May 2025 Selling and Blog Update

Since the middle of January, I have had five bad reactions to medications or treatments.  This is why my blog posts abruptly stopped.  The posts that published this spring were written early in the year before things got bad.  

I have reached a point to where I'm beginning to look at blog posts again, although I'm not quite back to where I feel like finishing posts.  I have a small number of posts that were finished a couple months ago, and I will set them to publish soon.

I have four more days before I'm out for summer break, and I desperately need to be free.  My symptoms are better today (Sunday), but they will immediately worsen again tomorrow.  I have no control over the stress.  Once I'm out for summer break Thursday afternoon, I can work towards getting myself back on track.

One of my goals is to chronicle all of the bad reactions of these last few months and detail what I have figured out.  I decided awhile back that this blog isn't the place for all of that.  Some of you do read those posts and find them interesting, but I feel that they should be separate from this blog.  For that reason, I created another blog a couple months ago. 

I searched this blog's archive and copied all of the relevant content into the new blog.  I left the original posts here, but I created posts in the new blog and backdated them to match when the content was posted here.

The new blog is solely about Hashimoto's disease and Sjӧgren's syndrome.

My Hashimoto's and Sjӧgren's Experience

Once I feel like working on posts again, I will summarize what has happened and will place the posts in the new blog.   

I also have many books that need to be listed on eBay and Etsy.  I will get around to listing books sometime in the next one to three weeks.

On this final weekend of the school year, I find that my thoughts are beginning to clear.  I'm starting to work on some things that I have neglected.  It helps that I have only four more days.  I just have to finalize grades, deal with all the begging and pleading, get everything packed away for summer break, and survive the chaos.  It's a lot, but the end is right in front of me.

eBay, Reading, and Autoimmune Update

eBay is attempting to trick sellers into purchasing its ShipCover insurance whenever sellers use a service that doesn't not include insurance.  This new practice is shady and obnoxious.

Beginning recently, whenever I purchase a media mail shipping label, this is what eBay presents to me before the purchase goes through.  Click on the image in order to see it better.

I must make a conscious effort not to click on the blue box that says "Add extra protection."  I know I'm going to mess up eventually.  When it finally happens, I will then void the label and create a new one.  This is a blatant cash grab by eBay, since the ShipCover insurance is their insurance and is not from the post office.  This is one of the lowest things that eBay has ever done.

It's important for eBay store sellers to end their listings periodically and then list them again using the "sell similar" option.  I've been too busy, tired, and distracted to mess with that in recent months.  This is why my sales slowed down.  Around the end of October, I ended all of my listings and used "sell similar."  This image shows what happened.

It does help to give listings a fresh start.  Many people search by "newly listed" first, and this gets their eyes on the listings.

On September 10 in my post Book Reading Milestone for This Year, I wrote:

I'm guaranteed to match my total from 2021.  I still have to complete my fourth reading of the Keeper of the Lost Cities series, which I plan to do sometime between now and the release of book 9.5 in early December.  I've already reread books 1 and 2 this year, but I got sidetracked like what always happens when I read these days.  Once I read books 3 through 8, 8.5, 9, and 9.5, I will have read nine more books, equaling my 2021 total of 60 books.

The last few months have been rough with multiple events causing increases in inflammation.  School started, we have new books, I got my Covid vaccine, and I caught three or four viruses in September and October.  The viruses ran together, so I'm not sure how many I had.  The one from late October caused a terrible cough which I still have.

My struggle with dryness continues.  In my post from August 25, I wrote in regard to my summer autoimmune flare:

I feared that I had Sjögren's syndrome, which causes excessive dryness.  I have suspected Sjögren's syndrome for years, but I tested negative in the past.  Most people with Sjögren's syndrome do test negative, so that doesn't rule it out.  I plan to be tested again later this year, just in case the test shows something.

I was tested two weeks ago.  I tested positive for Anti-SSA/Ro antibodies, which are autoantibodies present in around eight different autoimmune diseases, most notably including Sjögren's syndrome.  I am being referred to rheumatology, but I know it is Sjögren's syndrome.  I have the hallmark symptoms.

As a result of everything, I haven't read much, and I continue to struggle to focus on following through with any reading that I attempt.  I did finally restart reading KotLC, and I'm now on #8.  The number of books I've read in 2024 currently stands at 56 and will reach 60 once I finish this reading of KotLC.  Even though I'm unable to read much during the week, I will make it through #9 by the time the new book is released on December 3, so I'm on schedule.  Thanksgiving Break, which begins Friday afternoon, will give me enough time to finish up.

This post was supposed to be finished up early last week.  I forced myself to finish this morning, or else I was never going to publish it.

Back to School Update

Last week wasn't the worst week ever, but it sure felt like it.  

In a recent post, I wrote about my six-week autoimmune flare, caused by a chipped tooth.  I improved immediately after the tooth was repaired.  It's been a roller coaster ride since then.  I had temporary deep fatigue from August 8 to 10.  On the afternoon of August 9 during a meeting, I became so tired that I nearly fell out of my chair. 

This fatigue was caused by the dental x-ray of August 5.  The assistant, who I previously stated had an odd attitude, zapped me without covering my thyroid.  My chart is flagged that my thyroid must be covered when I am x-rayed.  She ignored it.  Right as she hit the button, I realized that my neck was uncovered.  Ugh.  I paid for that, but at least it was only for a few days.

I improved again, but the school year didn't start well.  We have new textbooks, so the entire year will be highly stressful.  A few days after I returned to work, I realized that the summer update to my work computer messed up the Smart Board.  I use the Smart Board for all instruction, so this was a big problem.

I put in a work order.  It was fixed but still screwed up and even harder to use.  This was a disaster, since by this point, the school year had started.  I put in another work order.  They figured it out on the second attempt.  Finally, I was functional on the fourth day of school.  

This made the first full week of school very stressful.

Last week was the second full week of school.  The system for distributing IEPs for special education students has not been working in Oklahoma, and this is a state-level problem, not local.  My school finally managed to get us the information last Monday.  Since I was giving a test on Wednesday, I had to speak to every special education student that I have in class about their accommodations.  

On Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, all of this happened:

• Fire Drill
• spoke to 30 students about accommodations and their needs
  
• Open House (late night Tuesday)
• Lockdown Drill
• Picture Day
• gave a test
  

And to top it off, a neighbor's cat was killed by dogs on Tuesday morning.  I also found out about the death of a very friendly neighborhood cat on Tuesday, likely from poisoning.

Everything I just mentioned caused a hard flare.  I felt awful all week.  I had a three-day weekend for the Labor Day holiday.  It took me from Friday evening until late Sunday evening to get back to feeling okay, so I lost most of my weekend.

I've had a crummy start to the year.

At least my eBay and Etsy sales are greatly diminished as I planned, and I'm doing okay with keeping both stores open in a limited capacity so that I don't lose my search rankings.  I currently have 67 items on eBay.  My active Etsy listings continue to drop as more items deactivate, reaching the end of their four-month run.  I'm down to 154 listings on Etsy.  Around 20 more will deactivate in a few days.

In case you haven't read my posts from the last few years, I usually shut down both stores for the first two months of school due to the autoimmune flare that occurs during the early part of the school year.  I am definitely in an ongoing flare that underlies the hard flares that I'm also experiencing.  Overall, I'm not doing that bad.  I mean... it could be a lot worse.

By the way, the real reason I decided to leave both stores open is because I have some free listings on Etsy due to a glitch.  21 of my Etsy listings have been expired for months and yet are still active listings.  By keeping the listings active, they continue to stay active indefinitely.  

