Wow, I've been doing this daily blog for close to four months.....
Anyways, on to the topic at hand, Med Student Syndrome.
Have you heard of this. It develops about week two of first year. Every time a student learns about a disease they start to feel that they might have the symptoms or that they are vulnerable to all sorts of infections or they are really susceptible to trauma or.... Ok, you get the idea.
Just like every other medical student on the planet (med student syndrome isn't just an all-american disease you know), I developed a version of this often fatal disease (ok, it's not really fatal).
A few weeks into school I started feeling really fatigued, I was freaking cold all the freaking time, I was unable to concentrate (yay for how awesome that made studying!), I had a ton of GI issues, I gained a crap ton of weight, my metabolism slowed way down, I felt fairly depressed, I wasn't as motivated to train for biking, even when I did train I just didn't have that fire in my belly, yadda yadda. I figured I was just really stressed from school and that I should ignore my symptoms. After all, it was mostly in my head right?!?!? Because med student syndrome gets everyone right?!?!
Well guess what, I had a routine blood draw for my PMR treatment and I had some levels that were off. My PMR doc advised me to go see my family physician. Turns out I have Hashimoto's Disease.
It's an endocrine autoimmune disorder.
Yeah, that's pretty awesome.
Anyways, it's actually really good news. I have meds that I'm taking to help stimulate my thyroid levels and I feel WAY better. (I mean like way better. Like on the Cymbalta commercials where the sun comes out and all the sudden the birds are singing and the foggy film has been lifted from the world and my hair looks better and Brad Pitt confesses his love for me..... Ok, the Brad Pitt thing took it a little too far.)
Lesson learned, sometimes it's just better to listen to your inner whining voice even if you think that YOU TOO are suffering from med student syndrome.
