01/13/2025
After a long and difficult year I've finally reached the finish line-we're just few dozen orders away from finally having workflow and processing time back on track!
The stress of everything since my assistant leaving in May-which has included non stop harassment and attacks by my landlord trying to force me out in retaliation for needing disability accommodations since I fell ill in August-caused a rapid and severe decline in my health which ended up landing me in the hospital at the start of the month when the fatigue became completely incapacitating and I developed severe cognitive impairment (really "cognitive impairment" doesn't even start to cover it. This was more at the level of dementia). But as terrifying as it was, this breaking point led to answers. In hindsight I can trace the original significant symptoms back to 2018 as the start of the decline, with events of significant impairment in 2020, 2021, 2023, and finally the end of 2024. With these most recent test results finally showing functional decline significant enough to alter my TSH levels I now have hope. I can get better. This life of severe disability, housebound and unable to even care for myself adequately, that I'd resigned myself to isn't the life I have to live. With some changes to vitamin supplements and the addition of T3 much of what I've been struggling with should vanish.
I can lead a (semi) normal life again, and in just a few short weeks my life should be completely different.
The first time I had hypothyroidism show on a blood test was nearly a decade ago. I'd had to push for appropriate testing-a full thyroid panel instead of just the TSH/T4-for quite some time after developing the initial vague symptoms of fatigue, weight gain, and thinning hair. Unfortunately, as we zebras are all too familiar with, I had "normal" lab values-while my free T3 was significantly low, my doctors at the time would only base opinions on the TSH and T4 values-and so the symptoms were brushed off and hypothyroidism not considered. One of the many issues associated with MTHFR gene mutation, which is also responsible for EDS and a slew of comorbid conditions we live with, is that just like we don't convert folic acid into usable methylfolate we don't convert T4 to usable T3. A genetic mutation estimated to affect nearly half of the American population (and that nearly 90% of EDS patients have!) and doctors don't even stop to consider how that's going to affect lab testing, which is based on TSH and T4 only.
It's likely why I have pernicious anemia, my body unable to convert B12 to the usable methylated version. The effects of unchecked hypothyroidism on my body are probably what's behind the episodes of heart failure and the strokes and the blood clots back in 2021 that almost did me in, it's caused debilitating fatigue to the point of functional impairment-leaving me housebound and unable to carry out simple every day tasks like grocery shopping, cooking, household chores, even things like eating and showering. The cognitive aspects of it explain the sudden worsening of ASD /ADHD symptoms as well as the ever worsening brain fog and malnutrition. It even explains the more recent symptoms I'd chalked up to perimenopause like light irregular cycles, hot flashes, night sweats, slowing metabolism, and mood swings. Hypothyroidism explains the spreading and worsening paresthesia in my hands and arms and is the likely culprit of the bilateral trigger thumb I developed in April-which was the start of the nightmare of order delays-because it causes fluid buildup in the joints, putting pressure on the nerves. It explains the decline in mental health and neuropsychiatric issues, executive function deficits, memory problems and emotional lability (that's also reached a debilitating point).
Hypothyroidism, mediated by functional impairment of T4 conversion and the conversion of vitamins into their usable forms, can explain every single aspect of my health that's led to the condition I'm in now. The ramifications of this are HUGE.
And I'm so excited!
Now, as for the work-finally, after 6 months of struggling to get myself out from under the massive load of delayed orders (while fighting with ever declining health), I've reached the end of the tunnel. There's only a few dozen delayed orders orders left between the regular delays (which are mostly titanium) and the replacement orders from the shipping nightmare that was October. Newer orders have already been going out largely on time for the last couple months, with only the large/complicated orders and titanium having an extended processing time, as I've been working from both ends by dividing my time so that I'm putting in 8 hours a day on catching up on the delayed orders/replacements and another 2-4 hours a day on the new orders as they came in. With the overall workload diminished I'm now able to more effectively organize (previously, especially with the cognitive decline, it's been far too overwhelming for me to get a grip on) and I'm finding straggler orders from the last 3-4 months that have vanished into thin air, which are getting replaced as I find them. Between the unexpected loss of help in May, new assistant who isn't getting the hang of anything, and deficits it cognitive function and memory things got *extremely* disorganized, and with my health the way it was was just utterly overwhelming. I'm finding issues left behind from my previous assistant while combatting the ones created by the new assistant, and it's just been extremely difficult to keep up on. I've thankfully nearly got everything organized and sorted though, and plan on being able to get ship dates added to orders and hopefully bring someone on board temporarily to help with messaging as I'm still struggling to keep up on it.
This nightmare is soon to be behind me though and I can't express how relieved and excited I am.
The other issue I've been dealing with-which has been a huge contributor to the delays and the sudden severe decline in my health-is that I've been under constant attack and trying to fight a retaliatory and discriminatory eviction. It's cost me a LOT of working hours between having to deal with the situation itself while having absolutely no access to legal assistance and the negative impacts of the stress on my health causing periods of time stuck in bed totally non functional. One way or another that issue is going to be resolved within the next few days, and while it will result in some delays this week as it's demanding a lot of my time it overall won't have much of an impact. Even if I end up getting displaced when Friday comes it just means I'm going to have to take a few days off from working to pack up what I can and move into an AirBNB, and be back to my normal work schedule starting next week. Hopefully I can convince the judge of my side so he'll either reopen the case or grant a stay so it doesn't come to that, but I've got plans in place if it does.
I'm going to be running a sale this week to raise emergency funds but especially taking into consideration that I can expect significant improvements with my health and overall quality of life coming up soon (I'm have bovine desiccated thyroid coming tomorrow to get me through until I can get in with my doc and hopefully start Armor thyroid or synthetic T3) I don't expect the extra order volume to cause any serious delays, the larger orders might just have processing time extended a bit. And while I still have to really sit down and organize everything to get accurate estimates it looks like there should only be a week or two of long days left. This, of course, is also dependent on how much my assistant gets done. If I end up having to do this on my own we're probably looking at about 3 weeks between the delayed orders, replacement orders, and new orders. While in the short term going back to taking care of the remainder on my own would extend delays by a few weeks, overall it will reduce them. I've had to go back and replace dozens of orders every month because of orders being shipped out to the wrong people, and that's been taking up a lot of time and causing a lot of frustration for everyone involved.
2024 was an exceptionally difficult year for many reasons, but I've remained determined and dedicated and am so excited to finally be out from under the mess I was left with back in the spring. The decline in my health, which has been terrifying and has had a huge impact on my ability to function normally for the last 3 years, shed light on underlying and previously dismissed issues that were at fault and for the first time since my diagnosis I have hope. With some changes to supplementation-switching to methylated versions to bypass the steps my body can't do-and addition of natural thyroid medication I should start seeing huge improvements in just a few weeks. While undoubtedly some of the damage done will be permanent as this has gone unchecked for nearly a decade, overall most of the really debilitating facets of the illness should see a complete reversal. If my hunch about how I was feeling in the hospital in 2023 was right, I'll be back to the much different healthier and happier person I was over a decade ago ❤