I reasoned that if I was keeping Etsy open, then I would keep eBay open as well, only I deactivated most of my eBay listings.

My reading has been very sporadic.  I'll read a few books, then I get too stressed or have a flare.  When that happens, I go days or weeks without reading.  I've managed to read a few books in the last few weeks, which is surprising considering everything that has happened.  I will publish a few reviews soon.

I always bottom out with my thyroid sometime during September.  That should happen in the next two to three weeks, and then I will steadily improve.  How I feel at any given time is directly tied to what happened two weeks before, due to the pituitary-thyroid feedback loop.  Since last week was particularly awful, I expect that I will bottom out sometime next week. 

Note: I continued to find appalling typos each time I proofread this post before publishing it.  I am making so many mistakes right now.  If some are still in the post, then you know why.

A Six-Week Autoimmune Flare of Mysterious Origin

The moral of this story is that a noticeable decline in physical well-being can be caused by something so ostensibly minor that you'd never suspect it of significantly impacting your health.

My summer break was not that great.  I had a lot of stress up until the end of June.  On June 23-25, I had to do a project outside in the summer heat.  The project was hard work, and I am very heat and sun sensitive.  I got up before daybreak each day and worked on this project from slightly before 6 AM up to 10 AM or so.  It was brutal.

Right before I did this project, I had thyroid labs done, and they were perfect.

Around July 1, I noticed that I was in an autoimmune flare.  Currently, my primary flare symptom is that my lips become unbearably dry.  My lips are dry all the time, but any flare increases the dryness to an unbearable level, resulting in my lips stinging for several days.  After a few days, the stinging subsides, and my lips return to my normal dryness, which is annoying but bearable.

Beginning around July 1, my lips began stinging.  I decided that my project of June 23-25 was the cause and figured that the stinging would subside within a few days.  It didn't.  

By July 8, I was really freaking out mentally.  My lips were stinging 24 hours a day.  They felt like they had been rubbed with commercial-grade paper towels.  It was very upsetting, and I spent hours online trying to figure out what was happening.  I was miserable.  

You need to understand that when my lips become inflamed that nothing helps.  All brands of lip balm irritate my lips.  Even brands for sensitive lips irritate my lips.  Aquaphor was my savior for a couple years until it badly burned my lips one night.  I looked like a clown the next morning.

I can only use Vaseline or petroleum-based hydrocortisone on my lips.  Everything else irritates them.  The Vaseline sometimes irritates my lips.  

During the last 4 1/2 years since my lips became unusually dry, I've tried drinking more fluid, drinking sports drinks, changing my toothpaste, and everything else you can possibly imagine.  So don't give me any advice.  I've read every piece of advice imaginable and acted on most of it, to no avail.  I just have to put up with it.

My bouts with stinging lips never last more than around three days.  This is why I was so upset by July 8.  I was past the one-week mark.

Around July 8, I realized that I had been bitten by something.  I worried that it could have been a tick.  I figured that I had been bitten when I did my outside project on June 23-25.

I was then really freaked out.  I am fearful of ticks and Lyme disease.  A former student of mine was bitten by a tick around 16 years ago and got Lyme disease.  It wasn't caught quickly, and she still has continuing very serious health problems.  

So... I worried about Lyme disease.  However, I talked myself down, reasoning that I probably didn't have Lyme disease.

I was distinctly more tired than was normal, which was odd for summer break.  I had an increase in muscle aches.  My thyroid was more swollen than normal for me.

I tested myself for Covid.  Nope.

I feared that I had Sjögren's syndrome, which causes excessive dryness.  I have suspected Sjögren's syndrome for years, but I tested negative in the past.  Most people with Sjögren's syndrome do test negative, so that doesn't rule it out.  I plan to be tested again later this year, just in case the test shows something.

But autoimmune thyroid disease causes dryness as well.  The problem was that I was on summer break, and nothing was going on.  Why were my lips stinging?  They continued stinging all of July and into August.

I was set to go back to work on August 8.

On August 7 as the day progressed, I noticed that the infernal stinging was easing.  By evening, it was gone.  Oh, the relief!  My lips had stung for approximately six weeks, and suddenly they weren't.  They were still dry, but the stinging had eased.

I was perplexed.  Something must have changed, but what? 

I thought back to recent events.  I purchased my new car on July 29, and it was a very tiring experience.  However, that would make me worse, not better.  I was feeling stressed about going back to work, but that would also make me worse, not better.  None of this made sense.  Why was I better?

I then realized.  I went to the dentist on August 5 to fix a broken filling. 

Bingo.

Let's back up to late June.

I went to the dentist on June 27 for my six-month cleaning.  That doesn't have anything to do with it, but I noticed either slightly before or after the cleaning (between June 24 and June 30) that the outside front corner of tooth #18 had become sharp.  It had chipped just a little.  It seemed fine, so I decided not to worry about it.  I don't think it could have been repaired at that time unless I wanted to be extreme and get a crown to fix a mild chip in a tooth.  That would have been illogical.  I figured the tooth was okay.  It didn't hurt.  I just had a sharp corner that had not been like that before.

On the late afternoon of August 2, after the dentist was closed for the weekend, the front wall and part of the filling on tooth #18 broke off, causing a hole.  It didn't hurt.  I did clean the hole by aiming a water pick into it.  That was a mistake, but even then, it was just a dull ache.  I tested the tooth by biting down on it and found that it was mildly pressure sensitive.  But at least I wasn't in pain aside from some cold and pressure sensitivity.

On the morning of August 5, I called the dentist, and they worked me in that afternoon.  The filling was repaired.

I have to comment about the dental assistant.  She didn't seem to understand my concern, simply because I was not in pain.  I'm sorry, but a hole in a tooth needs to be repaired ASAP.  It will break further, and I will do anything to avoid extreme tooth pain like what I experienced in 2021.  

Fortunately, the dentist was not dismissive like she was.  The assistant's attitude was odd.

It's now apparent to me that the minor chip in tooth #18 must have also caused a crack in the filling, just not enough for me to know.  The filling must have become leaky, causing bacteria to get inside and then enter my blood stream. 

I had a leaky filling for six weeks.  That's why my thyroid became more swollen and why I was so tired.  My lips burned all of July and into early August because of what appeared to be a mildly damaged tooth.  Who would think that such a minor chip would cause that much discomfort for six weeks?

In 2022 in my post "What Happened with My Teeth and Some Advice," I mentioned how my health improved after two bad teeth were removed.  Having good teeth is extremely important.  If you have any kind of problem with your teeth, get it fixed if at all possible.  I guarantee that any bad teeth are impacting your health in some fashion, even if you don't notice anything.

A Final Resolution to My Car Problems

Most of this post was written months ago.  I waited for the final resolution before editing and finishing the story.

Back in October, my car began acting up.  Here's the car in a 2022 photo.

Update on Autoimmunity, Selling, Reading, and Car Trouble

I had this issue in October where the check engine light kept coming on.  The check engine light was on because the battery wasn't receiving enough charge.  This resulted in a battery cable being replaced (in hindsight a battery cable that should not have been replaced).

I got the car back at the end of October, and the check engine light came back on intermittently.  In December, I finally took the car back in to be checked.  The check engine light was displaying for the same reason as previously.  They were stymied, since the battery cable had been replaced.  The battery was still good, and the alternator was in good working order.  They contacted General Motors, eventually sending my vehicle's diagnostics to the head engineer at General Motors. 

General Motors reported that a "handful" of Chevrolet Malibus display the check engine light erroneously due to an error regarding the battery's charge.  They hadn't figured out why.  Unfortunately, my vehicle was behaving differently than the rest of the handful of vehicles so they had even less of a clue regarding mine.

