that he died, but I really didn't need to see how very violent the accident was over and over!

So Friday evening, I watched a selection of the opening ceremonies, and because of a malfunction in the torch mechanism, the actual lighting was delayed, and I didn't get to see the lighting of the flame. That's what I get for DVRing it without adding extra time at the end of the recording.

I consoled myself that the yarn would arrive on Monday.

That didn't last too long because I realized that Monday was Columbus Day, and everything in DC (including the mail) shuts down for that. Except, of course, the stores, which go into overdrive and have big sales. Unfortunately for them and me, I think the buses were shut down for the holiday. I didn't have the energy to walk up to the bus stop to check this theory.

Then, because of the usual incompetence of Comcast, I was forced, on Tuesday to spend more than three hours on various buses and waiting for those buses to go there in person. As usual, that didn't help much.

But it did leave me in such pain and so wiped out that I really wasn't able to do much of anything for a few days. Although the yarn arrived on Wednesday, I was so mentally foggy that I just didn't have any ideas for designing the vest that I wanted to make.

When I finally recovered enough to be up and walking, I had to go over to WalMart to get some nutritional supplements that I couldn't find anywhere and really feel bad if I don't take. So, I went there on Friday, and fell due to the snow and hurt myself pretty badly. No broken bones or major injuries, but muscles and joints that had been rudely yanked in various directions, and were thereafter determined to cause so much pain that it would teach me never to do that again! Along with bashing my head really hard on the cement! When they give you the diagnosis of Paget's Disease, they tell you to be careful and not to bump your head because it's bad for you, and can cause even more malformations of your skull than usual with the Paget's. I had some real headaches from this one!

About the time that I was beginning to realize that I would probably be able to deal with knitting soon, and should probably spend some time with my brain fog and design the charts for the cables in the vest, I found out that someone I know was missing in Vancouver. And eventually, I learned that Josh Andrew Koenig had died there. I hadn't seen him in a long time, but it still made me even sadder than I already was.

I accidentally injured some of my already injured muscles, and dragged my recovery out even more. For a while there, I wasn't really knitting at all.

Although I didn't get to see the doctor and find out the results of the vitamin D level tests she did in January, I read the list of symptoms, and it's pretty clear to me that my D levels were very low, so I tried supplements, and that has started to improve things considerably. Oh, and I did get some new thyroid medicine, so I 'm back to what is probably close to a good dose for me. Those things should improve my health, but although both things work quickly, it's not like waving a magic wand. The effects are not instant, but I'm seeing an improvement, and that's encouraging.

Around this time, Holly was finally able to find her car where it was hiding under the snow, and tried to dig it out, only to discover that a passing snow plow had not only piled lots of snow on it, but had actually hit it and smashed the left rear quarter!

And then the end of the Olympic Games. I got the see the mechanism they were using for the flame at last right at the end when they extinguished it. It really was very pretty.

Aside from the actual Olympic scores, my personal life scores were: two people dead, one someone I knew; I haven't even started my Knitting Olympics project; a patch of injury and bad health, although there's hope for the future on this one; Holly's car smashed; and a real thankfulness that it's over and that February was short.

Things have to get better from here on in, right?

During the last few days, temperatures have been going up above freezing, and the pond next to my place has changed from being solidly frozen to a shimmering pool of light when the sun comes out. It was supposed to go up to near 50 degrees yesterday, although it felt colder than that when I went out.

I did walk to the library yesterday (the sun was actually out for a while!) and to Safeway for food, and came home without that horrible ache in my bones, so maybe the vitamin D is doing some good. If it stays that way, I plan to walk more. I'm hopefully looking forward to a MD Sheep and Wool festival that I can survive without being in pain for the next two months.

We have snow flurries in the forecast for this afternoon, tonight and at least part of tomorrow. Flurries don't sound bad, but they're also using the word "storm" which, after the ton of snow we've already had makes me uneasy.

