A not-so-fun spring

This past Spring, I've been dealing with a bit of stuff. Well, a lot of stuff. Not-so-fun stuff.

One of the biggest things has been my thyroid.

Now, I've had doctors watching and treating my hypothyroidism since I was about eight years old, when my blood was first tested for thyroid problems. It's always been part of my life, but I've been on medication to help balance my thyroid deficiency, and it's worked well. I've lived a pretty normal life in that regard.

Well, about a week into 2014, I went in to see the general physician about the results from my blood work, like always. However, instead of hearing that everything was the same and getting my prescription, like it was supposed to go, I got a surprise.

The doctor told me that I had abnormally low TSH levels, and that she had to immediately lower my dosage of thyroid medication, or I would start having heart and bone problems. (Low TSH levels as in, the doctors at that clinic will allow patients to get down to 0.3 or so, but I was at 0.015.)

When the thyroid gland doesn't produce enough T3 and T4, the hypothalamus tells the pituitary gland to send out TSH, which literally 'stimulates' the thyroid so it will produce more T3 and T4. Low TSH indicates high levels of T3 and T4.

Especially in the previous three years, I had been feeling great. I had started martial arts again in high school, was finally able to mange my weight decently well, hung out with friends a lot, and had started to really enjoy life. I even had moments when I got excited and jumped or ran around just for fun.
So, when my doctor said my TSH levels were so low because my thyroid medication was too high. I sighed to myself, and figured that sure, with all my energy and hyper moments in the past months, maybe my thyroid medication was too high. I'm not supposed to have extra energy, and never had until recently

So, I went along with the doctor's advice (although I didn't have much choice, as she only wrote me  prescription for 120mg of Armour Thyroid, instead of 180mg), and by the middle of February, I was feeling pretty bad. I was tired all the time, was more stressed than normal with classes and my groups, got mad/upset more often, and felt depressed.

I saw one of the university's doctors, and he confirmed the low TSH problem. Then I went back to DFW in March, for Spring Break, and met with a doctor who focuses on hormone balancing, and she reaffirmed the problem and lowered my thyroid dosage again, this time to 90mg.

After however many years on 180mg of Armour Thyroid, I was down to half that amount in three months.

No worries, I was sure the doctors knew what they were doing. After all, I was dealing with a lot of stress from classes and my parents' divorce, so I kept telling myself I was fine, and went back out to Lubbock.

I cried a lot in March and April. Not because anything bad in particular was happening, but because I couldn't keep myself from crying. My emotions were a mess, and I couldn't focus on anything. My brain felt like it was in a fog, but I couldn't even try to clear it out.

I went to counseling. I started taking anti-depressants. I kept putting one foot in front of the other, but it steadily kept getting worse throughout May. I had lots of stuff going on, and to be honest, maybe the anti-depressants were finally working, because I just didn't really care anymore. Everything was painful and I just kept trying to ignore it.

My dad wanted me to see a thyroid specialist that one of his neighbors recommended, so I got an appointment. I went to see him the week after being told by the hormone doctor that I had to go down to 60mg of Armour.

You know what this new doctor said? Using TSH levels to treat thyroid, in the way that my other doctors were doing, was about fifteen years behind, in regard to research and studies.

He told me that he would treat my symptoms, and while the low TSH levels indicated an overactive thyroid, I definitely have the symptoms of an underactive thyroid. Therefore, he raised my thyroid medication back up to 120mg, added lots of vitamins and supplements for me to take daily, and is running other blood tests that the other doctors didn't bother or know to do.

It will probably take three to six months for my thyroid and blood levels to balance out again, and I'm pretty relieved that there is a way out. but it isn't an easy fix. Going up to 120mg of Thyroid hasn't appeared to do much, besides giving me some stronger headaches. My hair is still coming out in small clumps. I'm still not sleeping well, and I'm probably not going to come off my anti-depressant medication any time this year. However, at least it shouldn't get worse.