The service department spent a week running every diagnostic test possible on my vehicle while in communication with General Motors, ultimately telling me that my vehicle was in perfect running order and that nothing bad would happen.  I was told to keep driving it and that I should ignore the check engine light. 

It should be noted that the reason I took the vehicle in during both October and December was to avoid something bad happening.  You just never know what a check engine light could mean and how bad it might be.  I didn't want to experience something bad...

On the afternoon of February 1, the check engine light displayed briefly and for the first time since it was in for repairs in December.  Around 20 minutes later, the car turned itself off at a red light.  I was able to shift into park and get the car back on.  I drove home without anything else happening.

The car started as normal on the morning of February 2, and I didn't see the check engine light.  As I drove, the radio volume began fluctuating.  The power steering felt off at one point.  And then the car turned itself off at a stop sign. 

This time I had to try for several minutes to get the car started again.  I tried to get to my destination, which was just a few miles away.  The car turned off at a red light and would not restart.  I couldn't turn on the hazard lights, so this was a dangerous situation.  The car was completely unresponsive.  I had to call a tow truck.  

The car was towed to the dealership.  It started just fine for them, and they were not able to reproduce the problem.  Can you believe that?  They were in contact with General Motors again, and nobody knew what the problem was.  They all agreed that something was wrong, and they did find what they called "strange error codes" referring to problems with unidentified computer modules. 

For me, the car was toast.  I wanted nothing to do with it.  Even if the vehicle were fixed, I would never trust it again.  I could not risk driving a vehicle that could turn itself off at any intersection and render itself unresponsive to where the hazard lights couldn't be activated.  

I vowed never to drive the vehicle again, regardless of whether it was fixed.

Due to my autoimmunity, I like to stick with what I know, which is why I continue to purchase Chevrolet Malibus.  This has to do with the Spoon Theory.  Please read the link if you don't know what that is.  I need my life to be as easy as possible so that I can maintain a job and sell books online while dealing with a serious autoimmune disease (thyroid) that is only partially controlled.  That is why I continue to purchase the same make and model car. 

Note:  You might have heard that the Chevrolet Malibu will be discontinued in November.  I've already figured out what I will purchase in five or six years.  It will most likely be a Chevrolet Trax, which is a very similar vehicle.  So, back to the story...

While they worked on the vehicle, I decided that I was done with it.  I looked into getting a new Malibu.  The problem was that none of the Malibus in stock had a satellite radio.  Several solutions were presented, including a dongle for the satellite radio (nope, since I know how that would work), or getting a satellite radio from another vehicle and putting it in one of the Malibus on the lot.  They offered to pull one out of a 2022 Malibu and put it in a 2024 Malibu.  I declined.  I should get a new radio, right?

We ordered a car from the factory.  Meanwhile, my Malibu left the shop in March, and they claimed to have fixed it.  Maybe they did, but the check engine light was still coming on.  I refused to drive the car other than driving it home.  I had another vehicle to drive, so I waited patiently for the new car that I wanted.

I won't go into all the details of this saga, which includes failed dealer trades and two order attempts.  The upshot of it is that the car order fell through for various reasons.  In the intervening months my original salesperson left the dealership as did the sales manager who ordered the vehicle.  This resulted in a break in communication which is a large part in why this process has taken so long.

In late May I ended up with a second salesperson who should have kept an eye on the order for me.  He didn't seem too interested in the situation.  I'm going to skip the details.  He didn't value that I was a guaranteed sale, or perhaps it he took it for granted.

Fast forward to now.  I needed to get this resolved.  It was on July 28 that I searched the inventory of local dealerships, as I had been doing all these months.  Finally, I found the unicorn.  A dealership in a nearby city (25 miles away) had the exact Malibu that I wanted.  

I had decided in February that I would settle for nothing less than a red 2LT Malibu.  The nearby dealership had one.

The next day I went into my dealership to verify for certain that the car order was gone.  I will tell you that I was tempted to just drive to the nearby city and buy that car, but I like to do the right thing.  I wanted to make certain that there was no longer a car order.  Besides, I really hoped they'd negotiate a dealer trade for me.

I did mention the second salesperson's name to the third salesperson who greeted me at the door.  Fortunately, the inept second salesperson hadn't arrived for the day, so I didn't feel guilty at all to take up with the third salesperson.  He verified that the order was gone.  I mentioned my unicorn that I had found and that I had almost driven to that dealership to purchase it. 

The salesperson got the sales manager, and I said that I'd prefer to purchase the car from them but that I was prepared to drive to the other dealership to get it.  They knew I was going to purchase that car one way or the other.  Within 15 minutes, a dealer trade had been negotiated.  By late afternoon, I had my new car.

This car was assembled in June.  The other dealership had only had it for a few days.

And my silly black Malibu can annoy someone else with its intermittent check engine light.  That's why I don't purchase used cars.  I don't want someone else's problem.

Update on Autoimmunity, Selling, Reading, and Car Trouble

I wrote an update around a month ago, but then I never published it.  Here is an abbreviated summary of that post plus the relevant current information.

When school started, I had a minor thyroid flare which resolved pretty quickly.  I then had a health screening on September 5 that involved radiation.  I asked for a thyroid shield.  The technician stopped dead in her tracks and seemed like she had a problem with the request.  She then asked if I knew who Dr. Oz was and mentioned how he had convinced people to use a thyroid shield when it isn't necessary.

I told her that I have thyroid disease and that when I didn't use a thyroid shield in 2016 that it shut my thyroid down for two months and made me deathly ill.  (Deathly ill is not an exaggeration.  I was sicker than I've ever been in those two months.  It was absolutely awful.)  She put the thyroid shield on me and remarked that everyone is different.

How dare she have a problem with my request, and I should not have to explain why.  I am very nervous when I am exposed to radiation even with the thyroid shield on.  I was that sick in the fall of 2016. 

The shield does not block all of the radiation.  It does reduce the exposure by up to 50% and reduces the dose by 2.5 times.  This means that my thyroid did get exposed to radiation on September 5, just at a lower amount than it would have without the shield. 

This is why I felt a noticeable thyroid flare from September 6 through September 23.  Meanwhile, I got the new Moderna Covid vaccine on September 22.  I didn't feel that great the first couple of days.  Aside from that, I seemed to do okay, so far as I could tell.  At least I didn't have a terrible reaction like I did last year.

I then acquired a seemingly extremely mild virus on October 1.  There were no symptoms except for laryngitis.  It's now been over two weeks, and I'm still struggling to get my voice back.  I've had very light congestion, so I know that I have had something.  While I do frequently suffer from severe laryngitis caused by viruses, it was really odd to have it happen when the virus was almost nothing.  I suspect that the laryngitis might be tied to the vaccine, since the vaccine has caused inflammation.

My thyroid hormone levels have been constantly fluctuating up and down ever since I had Covid in July 2022.  I have never had this much instability.  Here's an update to what I included in my post from August 4.

August 2022 - under
September 2022 - over
October 2022 - over
November 2022 - under
December 2022 - under; medication change
January 2023 - under (even worse); dose increase
February 2023 - under
March 2023 - slightly under, felt normal for around 10 days; kept same dose
April 2023 - over
May 2023 - over (even worse); dose decrease
June 2023 - under
July 2023 - under; dose increase
August 2023 - felt normal for a few weeks
September 2023 - under
October 2023 - over

Taking thyroid medication for autoimmune thyroid disease is like chasing a moving target. 