But it will be Spring soon! I can see just a few hints of it, and I've ordered some super clearance yarn for almost nothing that will make some great Spring clothing!

Brain Fog!

I still haven't recovered from the hypothyroid fog I've been in lately, and really can't think of much to say.

I just wanted to check in and let people know that I'm still here, I'm OK, or will be real soon now, and give you more information about the bill that Senator McCain has introduced.

There was apparently a lot of protest heard about the bill, and McCain made a statement defending himself and the bill. Here's a rebuttal, repeating McCain's statements, and translating them into reality. If you haven't written a letter to your legislators, there's a link to a prewritten letter which you can amend near the end of the article. If you've already done so, there's a link right after that to a letter protesting McCain's statement, and again urging your legislator to not support the bill. You have to fill in your address information, and when you do, the form will automatically be sent to the correct legislators for you. It's quick and easy to let your viewpoint be known!

I'm giving you that link because a friend insisted that my writing on the subject is inflammatory, and deliberately manipulative. He's right, so read the more unbiased and factual report there.

The FDA has been trying for a while to get effective supplements off the market so that people have to buy drugs instead and have lots of side effects rather than take supplements that are far safer. And, incidentally, put lots more money in the pockets of drug manufacturers! The FDA is, of course, looking out for our safety when it wants to ban natural supplements that are inexpensive, effective and have few if any side effects so that we can take expensive drugs that are only somewhat effective and have lots of bad, sometimes life-threatening side effects.

There are several supplements that I take that are keeping me healthy. If this bill is passed, my health will suffer a huge blow, and the only workable alternatives for me will make me run a much higher risk of heart attack, stroke, and several other serious or life threatening problems. You can see why I'm biased, here. But here's another view on this.

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On the subject of nutritional supplements, When I saw the doctor last month, she suggested that I might have a vitamin D deficiency. She gave me a battery of tests, and I waited for my appointment this month to find out. Due to snow and emergencies that she was helping out with, she wasn't able to keep the appointment, and I won't be able to see her until early March.

So, I looked up vitamin D on the internet, and started realizing a lot of things. I read the list of symptoms of D deficiency, and it sounded really familiar. Plus, I've noticed that around November or so, I get worse, and don't really recover from it until well into the Spring. I looked up some information on Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), and discovered that taking extra vitamin D is even more effective at combating SAD than extra light is.

So, I went out yesterday and bought a bottle of vitamin D perles, and I'm trying it out. The initial dose made me feel really bad, but the bone remodeling process tends to feel bad when it goes into overdrive. It's probably why a broken bone hurts while it heals (over and above the initial trauma). Taking a dose of D means that the calcium and other minerals from the supplements I'm taking will go out of my blood and into my bones, helping make them strong and pain-free. Getting over it seems to hurt, although I have to say that I'm feeling much better 12 hours later. Better than I did before taking the D! We'll see how that goes.

Anyway, I have high hopes for all this.

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In knitting news, I still haven't even started my Knitting Olympics project. The combination of the late arrival of the yarn for it, my hypothyroid brain fog that hasn't lifted yet and is preventing me from designing it, and the extra sleep and rest I've been getting since my fall last week has left me hopelessly behind on all this.

But yesterday, I discovered I have a few extra dollars, and when I went out to get the vitamin D and some food supplies, I bought a copy of the Winter issue of Vogue Knitting. I've been looking through it, and maybe I'll get some ideas. Right now, I'm thinking that maybe I'm not in shape to design this, and an actual pattern written by someone else might be a good idea. Maybe I'll check Ravelry.

By the way, the Spring and Summer issue of Vogue Knitting looks like it's going to be really good. I can't wait! I think it's out the second week in March.

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There's a new episode of Burn Notice on USA tonight! Everything else is reruns.

I hope you've been having a great week!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I wish you a happy Valentine's Day, and hope that you get to spend at least a part of it with someone you love!

