I used to be the picture of health, HOWEVER, due to 6 unplanned surgeries, a deadly blood clot DVT (maternally deadly in my mother's family of many)  on Sept. 10, 2008, we find out that I actually have the rare Hypercoaguability disorder and now because I've had to have a Vag. Hys. and repair work done back on 7/12/07, with my missing those uterine hormones, two things have occurred.  1. I can't take Estrogen because of the clotting disorder and 2.  Missing those uterine hormones throws a woman's body into an Apneac state so NOW I get to wear CPAP at night!  I stopped breathing 11 times in an hour for more than 10 seconds.  On top of all that I've been Severe Fybromyalgic since 5/12/2002 when diagnosed along with Degenerative Disk disease in my cervical neck area because of herniations of 5-6, 6-7, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Degenerative Arthritis. Then on top of all that because of the maternal marker from grandmother skipping my mother down to me, I now have Type II Diab. NIDDM.  Non-insulin dependent Diabetes Mellitus.  Then after the wonderful Neurosurgeon I finally was able to locate unbelievably at the same office where they told me "it's all in your head and you need to see a Psychitrist, this new Neuro. came in and I went to hear his seminar, he took my case and finally on 10/19/07 he was able to totally fix my neck with an Anterior Fusion with a Titanium Peek Spacer.  Everything works great, can't even tell it's there! He told me after the surgery "had you waited 6 months more, you'd have lost 50% usage of your neck and 1/2 the damage didn't even show up on the MRI!"  Then because I'd had the Fybro. since 2002,  I asked him if I could get a handicapped tag, he asked me in shock, "you mean nobody will give you one because of your Fybro?"  Nope, they think I'm faking all this!   He said "Absolutely!  I can at least give you a temporary one, I can't believe they won't get you one."  Well, then he had to release me for my first Clavicle Resection in April 2008 on the worst of my two shoulders which was my left one, the surgeon had to do 4 things to it, then in August 2008 he went in on the right one.  Well, during rehab on my right one, I had had some terrible leg cramps during July, then it went into extreme nausea and two sharp pains up the back of my neck.  Well, I'm CPR/AED trained, then on 9-10-08 I was in a little Sr. exercise class, couldn't keep up,  the instructor takes one look at me,  pulls me out of the class, tells me to go get checked immediately, and don't come back w/o release form from a Cardiologist.  I sit down, try to take a sip of water, (which in my training I knew if I couldn't do that that I was in big trouble)  and I put it in my mouth and thought I was going to projectile it across the room.  I said to myself, God get me out of here so that I don't upset these three elderly ladies, so I literally was lifted somehow and I walked out to my mom's car (Mine was on the blink at the time, she was driving me around) and got in, told her where my ins.card, etc. was, called my husband, he said "calmly get her to drive you to such and such hosp. ER,  calmly walk in and calmly get them to check you out but do it now!"  When I arrived, the Triage nurse took one look at me and knew by what I was telling her what I had but couldn't tell me, well 9 hrs. later, the house Dr. comes in and while I'm alone and finally eating a meal they had ordered for me says "well, Mrs. Turner, you have a blood clot in your chest and we're going to keep you probably through the weekend."  I liked to have died right there.  Well, I got through that episode of Lovenox shots to the abdomen, weaned to Coumadin, and then come to find out when I got home and went online and found this just graduated genius of a new Dr. (who I'd thought I was talking to a Geneticist)  told me to "be sure to have your Cardiologist run a Protein C & S test for the Hypercoaguability disorder because judging by your maternal history you've told me, I'm pretty sure you have it." Well, I do and he saved my life.  So now I'm on that at 7.5 mg. pm.  I now have to wear a loaded both sides medical ID bracelet I had to have custom made,  I'm on 10 life sustaining meds and now have to use CPAP.  Oh, and because of my father's family history of no males living past 60 in the last 100 years, I now also presented at the ER with Angina WHICH my OLD GP had already put me on Norvasc to go with MY Avapro and Coreg but now since our insurance won't cover Avapro any longer, my old NEW GP switched me to Diovan, BUT because HE didn't want to refer me to an Endocrinologist for my Type II Diab. I decided to self refer and found a wonderful woman Endo. who noticed in my initial visit when I asked her why my skin was so dry,  "oh, your TSH is going up which means it's not functioning like it should so we need to do a complete Thyroid panel on you"  sure enough she has to call in a Rx for Levothyroxine, well when I get home, I go online, as usual, and lo and behold I found where and hear this loud and clear folks "HYPOTHYROIDISM (LOW)  CAN AND USUALLY DOES MAKE A PERSON MALE OR FEMALE    INSULIN RESISTENT!"  THAT'S RIGHT, YOU READ CORRECTLY,   WHEN YOU'RE HORMONES ARE OUT OF WHACK,   BE SURE TO ASK YOUR DR. TO CHECK EVERYTHING!  SOME DRS. ARE STILL GOING BY THE OLD SCHOOL RULES OF     10.0   OF LOW THYROID BUT YOUR THYROID IS  SUBCLINICAL  (NOT FUNCTIONING) EVEN AT 3.5!   YEP, 3.5.   MINE IS GOING BACK UP TO 4.36 AND THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY'RE GOING TO DO ABOUT MINE   because when you are taking Levothyroxine,  the highest dosage you can take with Coumadin and Norvasc and other meds is .75  mcg.  that's micrograms!  ANY more than that can and usually throws your heart INTO ATRIAL FIBRILATION.   YEP, CONGESTIVE HEART FAILURE!   

So,  my message here for all you folks out there with sleep problems, very dry skin, weak nails, hair dryness,  lethargic, mood swings,  go have your thyroid checked!!!   It's imperative you get this under control,  hormones ARE the essence of our bodies.