I suspect that the Covid vaccine has caused a flare, just not as bad as what happened last year.  Flares can initially manifest with an increase in thyroid hormone which then becomes a deficit weeks later.  I have lost six pounds without trying, and I do feel mildly wired.  If it doesn't get any worse, then I will keep taking my current dose until I'm tested in late December.  I believe my continuing fluctuation in levels began because of Covid in July 2022.

I did not intend to keep my eBay and Etsy stores closed for very long when I shut them down in August.  How I've felt and certain events have caused me to be disinterested in selling books. 

I knew that fall break was when I should reopen, but I didn't know if I would be up to it.  As of two weeks ago, I was strongly against the idea of returning to selling books.  I've been slowly talking myself into it for the last two weeks.  I finally reached the point a few days ago where I felt that I could stomach selling again.

Please note that I'm still not wanting to sell; I just think that I can tolerate doing it despite my disinterest.  I also feel that getting back to a normal activity will help get me into a better place mentally.  Therefore, I reopened both of my stores this morning before I left for work.  I had the time since I woke up 2 1/2 hours early feeling wired (this after a 12-hour work day each of the last two days that should have exhausted me - yes, I must be overmedicated!).

Both stores are now open.  My current listings are the ones that I had in early August with nothing new added.  If I can motivate myself, I might add some listings in the next few days.

Jennifer's Series Books on eBay

Jennifer's Series Books on Etsy

I continue to be extremely unmotivated to read books.  The interest just isn't there, with one exception.  This may sound pathetic, but I continue to be obsessed with the Keeper of the Lost Cities series and am now reading the set for the third time.  I have a new focus and am looking for clues about another character.

I will have another series of posts on the Keeper books once I finish up this third reading of the books.  I wrote rather enthusiastically about the books back in the spring.  The series isn't perfect; nothing is.  The main drawback is that in the later books some conversations are excessively long.  It's just too much.  That aside, I love the books and am having a blast looking for clues.

I also remain frustrated with the Keeper of the Lost Cities fan base, which is a bit toxic.  Many fans seem unhappy about everything.  I don't understand why people have such high expectations for a middle-grade children's book series.  The books aren't perfect, and I'm not sure why people expect them to be perfect.

Finally, if you have a General Motors vehicle, you really don't want to have any repairs that require parts.  The GM workers are on strike, and no new parts are being made. 

My 2018 Chevrolet Malibu displayed the check engine light on October 2 and handled differently than usual.  I took it in to be checked.  The car needed a new sensor, and they didn't have one.  They called around, found a sensor in another state, and had it shipped in.  I finally picked up the car on October 11.

On October 12, the check engine light displayed again.  I was annoyed at the car.  I felt that it probably had been repaired but that something else was also wrong that hadn't been diagnosed.  I got the car in on October 14, knowing that they wouldn't check it until October 16 since they have very few mechanics on the weekend.

Apparently it was a major undertaking to figure out why the battery wasn't receiving enough charge.  They finally found that the negative battery cable wasn't transferring a charge.  And of course they didn't have a negative battery cable.  I became a bit worried when they told me that they were about to call around the country and would call me back later.  Oh, joy.

I got lucky.  They called back 20 minutes later to tell me that they found a negative cable in California and that it would be shipped in.  They'll get it around this weekend, so I should get the car back next week.  Of course it shouldn't be this hard, but I assume that they are getting me a "General Motors certified negative battery cable."  That way they can charge more.

If you have a General Motors vehicle, try sweet-talking it.  Be kind to it.  You want it to behave until the GM strike is over.

Etsy's Folly, eBay's International Shipping, and the Start of School

I decided to relist most of my expired Etsy listings, and I also added quite a few new listings.  Etsy sales are poor, but I want to give Etsy the best chance that I can.  If sales remain too low, then I will consider closing my Etsy shop.

I mentioned in my previous post that Etsy has moved the item description to the bottom of the page underneath the reviews.  Etsy sellers are reporting an increase in returns due to buyers having not read the description that they can't find.  

In order to counter this problem, I have added an image to each listing.  That image contains the text, "Scroll down below the reviews for the item description."

I have heard that the item description has not been moved for all users.  I can see the old item page in one of my browsers, so I can confirm.  Even if some buyers think I'm weird, I would rather have the message in all of my listings in order to help the impacted buyers find the item description.  It's a rather important part of a listing.

On eBay, I sent an offer for 15% off to some buyers who had watched an item.  I do this at least once every couple of months.  I don't send offers to everyone who has watched an item.  Many of my listings are already at the very lowest I will take.  I go down the list of listings eligible for me to send offers and go with the ones where I don't mind going lower or where I just really want to get the item sold if at all possible.

I use eBay's international shipping program.  It's better for me, and it may be better for the buyer as well, depending upon the situation.  It does have one serious disadvantage.  eBay's international shipping does not allow items to be combined.  I have had two buyers let me know about the problem, requesting that I place the books they want in a single lot.  

I pull the books they want, take one group photograph, add the individual prices together, and then create the listing.  This results in the buyer being charged eBay's international shipping rate just one time instead of for each individual listing.

A few of you suggested that I begin selling books on my website due to the low eBay and Etsy sales.  I'm not interested in doing that.  I choose to sell on eBay and Etsy so that I'm not responsible for driving traffic myself.  If I were to set up a store on my website, I would have to do a lot of advertising.  That's worse than my current setup.  The cost of selling on eBay and Etsy is not a concern.  Convenience is more important than avoiding the fees.

Setting up a store on my website would also be a lot of trouble.  That's not feasible for me.  I have an autoimmune disease, and I need to control my stress.

Furthermore, I am not worried in the slightest about the low sales.  I'm a bit mentally detached.  This is due to my roller coaster thyroid levels of the last year.  Here is a rundown of my year, indicating by month whether I was undermedicated or overmedicated based on how I felt.

August 2022 - under
September 2022 - over
October 2022 - over
November 2022 - under
December 2022 - under
January 2023 - under (even worse)
February 2023 - under
March 2023 - slightly under, felt normal for around 10 days at the end of the month
April 2023 - over
May 2023 - over (even worse)
June 2023 - under
July 2023 - under

My levels were just right for around 10 days out of the last year.  That is why I'm mentally detached and don't care one way or the other.  My books will sell, or they won't.  At least they are listed.  I have other concerns.

I go back to work on Thursday, August 10.  School starts one week later on Thursday, August 17. 

As of now, I plan to keep my stores open.  I have misgivings, which are increasing.  

In the middle of July, my medication was adjusted again for the fifth time since I had Covid in July 2022.  This is a slight dose increase.  I had trouble getting the prescription and had to go to mail order.  While I was waiting on my 81.5 mcg dose, I alternated between 75 mcg and 88 mcg, which averaged to 81.5 mcg.  It is okay to do that, although my body is so sensitive that it isn't ideal.

I started the new 81.5 mcg dose yesterday.  It's the same medication I have been taking (Tirosint) with the same four hypoallergenic ingredients.  My body shouldn't be able to detect a difference, yet it does.  My body knows that I've never taken the 37.5 mcg and 44 mcg (paired together to add to 81.5 mcg) capsules before, and I am already having a reaction even though I really shouldn't be having one.  My body is that extremely sensitive.  

This is why I'm having an increase in misgivings about keeping my stores open.  I'm already having an increase in symptoms, including some distinct memory problems.  The memory problems will worsen when I go back to work.

So... the plan is to keep the stores open.  If I end up too impaired, then I will shut down without warning.  We'll see how it goes.

Jennifer's Series Books on eBay

Jennifer's Series Books on Etsy

Thyroid Update - Continuing to Seek the Correct Post-Covid Dose

I write these posts hoping that people seeking answers will stumble across them via their online searches.  The online thyroid groups and websites are full of misinformation.  Some of the information is helpful, but everyone is different.  I was extremely overmedicated in 2016 and 2017 and didn't realize the extent of it due to the widespread online content that indicated that everyone should have their T4 levels at the top of the range.  If I had known better, I would not have agreed to some of my medication changes during those years.  