I've also found a poem for you from Neil Gaiman!

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Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year! This is the year of the tiger! For you fiberartists out there, the year of the sheep will not happen again until 2015. I happen to have the sheep as my astrological symbol. Which I think is totally appropriate!

And good luck to all of you competing in the Olympics, the Knitting Olympics, and the Ravelympics.

Although I still don't have the yarn to start, I plan to do some knitting today and also some spinning!

It's cold and the ground is covered in snow (where it hasn't been plowed or shoveled), but the sun is shining, and it's a glorious day! I also plan to get out and walk around a bit.

Have a fabulous weekend!

The World Has Turned to Crud!

As some of you may know, I have an underactive thyroid, and have been talking about it lately. Partly because January was Thyroid Awareness Month, and partly because the FDA and the drug companies have been having a fight over a lot of things that seem to be headed toward harming patients with hypothyroidism, while making more money for the drug companies.

The formulation of my medicine (Armor Thyroid) was changed at the beginning of last year, and although it still has the same amount of active drug, the filler hinders absorption rather than aiding it like the previous formulation did. They also added a thin film covering each individual tablet, rendering it even more difficult to absorb (I think--the coating makes it almost impossible to crush, so I think it hinders digestion and absorption).

So, anyway, for more than a year, I've effectively been taking less of the medicine that I need, and more and more hypothyroid symptoms have appeared. Here's the list so far:

• Often cold
• Cold hands and feet
• Rising Cholesterol
• Bizarre & debilitating reaction to exercise
• Thinning outer edges of eyebrows
• Ridged fingernails
• Dry hair
• Hair loss
• Weight gain
• Air hunger (gasping for air)
• Swelling/edema/puffiness
• Internal ear itching
• Ringing in ears
• Joint pain
• Tightness and soreness of throat
• Muscle pain
• Allergies
• Low energy/stamina
• Long recovery after activity
• Brain fog

And last night, I finally slid into depression.

To be fair, I had a lot of things go wrong, both for me and for friends, but I suspect that I'd be dealing with it all in a much more constructive way without the under controlled hypothyroidism.

First of all, I recounted an experience on my blog, and a family member seems to have misunderstood what I wrote, and has become upset with me. I think I've been forgiven, but now I'm upset about it anyway. I never meant this blog to harm anyone, even if it was just to upset them.

I paid my Comcast bill on the 4th of this month. I had spoken to a supervisor there, who said that the bill was $58 (I'm rounding off) and because of my complaint, he was taking off $15. 98, for a total of about for about $42. I actually paid more than that, but that's not the problem.

Last night, I was watching TV, and the screen suddenly went black, there was a long pause, and the screen said that my DVR was NOT AUTHORIZED, and told me to call a number to get service. I did call the number, and by the time I got someone on the phone, the picture had come back on. Just another of the dozens of malfunctions this piece of junk they gave me has done. I complained (again) and insisted that they make a note of the complaint. I was told that I could make an appointment and have a repairman come out and swap my DVR for a new one. They like this because they normally charge a hefty fee to do that, although because of the agreement the apartment place has with them they can't do that with me. I explained that because the box was such a piece of crud that I had bought a TiVo and was expecting delivery any day.

But before I got a chance to speak to someone, the automated system informed me that I was overdue on my payment, and that I owe them $168 and change.

The payment to them hasn't posted to my checking account, at least not yet, but for some reason there are a lot of payments and charges to my debit card that haven't posted, and I don't know why.

Comcast has done this to me at least twice before. If you make a payment and they don't collect it or post it to your account, they can charge a late fee, and if they can keep you from noticing that they have prevented you from paying it, they can turn off your service and then charge a lot of money to restore service. It's a dishonest way of making more money for them.

I hate Comcast!

So, now I have to figure out what happened, and get that straightened out.

