Gratituesday: doctors when we need them

The title kind of sounds more suspenseful and dramatic than it really is.  We've had no emergency doctor visits here, unlike one of the bloggers I read who recently had to take her daughter to the ER for stitches.

But I did have to head to the doctors' office this morning to get some lab work done.  My TSH checked specifically (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone).  I have hypothyroidism - an under active thyroid - which means that I'm on daily medication for it for the rest of my life.  If you know me, you know that the thought of being tied down to a prescription for the rest of my life just makes me cringe.  In fact when I first got the news (while being pregnant and hormonal), I cried and cried and the personal calling me couldn't understand why it was such a big deal to be tied down to a tiny little pill every day.   I try to eat as much whole, unprocessed foods as possible to avoid being sick and needing medication, and then when I do get sick, I try to get well by as natural a means as possible.  But there was no alternate means for this.  Anyways, this was traumatic for me... blah blah blah.

Back to the appointment this morning.  My healthcare practitioner was indeed running late this morning, and I sat there grumpy because I was wasting my child-free day on sitting in a waiting room.  I finally was seen, and eventually after insurance questions and forgetting my water bottle, got back out and made it home.  Still rather grumpily.

Then I realized a couple things.  We have the ability in this day and age to treat hypothyroidism.  That means I can avoid the depression, extreme exhaustion, decreased taste and smell, puffy face, hair and hands, the slowing of speech, etc.  I should be grateful to avoid the slowing of speech, right?  Even if it means I'm tied to a prescription for the rest of my life and I have to sit in the doctors office for 45 minutes waiting for a simple test.  Also, we have the ability and the means to get to a doctor to keep my thyroid in check.  I should be grateful for insurance to help pay for it, and a car to get me to the doctor's, right?

Yes.

So I'm not going to grump about the prescription I have to take or my time that was wasted this morning.  I'm going to be grateful for the doctor and go tackle my to-do list.

(And lest we forget, I should be grateful that I didn't have to wait an extra 30 minutes with my toddler in tow, RIGHT??? - thanks Mom and Dad!)