I also now realize why I became so much sicker in 2014 when I started thyroid medication.  I had an increase in fatigue, aches, and pains plus a host of other symptoms that I never had in the first place.

It wasn't that I needed to take a bunch of supplements each day or that I needed to go on an extremely restrictive diet.  I didn't need to check my adrenals, detox my liver, or follow the dozens of bizarre suggestions that are recommended online.  

All I needed was to be on a clean thyroid medication. 

Tirosint, a name-brand version of levothyroxine, is a liquid gel cap with only four ingredients: levothyroxine, gelatin, glycerin, and water.  It is hypoallergenic.  Many thyroid patients, including me, are sensitive or allergic to the fillers used in all other thyroid medications.  We are forced to take medications that increase inflammation, thereby exacerbating our autoimmunity.  We then feel worse after starting treatment.

Generic levothyroxine (the first order of treatment) gave me terrible pain in my gums to where I had to go on a bland diet and could hardly bear to brush my teeth.  Even brushing softly with the most gentle toothbrush I could find caused intense pain.  I had awful aches and pains all over my body that I never had before treatment. The fatigue was far worse than before treatment.

Synthroid was the next order of treatment.  I was okay on the 50 mcg dose that was white with no dye added, but I soon needed a higher dose.  The 75 mcg dose had a dye in it that made me feel as if I had the flu for up to four hours each day.  During those four hours, I had a fever of above 100 degrees and felt very ill.  

I was placed on natural dessicated thyroid (WP Thyroid and later NP Thyroid) for a number of years.  These medications are considered the "be all to end all" by the online folks.  Not for me.  I was very allergic to them.  I had terrible itchy rashes that were nearly unbearable at times.  The rashes were so awful that I had to take four to six antihistamine pills each day to make the itching bearable.  Quitting the natural medication ended the rashes.

Now I am on Tirosint only.  My insurance dislikes Tirosint due to its high cost and will only approve it for one year at a time.  Each year, my provider has to give documentation that the other medications have failed.  One time the rejection letter was sent to me, and I found it a bit rude to be honest.  Insurance companies do their best to keep people ill.  It's infuriating.

Now to my update.

My thyroid situation continues to be problematic.  On July 14, I passed the one-year anniversary of getting Covid.  My thyroid levels have been screwed up ever since July 2022.  As I've said in past posts, that's exactly why I didn't want to get Covid...

Check out my TSH.  TSH is thyroid stimulating hormone.  For someone with thyroid disease, it should be at the bottom of the normal range, at 1 or less.  A rising TSH indicates that the pituitary gland senses that the body does not have enough circulating thyroid hormone.

Basically, my TSH has gone bonkers ever since I had Covid.  My immune system is in turmoil, and it can take one to two years for it to settle down.  I was in a similar situation back in 2016, and that took two years to resolve.

T3 is the active hormone, and I'm getting back to a good level.  The body converts T4 to T3.

T4 is the hormone that is produced by the thyroid gland.  My thyroid doesn't produce enough, so the Tirosint I take gives me the T4 that I need.

The T4 situation in my body is complicated, and I'm not going to attempt to explain fully.  I will say that I cannot have my T4 anywhere near the top of the range.  I believe around 1 is what I need, and that amount is too low for many other thyroid patients.  It angers me to see the misinformation in the online thyroid groups where everyone insists that everyone should make sure their T4 is near the top of the range.  If I did that, I would be miserable from being overmedicated.  

Most thyroid medications absorb at a rate of 60% to 80%.  Tirosint absorbs at about 100%, so patients can be overdosed if providers don't understand how cautious they need to be with it.  Many providers think that Tirosint absorbs the same as other medications, but patients need to be on a lower dose of Tirosint than they would with other brands of levothyroxine.

Thyroid patients are rather vocal about what they need regarding their condition.  This is because our condition makes us feel truly awful when the levels are off.  Being overmedicated and undermedicated are equally bad but in different ways. 

Levothyroxine is a Goldilocks drug.  This means that it must be dosed at the precise amount that the patient needs in order for the patient to feel okay.  This is hard to do, as you can see from my bouncing TSH level.  My medication has been adjusted five times during the past year as we continue to seek the precise amount that I now need post-Covid.

The vocal nature of thyroid patients causes general practitioners to think that their thyroid patients are difficult and have mental problems.  Their patients have results in the normal range, and they don't understand why the patients continue to complain about symptoms.  They don't understand that we tend to be allergic to most brands.  They also don't understand that each of us has a specific level within the very wide normal range which is the only place where we feel okay.  That specific level is different for every thyroid patient.

At each appointment, I am direct about how I feel and what I think I need.  I am fortunate that my provider also has Hashimoto's thyroid disease and works with me.  She has told me of the gaslighting that she suffered when she was diagnosed, and her bad experience led her into specializing in thyroid disease.  Sometimes I defer to her opinion, and other times, she goes with what I feel is right.  

In January, I was not on enough medication and had very low energy levels.  The fatigue was intense.  I was taking Tirsosint 75 mcg.  My provider prescribed Tirosint 100 mcg since I was doing so badly.  Oh, no!  If I were on one of the less absorbable versions of levothyroxine, that dose increase would have been fine. 

I said that I wanted to go with 88 mcg and that 100 mcg would be too much.  I instinctively knew it would be too much.  I know how well my body absorbs Tirosint.  She reduced the prescription to 88 mcg.  

I was correct.  In late March, I felt perfect.  88 mcg was the way to go.  Unfortunately, the additional thyroiditis caused by Covid then cleared up, and I became overmedicated.  I cringe when I think about how bad that would have been if I had agreed to the 100 mcg dosage.

I titrated down by skipping one dose of 88 mcg each week.  In early June, my prescription was reduced to 75 mcg, although I suspected that would be too low.  However, we needed to see, so I agreed to go down to 75 mcg.

I could tell very quickly that it wasn't quite enough.  By late June, I was definitely undermedicated.  I was getting tired more easily, and my gums began hurting.  My recent labs show the decrease in T4.  I requested that my dose be changed to 81.5 mcg (via Tirosint 37.5 mcg paired with Tirosint 44 mcg), halfway between my two previous doses.  My provider agreed and said that it's worth a try.

It could be that my thyroid is tanking again and that I do now need 88 mcg.  However, the high absorption of Tirosint makes me cautious, so I want to try the middle dose first.  Tirosint is the best thyroid medication for me as it has none of the horrific side effects I've had from every other medication, but I must be very cautious with these dose increases.  

I had a problem getting the new prescriptions filled.  This has happened before, so I've changed pharmacies several times over the years.  I end up at whichever pharmacy can get my specialized thyroid medication.  Here I go again.

The problem this time is that Tirosint 37.5 mcg and 44 mcg are new doses that have only existed since early April.  Suppliers aren't stocking them.  I knew that it take me awhile to call pharmacies in central Oklahoma trying to find one that could get those doses.  I didn't care to waste an hour or two with no guarantee of success, so I went with the Tirosint Direct program.  Highland Specialty Pharmacy in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, is a supplier of Tirosint through the Tirosint Direct program and is said to be the best source for Tirosint.

As I awaited the new capsules, I alternated the 75 mcg and 88 mcg capsules to simulate the 81.5 mcg dose.  I always have a variety of Tirosint capsules from past prescriptions and can use the leftover capsules when needed.