While I was checking my checking account, I found out that a lot of charges to my account haven't been made yet, and I really have to spend some time and balance my checkbook and double check everything. Until I do that, I won't know for sure, but it looks like I'm going to be out of money before I'm out of month.

Then I got a phone call from a friend who was telling me about someone else I know who is ill, and unable to work (mostly because of doctors). This person had a treatment that worked well for them and made it possible for them to work, but the doctors are now refusing to prescribe what works and are now prescribing "new" and "better" drugs that don't work. My guess is that they're doing this to help the drug companies even though it's severely harmed my friend, and on one occasion, nearly killed her. Because of it, my friend can no longer work and had applied for disability. They just found out that the disability has been denied because there are now "new" and "better" drugs that the people who evaluated the case are sure will solve all the problems. The "new" and "better" drugs are the cause of not being able to work.

I hate the American medical system!

The other news is that a friend owns the copyright to a creative work that he just learned someone else has published in Germany. And guess what? You can buy it through an American distributor on Amazon!

He knows this because the distributer called the copyright holder to ask if it was possible to dub the film in English so the distributer could make money selling it in the US! The film was originally in English.

There are lots of complicated legal issues, so I really can't talk about it here, but I'm really upset about it! A lot of money and effort went into this work, and the people involved should be getting money back on it's publication, and instead, they're being asked to help someone rob them of potential profits!

And I had a doctors appointment this morning for which I overslept, and woke up in time to pull on some clothes and rush to keep the appointment in time. I sat there for more than an hour before I was able to find out that the doctor was needed at the hospital for some kind of emergency, and had supposedly called all the patients with appointments this morning to cancel and reschedule. I wasn't one of the people called.

I really wanted to see her to get a written prescription for the thyroid medicine. I only have enough medicine to last until Monday, and I really need to get some more. I already am not taking enough, and it's bad. Taking none is not a good option!

CVS hasn't had it for two months, and I wanted the option to get it from another pharmacy, or to order it from Canada if all else fails.

The drug companies and the FDA have been staging a Chinese fire drill to try to get patients to take a more expensive medicine. The medicine I take has been on the market since 50 years before there was an FDA with no side effects or problems. It's much safer, having been proved in use for over 100 years than the new drugs, which I've tried and don't work. The manufacturers have taken it off the market for a while, and they're insisting it's because of the FDA, who are insisting that the drug companies go through testing as if it were a new drug! FDA says that, yes, they do want all this testing, but that the drug companies are just making all these problems and it's their fault!

The medicine they're trying to get people to switch to (Synthroid, etc) is really ineffective at doing anything other than making the blood tests come out right, but not really solving any symptoms! So they can claim they fixed the problem, but leave you still sick, and in need of other (expensive) medicines to fix all the problems that Synthroid doesn't fix, but natural desiccated thyroid does.

I hate the American medical system!

Because of the phone calls last night and checking my Comcast account and checking account online last night, I didn't get to sleep until 4 am, plus I was up and out by 10 am, so I'm really short on sleep.

I'm also really disgusted with everyone and everything, I feel bad, and don't seem to be able to do anything to straighten things out. So, you can officially add depression to the list of symptoms that the hypothyroidism is causing.

Maybe I'll try to catch up on my sleep. Now there's an "I'm depressed" statement if I ever heard one.

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There's a new Burn Notice on USA tonight! I'll be lucky if I can see it on my malfunctioning DVR.

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For all you knitters out there, The Yarn Harlot has put up a post with a link to a sign-up sheet for the Knitting Olympics. Check it out!

I hope you're having a better week than I am! Don't worry if you don't hear from me in a while.

Welcome to Stupidity

Armor Thyroid (which is a medicine I take for hypothyroidism) was reformulated just a bit more than a year ago. Then they quit making it altogether.

I have just a little of it left, and if I can't get some soon, I will have to go without the medicine I need.

