40yro SoCal teacher saying hello

Hello all. I'm a 40yro middle school math/science teacher in Southern California. I have a super-awesome hubby of 12+ years, and we have two sons--one 7 1/2, and one who'll be 4 in December. We have a veritable mini-zoo: two horses (one is a 36" tall mini), two cats, an aquarium featuring our oscars Milo and Otis, a small outdoor pond with goldfish and a turtle, two scorpions (who live in hubby's classroom 10mos a year), and currently...heh...seven snakes. Like I said, I'm a science teacher. Three of those seven are in my classroom, the other three in hubby's. The final one is our son's first pet; she's a two month old hatchling daughter of the corn snake I've had for 11 years. Our animals are great therapy. :grin:

I was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease Hashimoto's thyroiditis back in August. However, now that my thyroid hormone numbers have been brought to normal levels, I'm still suffering from a progressively worsening collection of symptoms. My endocrinologist, GP, rheumatologist, and OB/GYN all suspect I also have fibromyalgia. I joke that it's like there's a grab bag of about 20 symptoms, and every day my body is reaching in and grabbing anywhere from 3-10 of them.

My symptoms include (copied and pasted from another thread, hope you understand):

* Swings of significant fatigue (like, 3 naps a day + early bedtime, feeling drugged fatigue) and insomnia
* Severe headaches (back of head going forward)--sometimes causing nausea and vomiting; these are becoming more and more frequent
* Joint aches and body aches (throbbing all over)--these are usually daily, but some days (like today) they are a whole lot worse than others
* Mood swings--particularly irritability and depression
* Heart palpitations and "hiccups," sometimes very uncomfortable; this actually was the first problem that sent me to a doc, which resulted in several visits with a cardiologist. The conclusion was my heart itself is fine, but "something" is triggering periods of rapid heart rate. Hashimoto's makes some sense for this.
* Swelling hands and feet
* Tingling tongue (that's just a weird one, relatively new in the last 6mos)
* Fuzzy/foggy headed; feels like I'm under the influence of something when I'm decidedly not
* Feeling of pain and pressure and base of head/neck, often extending into jaw and top of shoulders and neck
* Pressure and tension in chest
* Hair loss
* Upset stomach, loss of appetite, vague nausea
* Swings of constipation and frequent bowel movements
* Dry skin
* Pelvic pain
* Lightheadedness; actually nearly passed out at work in May and took a while to regather myself; this continued off and on for days. I wound up in the ER where they ruled out a heart attack and sent me home.

It's gotten so bad I've been pulled off work. I love what I do, but I just couldn't anymore. I hit a wall, and it breaks my heart. But I come home to two young sons (ages 7 1/2 and 3 1/2), and I had no energy left for them. I'm very scared I won't be able to return to work--teaching is very stressful and demanding. All of these suggestions I read about for those who have fibro and maintain a full time job just don't work with teaching. Flexible work hours? Nope. Nap/rest in the middle of the day? Nope. Able to leave and come back? Uh-uh. Teaching is on your feet 6 hours a day, scarfing down lunch in 30min, and being able to take a bathroom break at 10:12am, 11:22am, and 1:45pm only. Add that it's middle school--an age I love!--and I have to recognize kids at that age (really, any age) are exceedingly demanding of energy and attention.

I'm scared about never going back, but right now, there is NO WAY I could be in the classroom either.

I see the rheumatologist Nov. 6, when I'll likely be getting the fibromyalgia diagnosis. *sigh*

I'm so glad for these forums, though. So, howdy! And thank you.

Welcome to the forum. With your long list of symptoms try if you can to divide them up into groups and then work on management skills. The pain in muscles and joints, etc... maybe fibro and there are lots of coping skills here on that topic.

A great deal of your symptoms can be caused by worrying. The chest pain and upset stomach, rapid heart rate and headaches. Then comes the depression of not knowing what is wrong, adding in the fatigue and sleeping problems. I take Ambien 5mg for insomnia.

The lightheadedness can come from not drinking enough and being dehydrated, and or from inner ear problems. I have that and ended up in ER thinking it was my heart but not. I take Meclizine 25mg for dizzness. It stops it in a short period of time.

It helps to find someone other than friends and family to talk with and use as a sounding board. I often tell people to find a mental health counseler to talk with as they can provide great coping skills in dealing with mental issues. Like worrying and nervousness.

If you read around the forum, you will find great ideas and hints that have helped others here cope with the same issues, letting you know your not alone in dealing with these weird and annoying health problems. I might suggest you see an neurologist to ask about some of your other symptoms, if they get worse. Some illness minic fibro and fibro minics other illnesses. At least it sounds like your doctors are really trying to help.

Good luck, and hope to see you more around the forum.

A lot of the symptoms are, I believe, overlapping of my thyroid condition. The palpitations actually were one of my earlier symptoms--that and the near-fainting came out of nowhere in May. I truly have not been worrying that much until the last few weeks just because I'm not getting better. A lot of the symptoms (including the insomnia/fatigue swings, also common with this thyroid condition) started over a year ago and gradually just got worse. Right now we're trying to figure out what is thyroid and what is "something else," a something else that my endo, GP, OB/GYN, and rheumatologist all suspect is fibromyalgia.

I'll keep reading around the forum. It's hard because I'm so paranoid it's "all in my head," but that seems a common complaint of both Hashimoto's and fibromyalgia sufferers. :/

Thanks for the welcome.