While I could have gone with a prescription for 75 mcg and 88 mcg and alternated, it's better for me to be on the same dose each day.  I can feel the difference when I take alternating doses.  On the days I take the 88 mcg, I feel hot for a short time.  That's a sign of too much hormone circulating.  I feel a bit cold on the days when I take the 75 mcg capsules, which indicates too low of a dose.  This variance tells me that I'm probably correct that I need 81.5 mcg. 

Before I conclude, I want to state that I don't feel bad at present.  I have some symptoms but am okay.  I'm not working right now.  It's going to be far different starting August 10.  I have some misgivings about keeping my eBay and Etsy stores open, but I'm going to wing it.  If I can't handle it, then I'll close whenever I reach that point.  If I can, then I'll keep the stores open.

eBay Auctions Closing Soon, Free Shipping, and Thyroid Update

First, here is a short summary of what is going on with my eBay and Etsy stores.

Sales have been horrifically bad on eBay and even worse on Etsy.  I have changed my Etsy free shipping promotion back to orders of $35 or more since Etsy has been hiding my listings.  I still think $35 is too low, but I'm willing to see if it will help make my listings more visible on Etsy.  The eBay free shipping promotion has been changed to orders of $40 or more.

I have some eBay auctions for hardcover library edition Nancy Drew Files and some first printing Penny Parker books with dust jackets and good quality paper.  eBay doesn't apply the free shipping promotion to auctions, so buyers have to wait for me to send an invoice if the auction wins total above $35.  For the orders that qualify, I will change the shipping cost to free.

Jennifer's Series Books on eBay

Jennifer's Series Books on Etsy

In past posts, I detailed what happened after I got Covid last July followed by the bivalent Moderna vaccine on September 23.  I have perpetual thyroiditis caused by autoimmunity, which means that my thyroid is always slightly swollen and never works at a normal level.

The combination of Covid and the bivalent vaccine caused a significant flare in my thyroiditis.  Last fall, I found an article on the CDC's website about how some people experience a six-month flare of thyroiditis after getting a Covid vaccine.  For that reason, I knew that the flare would likely settle down at some point.  That didn't help me in the short term. 

We had to increase my medication twice, in early December and again in late January.  I could barely function.  In early March, I still didn't feel that well, but my provider said that we needed to wait until early June to give enough time for my T3 level to recover before making further adjustments.  I'm glad that we didn't increase in early March, considering what then happened.

In late March, I began to feel better.  Around April 1, I felt optimal.  That was when I realized that I had just passed the six-month threshold after having received the bivalent vaccine.  That then meant that the thyroiditis caused by the vaccine was resolving.  And so it did...

As April progressed, I began to feel more and more overmedicated.  By April 28, I couldn't stand it anymore.  I was losing weight and had excess energy, tremors, heart palpitations, and insomnia.  I don't like wasting medication, so I decided to titrate down myself with what I had instead of getting tested and asking for a new prescription.  

I decided to skip one dose each week, which would gradually lower my dose to the next level down from where I was.  Thyroid medication has a half-life of one week, so it's okay to skip a dose once per week to titrate down.  How I feel at any given time is based on the previous six weeks' average medication level, since it takes around six weeks for each dose to completely clear the body.

Being undermedicated is truly awful with very low energy levels, but being overmedicated is also just as bad but in a different way.  It's terrible having too much thyroid hormone circulating.  I feel this weird pressure behind my eyes that is extremely unpleasant when I'm taking too much medication.  I also feel jittery and feverish.

In April and early May, I only slept around three hours each night.  One night I was so wired that I didn't sleep at all and ended up being awake for close to 40 hours before I was able to sleep, and even then not for long. 

I've been so hyperactive and distracted that I have had just as poor of motivation (maybe even worse) than when I'm undermedicated.  It really messes with the mind to be so wired that it's like I've taken speed.  Right now I'm sleeping around four hours each night.  That is somewhat of an improvement.

Despite skipping one dose per week, I still felt overmedicated until about when school let out on May 19.  I have felt off in a nonspecific fashion since then, probably because of starting summer break which likely improved my thyroid function even more since I now have no stress.  I have just started a new prescription at the next dosage down, which is what I was on prior to the second dose increase from late January.  I feel like I've been on a roller coaster since early April.  It's crazy.

I seem to be alternating between feeling overmedicated and undermedicated, and the instability will likely continue for another week or so.  Perhaps then I'll have an idea of whether I'm on the right dose.

I mention this because it has severely impacted my motivation.  I want to list books for sale, but I just about can't make myself do it.  I have made some progress today, and I have photographed some additional books.  Hopefully, I can make myself list them by tonight.

March 2023 Health and Selling Update

This is an update to two previous posts.

January Health and Selling Hiatus Update #3

My eBay Store Is Open for Now

Yesterday, I reopened my eBay store.  This is a trial run.  I will remain open so long as I do not get too stressed mentally.  Etsy will remain closed at this time. 

I will reopen Etsy sometime between early April and late May.  I feel that early April would be perfect, since the listings last for four months.  I could then shut down for the start of school in early August, and all of the listings would reach their four-month expiration at that same time.  That's my tentative plan for Etsy.

Between last night and this afternoon, I considered the possibility of listing new items on eBay. The idea is causing me considerable stress for several reasons upon which I won't elaborate.  The stress I feel is enough that I have concluded that listing new items is not remotely an option.  I won't do it.  I am sorry, but I have to look out for myself first.

In the last couple months, I have been using delay tactics in order to avoid having to do things for various people who are online.  In one recent case, someone wanted me to scan copies of dust jackets.  I felt immediate stress.  There was no way I felt like it.  

I struggled with how to reply.  Finally I wrote, "I am very mentally stressed right now, so I don't need to take on any additional tasks.  I'm sure I could do it, but I would rather wait until I'm less stressed."

My delay tactic worked.  I was very relieved to see that this person got what they needed from someone else.  I am very grateful to whomever helped this person out.  Thank you.

In January, I wrote about my thyroid test results and how my TSH had gone up, showing that I was not in good shape.  My medication was increased.  

In February, I migrated all three of my websites away from the clutches of Yahoo!, which had been passing them from host to host for years.  That process took quite a toll on me.

How I Wasted a Saturday...

Website Migration Progress

It didn't help that I caught two viruses in February.  The first virus from February 3 had mild symptoms but definitely impacted my thyroid levels.  I felt the hit.

The second virus from February 18 had moderate symptoms.  I had a lot of congestion, which lingered for around two weeks.  I didn't notice an impact to my thyroid.  I suspect that I was probably already so messed up from the first virus that any further impact from the second virus was negligible.

My thyroid levels were tested on March 6.

My TSH has come down.  Ideally, it should be no more than 1.  It is slightly higher than 1, but it's close to where we want it.  TSH is Thyroid Stimulating Hormone.  It increases when the body doesn't have enough T4, and it decreases as the T4 level improves.

My T4 level has improved, which is why the TSH decreased.

The problem is my T3, which has dropped.

I believe that the low T3 level is the sole cause of my mental stress.  I don't have enough thyroid hormone circulating in my brain, so my mental state is not that great.

I quit taking NP Thyroid in early December, which is a natural thyroid medication containing both T3 and T4.  I am now on T4 only.  The removal of the T3 in my medication has caused my level to drop.  My body should gradually adjust as more time passes.  The body converts T4 to T3, which is the active hormone that makes us feel good.  My body hasn't started doing that again like it should.

The viruses didn't help the situation, either.  Viruses impact conversion of T4 to T3.

I may need to add a synthetic T3 medication, but my provider wants us to give my body a little more time to recover from the two viruses.  Once more time has passed, we'll test again to see how I'm doing.  I have started taking a few supplements that are supposed to help with conversion of T4 to T3 in hopes of speeding up the process.  

