2023 Update on Recovery From Graves Disease

My post surgical thyroid recovery... has been so successful that my specialist wanted to direct me to the polyclinic for my bi-annual checkup.

My surgical scar has faded with time and is almost non visible unless I imbibe on a tad too much fine Tuscany wine and that's where the scar becomes more prominent. 

I have been taking thyroid hormone replacement pills ever since the surgery with no major impact to my health. The initial stable dosage of Levothroxine Sodium Tablets I have been taking on a daily basis 125mg for 5 days and 100mg for 2 days. 2 years ago, The doctor adjusted the dosage down to 125mg for 4 days and 100 for 3 days, with the probably cause that my body probably do not need as much thyroxine as I get older.

The COVID lock down kinda of contributed to a new medical condition... a spike in my cholesterol level to an unhealthy level. The lack of exercise and my unhealthy snacking habits has caught up with me. I tried to use natural methods to control my cholesterol, doing the usual stuff: Good exercise, good food and regular fasting to burn those nasty fats from my blood vessels... It didn't seem to work. 

The doctor diagnosed that my high cholesterol level is probably attributed to hereditary genetic problems as my mum has been on cholesterol drugs since her 40s. My activity profile is that of a low risk profile: Not overweight, no drinking, no smoking and perhaps an indulgence of Ramen, Bak Chor Mee and late night Prata every now and than, and hence the most probable explanation is due to genetics.

The doctor advised me that it might be easier to manage my cholesterol level via drugs as a way to reprogram my body system. If the cholesterol level comes down after taking the medication, than dosage of the medication can be adjusted downwards over time. This makes sense to me and I started taking cholesterol management drugs and my cholesterol level has lowered to a manageable level.. Though I still need to work on lowering the bad cholesterol.

The Unfit Runners are all in their 40s now and we still regularly meet up for Sunday morning runs, though our runs are more routine now, without all that zest to travel to far flung places to run. 

Lastly, I will like to apologies to all our readers on the extended hiatus from writing. Quite a lot of things happened that kept me busy for days. My dad was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer just before my Grandma passed away and he passed away shortly afterwards. I wanted to write about our experience in seeking treatment for Dad but it was too painful to write at that point in time. Perhaps I will write about it sometime down the road. 

Anyway, shortly after my Dad died, I proposed to my girlfriend and spent the next few months busy preparing for my wedding shoot at Kyoto and the wedding proper in Mar 2020. Than, COVID happened...

We had to move our wedding dates 4 times! And we finally got lucky and got married in Q3 of 2021 on the fifth try. It was an infernal loop of organizing the wedding and uninviting our guests and getting refunds again and again with the repeated shutdown and opening up. Than we got busy trying to settle in while trying to get some renovation done during the COVID semi-lock down period. 

The unfit runners got back to our traveling, with our first post COVID trip to Italy earlier this year. We are all older and have less energy to wake up early in the morning to do a run, while still clocking in 10,000 steps in walking and visiting museums. These days, walking the entire day can send us slumping onto our beds at the end of the day. Having said that, we are happy that we are able to travel again and getting our groove back.

I think it's time to change the 30s of our Unfit Runner banners to "Fat, Sick, Lazy, Alcoholic 40+ Keeping Fit"!