I'm pretty mad at myself for letting this happen. I should have done more research earlier, and maybe have seen more doctors throughout the spring, instead of figuring that two normal doctors and one hormone specialist would be enough. I think the only thing I'll have gained from this whole experience, besides a distrust of doctors, is knowing that I don't have Hashimoto's auto-immune disorder, which is good, I suppose. That extra blood test was worthwhile.

 Also, I now have some boring, medical stuff to write about for my blog. Small wins, right?


Apologetic for the lapse in writing so far this summer,
The Purple Writer

All the boxes.

Literally, all of the boxes.

I have been moving, along with my mom and brother, to a new house. It is crazy.

First of all, you should understand that we had lived in our previous house since I was five years old. That's about sixteen years in a single house.
It was nice. I enjoyed the house. But now, as we have been moving out of it, I see how much stuff we have accumulated over the years. A LOT OF STUFF.

When I came back for Spring Break, I cleaned up quite a bit in the two closets in my bedroom - Yes, that's right, two closets. I stayed in the ridiculously large bedroom that we used as a guest bedroom and with the pull-down bed and my trundle bed, could house four people with minimal inconvenience. - My first two weeks home from college, I went through and either threw out, packed up, or put everything in the ginormous give-away pile.

(and that was just in the beginning stages of the piles' growth)

Moving is a healthy thing. I think it is a good plan to move every couple or five years, if for nothing else than having to go through all of your belongings and decide what you really want to keep or not.

I had a lot of stuff with me both my years at college. In fact, I rented a storage unit for this summer, so I could keep most of my college stuff there, as I didn't want the hassle of carrying it around in this move (and it would never all fit in my car in a million years).

I thought I had just about everything I needed out there in my storage unit, besides my clothes and the other few things I thought I would need to have this summer (like my computer, my comics, my Doctor Who Monopoly game, my writing beret, etc.).

I even left two of my pillow pets. That's right. I left pillow pets behind in Lubbock. I've never left them behind before. I have to be satisfied with my other three pillow pets for these three months.

But, actually, when I came back and started packing up my stuff that I had at home, I came to a realization. I have too much stuff. I don't need all this stuff. I never needed to have all of this stuff at one time. That's craziness.

So, I have gotten rid of and given away lots of stuff. Yet, there have still been plenty of boxes to move to the new house. Quite a few have already been unpacked, but there are still boxes everywhere. Boxes in the garage, boxes in the living room, boxes in my closet, boxes in my car. SO MANY BOXES

This is not even mentioning the boxes of stuff left at the house that we have been packing and moving to my dad's storage unit here in DFW. I'm glad that we have boxes, because they make moving stuff much easier, but it would be nice to not have so many around right now.


Living out of boxes,
The Purple Writer

My brother graduated from high school this weekend.

If you haven't been spammed by me already, about my brother's graduation, on some social media site, then here you go.

(He's the handsome fellow in the middle)

Charles graduated from Coram Deo Academy this past Friday, having earned summa cum laude (overall weighted 100-point GPA of 98 or higher).

He is an impressive guy, and has had a very successful high school career. He's a star athlete, a math genius, an eagle scout, and lots more, including martial arts and playing piano. He can succeed at just about anything he sets his mind to, and is also a pretty funny guy, who can make anyone laugh.

He is going to Texas Tech with me in the Fall, with the top tier Air Force ROTC scholarship (as well as Tech's top Presidential scholarship). 

It will be good to be out there in Lubbock with him. Our paths will likely never intersect, as he will usually be in the engineering key while I essentially live in the English and MCOM buildings on the other side of campus. 

However, we will be a lot closer, living in the same town, instead of five hours away, across Texas, and fun times will ensue. 

Watch out Lubbock. The Clinkscales invasion is beginning soon.