That's where I'm at right now.

In summary, I feel like I can handle having my eBay store open.  I can fulfill any orders that I receive.  I hope that I do receive a number of orders, since my eBay shelves are packed.  In time, I will reopen my Etsy shop.  I will eventually begin listing new items for sale, but that's probably going to be awhile.

I look out for myself first, of necessity.  I didn't use to do that.  Now I know better.  Always be kind to yourself, and remember that you can always say "no" if a task is more than you can easily bear.  

Boxing Up Unlisted Extras + Selling Update

I have begun the process of boxing up some of my unlisted extra books in order to free up shelf space.  After I filled each box, I wrote on the top and side what I placed in each box.

The books that I chose to box were chosen for a reason.  I tried to go with sets of like books and with some books (like the upgraded ND PCs) that I want to make sure that I keep shelved together and not mixed in with other books.  Boxing the books keeps them together until I once again have shelf space for them.

I have made sure not to box books that could go to bulk lots.  Whenever I begin selling again, I will likely want to put together bulk lots with books that aren't fit to sell individually.  Those books must stay where I can see them.

For instance, the Nancy Drew and Tom Swift books about which I posted today on Facebook will not be boxed.

Nancy Drew and Tom Swift Books

While the cigarette odor is nearly gone, I don't want to box the books up with no access to air circulation.  Secondly, some of the books will go to bulk lots, so they need to stay out with the other candidates for bulk lots.

I finished working on my website migration yesterday.  I went into Turbify and cancelled my Yahoo! website starter accounts that I had had for 20 some years. 

I learned yesterday that they really were still my old Yahoo! accounts.  I knew that my payments were taken each month by Aabaco, which was one of the previous Yahoo! brands.  I went into PayPal to cancel the automatic payment permissions as a failsafe after I cancelled on Turbify.  Look what I found.

Huh.  It seems that my payments were still going to Yahoo!.  I don't get it, because I found a blurb online about the small business web hosting being sold last year to Turbify.  

Notice the appalling amount that I was being charged for each of the three sites.  Yes, multiple $24.98 by three.  My charges each month on GoDaddy for all three sites combined will be around $20 total, which is quite a savings.  

Companies always do this with legacy accounts.  They charge them too much since the accounts have been around forever.  Why?  Because they know they can.  The customers with the legacy accounts are either not paying attention or don't want to bother with changing.  The companies take advantage of those customers.

For years, I've had this nagging feeling, knowing that I was being charged too much and knowing that I needed to get the sites on another platform where I had control of the situation.  It was a massive amount of work, but I have finally done it.  

I exhausted myself, and my brain is fried.  I caught a virus around February 4, and it caused a significant autoimmune flare.  I got a little better, but then the extra website work of last week has caused another flare.  I thought my memory was bad last month; now it's even worse.  I am making a lot of mistakes.  I have cringed about a few online gaffes from the last week.  Oh, well.  I've gotten pretty used to embarrassing myself during flares and even sometimes when not in a flare.  

My next thyroid appointment is on March 7.  I feel certain that I am once again at a deficit and think it likely that my medication will be increased again.

I had mentioned previously that I would resume selling sometime between March and late May.  My hope had been to resume in mid-March during spring break, but I'm now leaning strongly towards waiting until about the time school lets out in May.

Finally, I have quit reading again.  I was so close to finishing John Benton's books, but I haven't read since I caught the virus on February 4.  Perhaps I can begin reading again soon.  Or perhaps not.  I have other concerns right now.

January Health and Selling Hiatus Update #3

Due to my current condition, I probably will not return to selling books until sometime between March and late May.  This week I had a severe autoimmune flare.  I have only once before had a flare this bad, and that one occurred in August 2016.  

Nothing else in this post is about books except for a small reference at the very end, so quit reading now if this doesn't interest you.

With recent developments, I want to revisit what I thought happened and give my current perspective.  I continue writing about this in case the information is helpful to anyone who should run across it in the future.

This is from my November 12 post:

My immune system has gone bonkers since I got the bivalent Moderna booster on September 23.  I have heard of people having strong vaccine reactions after having had Covid, and unfortunately, I seem to have joined the crowd.  I had Covid in July, and I believe my immune system has gone into overdrive in an attempt to destroy the vaccine...

I've been dealing with hives and the most intense itching ever.  I have memory problems and a poor mental attitude, the likes of which I typically see in a strong autoimmune flare.  The problem is that I'm not exactly flaring, at least not in a normal fashion.  I feel certain that this is from the vaccine.

When I came down with Covid on July 14, it wasn't bad.  My thyroid took a hit for a couple weeks, and I seemed to get better.  I now think that my thyroid didn't recover. 

I do recall that I had intense hunger during most of September, to a degree that I hadn't experienced in many years.  I used to be intensely hungry all the time before I was put on thyroid medication nearly 10 years ago.  What I experienced in September was odd considering that I was supposedly stable on my medication.  The intense hunger started a few weeks before I got the bivalent Moderna vaccine.  The hunger wasn't caused by the vaccine, so my levels must have already become unseated.

I worsened noticeably after I got the bivalent vaccine, so it was also a factor.  However, Covid itself started the flare that worsened with the vaccine and then significantly worsened during the last two weeks.

I was stable on Tirosint 50 mcg combined with NP Thyroid 45 mg for three years, the longest I have ever been on the same medication.  I had intermittent hives for the entire time I was on NP Thyroid and suspected that the NP Thyroid was the cause.  I put up with the hives because I didn't want to have to go through the difficulty of switching medication and then months of trying to stabilize.

In early December, my provider agreed with my request to drop NP Thyroid and change to Tirosint only.  My Tirosint dose was increased to 75 mcg, and I quit taking NP Thyroid.

The hives continued until right around Christmas when they began decreasing.  Since then, the hives have continued to steadily decrease and then disappeared a few days ago.  I have no doubt that the hives were tied to the NP Thyroid.  

My T3 and T4 levels have improved slightly since switching my medication.  However, my TSH, which indicates whether my body is getting enough hormone, has increased significantly.  That is, significantly for me.  My numbers are never very high.  Apparently some people can have a TSH in the hundreds, while mine is always in the single digits.  More about that later.

Since my TSH went up, that means that I'm not getting enough hormone.  I am now taking Tirosint 88 mcg.  We will reassess in early March, and I may have to go up again.  Changing thyroid medication is a hassle since it can take months to get the dosage right. 

I want to share my test results since the average doctor would think that I am just fine and need no medication.  My levels are normal, yet I am quite ill.  The thyroid lab ranges are too wide, which is why many thyroid patients remain ill and untreated. 

Most doctors don't test the T3 free level.  T3 is what gives us energy.  Mine has been decreasing during the last three years, but I've been overall okay.  My body thought it had enough hormone.  When you look at where I am now, it seems okay.  I am not okay.

Always click on images to see them clearly.

Most doctors do test the T4 free level.  T4 is the inactive hormone that gets converted to the the active hormone, T3.  My T4 is down at the low end of normal.  Most doctors would think that this is fine.  It's not fine.

My TSH indicates that my body does not think that it has enough thyroid hormone circulating.  This is where you can see that I have a problem.

Even so, I am barely above the top end of normal.  I am quite ill if my TSH is anywhere above a 1.  Most doctors think that a 1 is borderline too low.  Most thyroid patients need to be at the very bottom edge of the normal range in order to feel okay.  That is where I was for the last three years, even though my T3 and T4 levels were kind of low.  My body was happy with the hormone levels.  It's not happy now.