The reformulation of the medicine included changing the sugar filler for cellulose, and that might sound like a good thing, but it isn't. The tiny amount of sugar allowed many people who took it to put it under their tongue and absorb it sublingually. The new filler makes that impossible, and manages to keep the medicine from being absorbed as well. In addition to that, although I haven't found anybody who has mentioned this on line, there seems to be a very thin film covering the actual tablet. They don't make pills in the strength I need, so I have to resort to cutting pills in half. I used to be able to do that with just the tiniest bit of crumbling, but now when I do that, the two halves stick together and I have to yank them apart because they're still fastened together by the coating on the tablet. That has got to affect the ability to absorb the medicine.

What all this means is that although I'm taking the same amount that I was (according to the amount stated on the bottle), I'm not able to get all the medicine that's in the pill. So, over the past year, I've been getting too little thyroid medicine, and I've been like a clock that's running down.

Today, I hit the point where I just can't think straight anymore. I want to do things, but get distracted, can't make decisions, don't know what to do, have no ambition.

I have an appointment Thursday to see the doctor who took all those tests last month to find out how the tests came out, and what can be done.

The Armor Thyroid people have said that they will be going back to their former formulation, and that it will be available soon. In fact, it should be available now. But at this point, it's not. Neither is another brand (Naturethroid) that is the same as the original Armor formulation and which was shipped on the 28th of December from the manufacturer. I know that it takes a while. The drug goes from the manufacturer to the distributer to the drug store distributer to the individual drug store.

Whatever happens, I am going to try to get a written prescription so that I can call around and find a drug store that actually has the medicine. If worst comes to worst, maybe I can get it from Canada.

And in the meantime, I may not put up as many posts, and you've probably noticed that my posts have been less and less interesting over time.

I'm sorry. Hopefully, I'll be feeling better soon and will do better.

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I competed in the Knitting Olympics four years ago, and it was fun, even though I didn't finish my project on time! The Yarn Harlot is running it again in a very low-key way, and I have put up a comment on her blog saying that I'll compete, but I don't have a clue what I'll knit (see brain fog above).

I also want to enter the Ravelympics, but am having lots of trouble trying to decide what to make for that. The WIP Dancing event (called WIP Wrestling in the last Summer Ravelympics) sounds like a good candidate.

Just thinking about the Knitting Olympics reminds me of four years ago, when I was working on preliminary planning for Fade Out, a science fiction movie that just kind of fell apart, and never happened. I still have the script for it around here somewhere.

I need more medicine. I'm rambling. On to another topic!

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All last week, the news people were going crazy over the weather situation here. Local channels preempted regular programming and had people standing around, talking about snow for hours! There was some mention of a few snow flurries that they (then) expected today and tomorrow.

Well, now that today is here, it has suddenly changed from "a few snow flurries" to "a Winter Weather Advisory!" They've been predicting something like another 20 inches!

All this was supposed to start around noon today.

Nobody told Mother Nature.

Right around noon, the sun came almost completely out from behind the clouds, and it was sunny enough that I wore my sunglasses, and could see shadows. It's about 5 pm now, and so far, not a flake has fallen.

That's not a complaint. There's about 20 inches of snow already on the ground, and it's piled up way over my head in the places it's been plowed. Here's hoping that the weather people are totally wrong about this snow!

I did take photos of the last snowfall, and as soon as I get the energy to get the photos out of my camera and into my computer, I'll put them up here. See info on brain fog above.

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Lost is on tonight! ABC will be showing the second half to the two hours they showed last week, and following it with a new one hour episode!

There's also a brand new show on called Past Life on Fox. I don't know much about it, but I feel sorry for it that it's on Fox, a network that likes to spend money putting shows on so that it can kill the shows as soon as they develop a fan base.

And, of course, a new episode of White Collar.

I'm going to collapse for a while and try to drum up enough energy to at least be able to think a little. Maybe even have dinner.

Hope you're feeling much better than I am!

...And More Snow!

I woke up for a short while around 8 this morning, and there was no snow coming down.

