No, the thyroid didn't leave. It even invited a friend over.

My birthday was nice.  I did my mourning the day before so I could make the best of the day.  Had a good day at the holiday party with my coworkers, had a good day at home with my family, had a good (sarcasm) time finishing up my performance assessment.  I turned that in the following day and found out yesterday that I passed.  So I am officially done with my first term.  Coming soon:  a post on WGU survival tips and must-haves.

The day after my birthday, I went to my PCP for the follow-up on my blood pressure medication and the investigation into my weight gain.  The new blood pressure medication is working fine.  As far as the weight gain...she agreed to check my thyroid, but she believes that 1700 calories a day may be too much for me.

"Even with being on my feet at work and exercising five days a week?" I ask.

Apparently so.  But she wants me stay at 1500 calories a week for at least two weeks.  If I don't lose some weight in that time (I'm not counting the water weight I'm bound to lose within the next couple of days, thanks to all the Chinese food I had on my birthday), she wants me to go down to 1200.  If that doesn't do it, then 1000.  Even 800 if I had to.

Of course, if I ever had to go below 1200, I'd ask for a referral to a nutritionist first.  No offense, doc, but let's talk to someone who specializes in this.

Labs were done.  My TSH is normal.  But my chloride is 10 points high.  Total protein is a bit low.  Everything else is normal.

Chloride, high?  Odd.

She said she's not worried about it, but I do need to make sure I'm eating enough protein.  Should I do the Atkins diet?

As far as the chloride...I looked it up.  Causes of high chloride include:

• Dehydration (possible)
• Hypernatremia (high blood sodium) (nope, that was normal)
• Cushing syndrome (not likely)
• Kidney disease (kidney-related labs were just fine)
• Metabolic acidosis (nope, those levels were normal)
• Respiratory alkalosis (ditto)

So my best guess is that I need to drink more water.

I'm disappointed yet relieved that my thyroid test came back normal.  Disappointed because hypothyroidism would have explained a hell of a lot of what's been going on with me besides just the weight gain.   Relieved because it's better to have the working thyroid in the long run.

It's going to be tough to keep track of the calories when my mom is here...mostly because I don't want her to know I'm trying to lose weight.  She's always been critical of my weight all my life, even when I wasn't overweight to begin with.  Yeah, I know.  And she tends to believe she knows best about everything...she'll be there, giving me all the diet and exercise advice she has.  Meanwhile, she very overweight, doesn't exercise, and her diet is anything but balanced.  Or she is trying the latest fad diet or quick fix, such as drinking apple cider vinegar in water and expecting it take off 35 lbs. 

Spoiler alert:  it didn't work.

*sigh*

In which Meriwhen wonders if her thyroid went on holiday

My weight loss had stalled, so my psychiatrist started me on a low dose of topiramate which is used off-label for weight loss.  They're not sure how it works, but apparently for a lot of people, it does.  Considering that I've been tracking my diet for a while now with no results, I figured I'd give it a go.

I had downloaded an app (Lose It), and have been pretty faithful about sticking to my calorie allotment.  It helped me calculate my BMR and an allotment to allow me to lose weight at a safe rate, which we (the app and I) decided was a pound a week.  So this translates to about 1700 calories a day.  Of course, this still fits in with intermittent fasting, but I do the fasting more because I find that if I eat at work, I want to fall asleep.  So I don't eat at work, I fall asleep after work, and when I wake up, 16 hours are gone.  1700 calories for 8 hours is no problem.

After I finished my half-marathon almost a month ago, I've also been exercising about 5-6 days a week.  I've been alternating between the treadmill and the recumbent bicycle.  I've also added in some resistance/strength training on the treadmill days, since I tend to spend more time pedaling than walking.  I give myself one day of total rest, usually on the last day of my work week as I adjust back to a daytime schedule. I may do a second day if I feel too tired or achy, as I did the other day when I felt sore and exhausted.

So you think with all of this, I'd have made some mad progress, right?

My scale says No.  My scale had me lose 5 lbs, but then gain 8 lbs.  So I'm up 3 lbs. overall.

Mind you, my psychiatrist's scale has me down 3 lbs. since I started the topiramate.  He (and I) were hoping for more than that, but in his words, "between losing 3 lbs. and gaining 3 lbs., I'll take the loss."  He tweaked the dose a bit more.

But that isn't what got me thinking that it might be my thyroid.  It's the cold.

Being from the Northeast, I'm used to cold.  I love cold.  I dream about snow and rain.  I get excited whenever I see clouds in the sky.  Hell, I consider it a beautiful day if I can't see my shadow.

Except that as of late, I feel like I'm freezing.  It's only 60 degrees, but I'm freezing.  I'm turning on the heat, to the other half's surprise.  I'm wearing my coat at work, to everyone's surprise.

The other half says, "it's not so bad out."

"I'm taking your sweatshirt then."

This is not like me, to be stealing sweatshirts and wanting to go around with a space heater.

I have an appointment next week with my PCP to have my blood pressure medication follow up.  I already messaged about having my thyroid tested.  My PCP is away until the end of the week, but hopefully she'll agree we should rule out any problems.

And if it's not the thyroid, then I guess I finally acclimated to the Southern California climate.