Unfortunately, many doctors believe that thyroid patients should not be treated unless or until their TSH is above 10.  Mine is never above 10!  Doctors doom their patients to being ill their entire lives.  When the patients complain that they feel horrible, the doctors tell them that their labs are normal and that they need to see a psychiatrist.  The patients then become very upset, just wanting to be believed.

In closing, I take all of this in stride.  I stuck with the NP Thyroid for way too long because I didn't want to unseat my levels and have to go through months of readjustment.  Getting Covid and then the bivalent booster blew everything up, so I took the opportunity to drop NP Thyroid. 

I'm glad that I did drop NP Thyroid, and I can ruefully thank Covid for placing me in a position to where I felt able to face the fallout from making that change.  I will continue to have some hives as a side effect of my condition, but they should be at a much lower level from now on.

Also thanks to Covid, I was at home on the morning of December 5 and was able to purchase some very nice books.  If I hadn't gotten Covid and hadn't become sick, then someone else would have gotten those books.  Even difficult situations sometimes have a silver lining.

January Reading and Selling Update #2

Last night I published my overview and introductory post for The Living Hope Library Series by John Benton.

The Living Hope Library Series by John Benton

I will be publishing reviews of each book.  I hope that I can make it through the set and follow through with a review of each book.  I feel that using the word "hope" in this case, considering the series name, is a bit of a pun.  I don't mean it as such.  I sincerely hope that I can make it through the set and write reviews like I used to do.  We'll see.

Three of the books were read in June 2022, so those reviews won't be much more than the back cover summary and a single statement about how I felt about the book.  I'm not going to read those books again.  I want to work on the ones that I haven't read.

As of now, I have reviews finished for eight of the books.  That's not a bad start.

On Monday I mentioned the possibility of reopening my eBay and Etsy stores at the end of this week.  I have been going and and forth each day this week with no idea which way to go.  Open or stay closed?

While I haven't been feeling bad, I also haven't been feeling that great.  Each day this week, I have been quite tired in the late morning and have revived myself with an energy drink.  In the evening, I don't really feel tired.  In fact, I have insomnia, but I just don't feel that good.  I'm not sure how I'm doing.  

Whenever I have a thyroid medication adjustment, I go in six weeks later for a blood test to see how my levels have adjusted.  I will be doing that next week.  I feel like my levels may be off even after the dose increase.  I could need another dose adjustment.

I have continued to go back and forth on my decision whether to reopen my stores.  Tonight I finally came to a realization.  If I can't make up my mind which way to go, then I should stay closed.  And so I will stay closed.  Perhaps in a week or so I will reopen.  Perhaps not.  The store hiatus will continue.

I expect to begin posting the Living Hope Library reviews within the next few days and will stagger them two to three days apart like I used to do when I reviewed books.

I also have a review of the new Nancy Drew Diaries book, #24 Captain Stone's Revenge.  I will wait at least a few weeks on that one to give fans a chance to read the book.

Early January Reading and Selling Update

I ended my post about the books I read in 2022 as follows.

I have started reading Suzie by John Benton.  This one is also hilarious.  Suzie buys a gun and practices in the basement.  To cover her practice, she also buys a whip which sounds a lot like a gun.  Suzie calls herself "Suzie the Wonder Whip."  OMG.  This is fun.

I am now feeling strongly motivated to read through all of John Benton's books.  I hope I can keep myself going, but going back to work could put a stop to it if I end up too tired.  I will read as much as I can this week and will hope for the best beginning next week.

After I read Suzie, I read Sherri and then Lori.  I posted about Lori on Facebook.

Lori is a troubled teenager who wants some painkillers.  She plans to have her younger sister, Peggy, steal the painkillers for her.  But Lori needs to create a distraction.

Lori strips off her clothes and runs around inside the drugstore while Peggy steals the painkillers!  I could hardly read due to how hard I was laughing!

For the scans of the text, follow this link.  You should be able to view the images even if you're not on Facebook.

Despite my initial enthusiasm, my ability to stay focused and continue to read books is quite weak.  I nearly lost my focus this weekend.  I started reading Marji... and lost my enthusiasm.

Marji is a wealthy woman of 25 years old.  She turns down the opportunity to run her father's company.  Rather, she wants to share God's love with the prostitutes and junkies of Lower East Side, New York City.  Very quickly I realized that this book would be different in that the primary character had it together and would be helping others.  I lost my enthusiasm, since I just wanted to read over-the-top crazy stuff.

I went around 48 hours without attempting to read past the beginning of the book.  I was at a standstill, and I told myself that I couldn't let this stop me from reading through my set of John Benton's books.

I didn't want to abandon the book, but sometimes that is the only way.  I will not attempt to force myself to read a book when doing so will cause me to quit reading completely.

When I read through the entire Sweet Valley High series, I ended up reading 171 of the 181 books in the set.  I skipped 10 books because I found them boring.  Someone commented, "Just curious, but why did you skip 10 of the special series?  You were so close to reading all 181, it seems like a shame to stop 10 short..."

What a way to invalidate my accomplishment of reading nearly the entire SVH set.  I replied, "I was already halfway sick of my SVH reading experience by the time those books appear in the set, so trying to read them might have caused me to quit reading the set.  It's better to skip a few books than end up stopping short of reading the set by 50 to 75 books.  I am quite pleased with myself that I read 171 of 181 books, even if others might think I failed by not reading every single one of them."

Anyway...

I want to read John Benton's books, but I'm not going to waste energy on a book if it doesn't interest me.  After 48 hours, I decided to give Marji another try.  I read a little more to give the book a better chance of grabbing my interest.  I quickly learned that Marji's family has a big secret.  Oh...!

I became intrigued.  Marji's family isn't as together as I thought.  Sure, they're quite wealthy, but the family has a black sheep.  Marji didn't even know.  Ooh, I wanted to know more, and I knew instinctively that Marji would cross paths with the black sheep.

The book had captured my interest.  I quickly read through all of Marji and then started on the second book in the trilogy, Marji and the Kidnap Plot.  I hope that I can keep going, but the last few days have been a reminder of how tenuous my hold on reading is.  If I end up finding any of Benton's books uninteresting, then I will be at risk of being derailed.    

On December 31, I wrote:

I expect for my stores to remain closed for at least two to three more weeks.  It could be a bit longer, depending upon how events play out.  Since I'm on winter break, I'm doing okay.  I am having spells of sudden deep fatigue, but I'm at home where it doesn't matter.  I can loll around for an hour or so until my energy level recovers.  The real test will be when I go back to work on January 6.  At that time, I'll truly know how I'm doing.

Now it's two weeks later.  I went back to work on January 6 for a half day of meetings and ended up wiped out on Saturday.  I slept for a few hours during the day and continued to feel quite tired all evening.  I spent the entire evening watching all four Bonita Granville Nancy Drew movies from the 1930s.  Feeling lethargic finally got me to watch all four of those movies, which I have never been interested in watching.  They were what I expected, but at least I've now seen them.

Today was the first day of the second semester.  For around 1 1/2 hours this morning, I felt like death.  I don't use the expression "felt like death" lightly.  I mean, it was bad.  I drank an energy drink and began to feel better.  Fortunately, the very worst of it was during my planning period, and I was okay for the rest of the day. 

I do want to begin selling again, but I must let this week play out to see how good or bad I end up feeling.  I will have an idea tomorrow when I will see how today has impacted me.

If this week goes okay, then I might reopen my stores later this week.  If this week goes badly, then I might end up waiting two or three more weeks.  Keep your fingers crossed.  I do want to reopen.  I have even thought of a few more items that I could sell from my collection.