At 11, when I woke up again, there was snow falling, but there didn't seem to be much accumulation since my previous check.

The local TV people have preempted all their regular programming, and they have news and weather people deployed all over the area with yardsticks and other measuring equipment saying things like "Wow! Look at all that snow!" and making and throwing snowballs or trying to play with toy trucks in the snow.

They've been telling people that the Potomac Mills Mall is open, but that most of the stores in the mall are closed, giving schedules of when various stores will be open, and then telling everybody to stay home.

They've been broadcasting images of plows and salt trucks at work and interviewing their drivers. We got to see an organized and previously scheduled snowball fight, plus an impromptu igloo built by a news crew. And, if you want to get on TV today, all you have to do is get stuck in the snow with a 4 wheel drive vehicle! There are lots of dummies who did just that, and had their stupidity proclaimed on network TV!

There are also lots of gratuitous shots of the Capitol building with snow falling in the front of it, too. Suspiciously, the ones I saw showed a sunny Capitol with no snow on it behind the snow that was falling. I suspect something underhanded.

At least it's better than watching snow fall at the Vienna Metro Station for a half hour, like we got to do last night!

In case you haven't figured it out yet, there's lots of snow around at the moment! One of the people on Twitter is calling it the Snowpocalypse!

The person on TV near Potomac Mills Mall (in front of Silver Diner, which is giving 25% off to anyone who braves the snow to eat there today) measured 21 inches of snow, and she said that there is an icy coating under that, which makes it an even deeper total snowfall. It looks like a bit less than that here, but it's hard to tell, because although the snow was wet, heavy big flakes for part of yesterday, it's switched back to the light, tiny, cold flakes that it started with, and it's drifting. A lot! Not to mention the areas that have been plowed.

The guy who was hired to plow the parking lot at my apartment building really was taking his job seriously last night. He plowed non-stop up until somewhere between 2 and 3 am today, at which point, he apparently went home to take a nap. Twelve hours and about nine inches later, he's back, hard at work.

The people who own the cars parked in front will have a lot of work clearing them off, once the snow stops and they want to go somewhere. One poor person with a compact car will have the major obstacle of finding his car before he can even think about clearing it out! It's at a point where the car itself is not visible anywhere, it just looks like a snow drift.

John called last night and requested that I post photos of all the snow. I took some photos earlier, but they're really bad. The snow has stuck to my windows and frozen there, so the camera wants to focus on that, rather than on the scene outside. And the ones where it is focused outside, the snow on the windows obstructs the view so much that they're not clear or easy to see.

This is a photo from the 19th of December, but it looks almost the same out there from time to time today. The difference is that there isn't a light covering of snow over my window.

I'll take photos once the snow stops and I can get out to take them without the obstruction of the snow on the windows.

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John called last night in a panic wanting to know what was on TV last night! He checked my blog, and didn't see anything about the TV schedule! Sorry John!

Tonight, on BBC in America, there will be a Doctor Who episode, and two Demon episodes, followed tomorrow night by two Doctor Who specials, Planet of the Dead, and Waters of Mars.

Tonight, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone will be on ABC.

The Legend of the Seeker will be on the CW (here) Sunday night, one rerun (your last chance to see Jolene Blaylock on LotS) followed by a new episode.

Pretty pathetic, isn't it?

To liven things up, you can check out an article on io9 about Dollhouse.

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Ravelry has it's Ravelympics reving up, ready to go at the beginning of the Olympics.

The person who inspired the Ravelympics with her Knitting Olympics, The Yarn Harlot, has been deluged with questions about her Knitting Olympics, and whether she's going to have them this time. You can read her answer and get the info here (scroll down).

Make your decisions and pick your teams and sign up. And make sure you have yarn on hand to cast on during the opening ceremonies!

I'm going back to the window to check the progress of the snow.

Have a wonderful weekend, and I hope you don't get snowed in!