My hair is sick!

​I haven’t written a story in the past couple weeks – not because I didn’t have any stories to tell – more because I was just too tired to do it.  Can you imagine, me too tired to tell a story?  Something has been going on in my body, and it just took over – like a Mack truck had flattened me.  I went to the doctor a couple weeks ago because I just couldn’t take it anymore.  I had self-diagnosed – it had to be thyroid, as tired as I was.  And my hair was sick – absolute failproof sign to me that my thyroid is out of whack.  I call for my regular doctor to just run me some blood work, and horror of all horrors, she has left town!  Sad for me; glad for her.  But that means I have to go get registered with another doctor, make an appointment, go in and be seen, all to get bloodwork for my thyroid when I KNOW that’s what it is!
 
So I go to the doctor, do my fair share of waiting, and when he comes in, he has two young girls with him who grew up with my son, I’ve known since they were children, so the three of these doctors/future doctors begin to interview me about why I am there.  I run through my story of being so tired and my hair being sick, so I just know it’s thyroid – just order me some bloodwork and I’ll be out of your hair. Oh no, this new doctor begins acting all doctory – you know, “Well, what exactly is bothering you?”  I say, “My hair is sick, so that means it’s thyroid.”  He says, “How exactly is your hair bothering you?  Is it less springy?  Is it not as bouncy as usual?  Does it fall out?”  By then, I’m laughing, as I have not heard anyone referring to hair as “springy” in a very long time, if ever.  The girls are laughing with me, as they know me and know for me to admit that I’m tired and cannot seem to accomplish anything, something is definitely wrong.  I mean, this male doctor, how can he not understand when your hair is sick, it’s just sick?  Are men that clueless?
 
This young doctor (Kevin Boyce – love him!) won’t stop there.   Oh, no, he has more questions.  Am I achy and sore in my joints, does my throat hurt, do I have any pain, breathe in, breathe out, blah, blah, blah.  I felt like I’d been in there forever, getting poked and prodded, teased about my hair, all to get to the root (pun intended) of this problem!  He orders blood work and adds on a few things:  Lyme’s disease, mono, etc.  I go do the bloodwork immediately, really wanting to hear the results so I can get my medicine adjusted and get back to normal!  We had the grandchildren for a few days, so by the end of the fun at the fair and the craziness at the water park, I was more than shot. 
 
A couple days go by and I get the results – I was right, thyroid meds needed adjusted.  Relieved it wasn’t in my head (well, other than in my hair), I thought the saga was over.  A few more days go by and I get another call – turns out I have Epstein-Barr (mono), and my numbers are very high.  Seems that once you’ve had mono, it resides in your system and will occasionally turn itself on and just literally suck the living daylights out of you!  By the time I got that diagnosis, I was even worse than I had been, so it was welcome news to know what was working on me.  I had had the mono for a month already, and the diagnosis was it would last another month to six weeks.  Cure?  Oh, no cure – just rest, rest, rest.  We all know I don’t do that well…..is this God’s sense of humor, knock me on my rear, make me so sick I can’t even function just to make me rest?
 
Then another call – the Lyme’s disease test came back not positive and not negative – more tests needed.  The other bloodwork had some weird levels as well.  Wow – and just three months ago, I was normal as can be!  It has been an unusual couple weeks for me, as I’ve truly not been able to function, so I’ve HAD to rest, HAD to lay around, sleep during the day.  God is humbling me, showing me that without health, we are incapable of so many things – oh, so much we take for granted.  To have the energy to tell a story, to make a phone call, to type an e-mail….I didn’t realize just how much brain power those things take.  It has made me think so much of those who suffer with cancer, with back problems, headaches, debilitating illnesses.  Just a few days of it really took a toll on me emotionally as well – not able to contribute, to do the things I’d committed to do, to help other people, just live a regular life.  I pray God gives us more compassion for those that are sick, that we do not forget them, brush them aside without ministering to them, give us more understanding for illnesses you cannot physically see.