We've always been cool kids

I really like my brother. It was too easy for me to get disconnected while off at college, doing college-y things, but I'm really excited for him to come to Tech. We will have several more opportunities to talk/play games/chillax together throughout the school year.

I know Charles will enjoy being at Tech. He has already accomplished so much in high school, and I look forward to seeing how much more he will do, in college and beyond. 

Anyhow. . . I feel like I digressed a bit, but yes, my brother is finished with high school, and everything is awesome.

Never done bragging,

The Purple Writer

So, I've abandoned you for a month.

I could try to excuse myself with the fact that I had finals, packing, moving, etc. But really, the main reason I didn't update my blog for a while there was probably my News Writing class. (JOUR 2310 at Texas Tech, with Mr. Wernsman.)

Sure, I should be good with writing, since I'm an English major. However, I am #notajournalist


I am so glad I am finished with that class. We had to write so many informative news stories and sidebars, with the occasional service journalism. We were constantly told to use the least amount of words, to make our writing clear and concise.

That is all good, but the reason I love writing is having the ability to create something beautiful, and putting together words in ways that give shape to my thoughts and ideas.

I felt so restricted in this class, and then we had a multitude of assignments to write over the semester. I only had enough energy left to complete my papers for my superheroes seminar, before being unable to write anything more. Hence no posts for my blog for the last month of school.

I have attempted to follow the advice (pictured above), which was taped to the bubble wrap given out in our dorm by a few CAs, trying to help their residents deal with stress.

As a heads up, I am planning on updating my blog on Wednesdays (and occasionally Sundays), since my deadlines for pieces for my College-Social Magazine internship are on Monday and Thursday.

Glad to be done with journalism classes,

The Purple Writer

How to make hateful comments a positive thing.

Honey Maid received a flood of negative criticism and hateful comments after releasing a commercial with non-traditional families being presented as wholesome.

This took place almost immediately after the backlash against Cheerios’ advertisement with biracial families in it, as well as the resignation of Mozilla’s CEO, Brendan Eich, when he was faced with outrage about his opposition to same-sex marriage. 

However, instead of shutting down, firing someone, or disabling comments on the video, Honey Maid turned the obstacle into an opportunity, with a very successful result.

Honey Maid’s launched their “This is Wholesome” commercial on March 10, 2014, which presented biracial and homosexual families in a favorable light. The speaker said that Honey Maid products are “everyday wholesome snacks for every wholesome family.” This video was aimed toward families, one of Honey Maid’s largest audiences, regardless of their traditional standing or not.

Honey Maid probably did not expect their audience and supporting network to react so strongly. But, in response, Honey Maid hired two artists to take the negative comments and make a piece of art out of it. 

The artists rolled papers with the negative comments printed on them, and glued them to the ground to form the word ‘Love.’ The artists then took all of the positive comments about the video, which greatly outnumbered the negative comments, and glued them to the floor surrounding the word ‘Love.’ 

Honey Maid released a video on April 3 showing the process of how the bad comments were turned into a positive thing.

“Love” has received over three million views.

Honey Maid also received feedback from other companies, such as NILLA Wafers and Betty Crocker, publicly encouraging and praising the video “Love.”

Through turning this obstacle into an opportunity, Honey Maid gained a tremendous amount of good publicity. Not only are their videos now seen by the families they were originally designed to encourage, but also to a diverse audience across the nation. These viewers are more likely to now connect Honey Maid’s name to family values and support for non-traditional families.

It can sometimes be discouraging to see such hate and negative reactions to things that should be wholesome, but I'm glad that some people and groups, such as Honey Maid, are taking a stand and responding gently with love.

Hoping to see more of this,

The Purple Writer

I like politeness

Maybe it's because my public relations classes focus so much on bad examples, but I'm pretty tired of the advertisements and campaigns that tear down other companies or organizations.

Why are we, as a society, so quick to tear down other people? Don't we realize that, even if we cut down other people, we are really not making ourselves grow any taller.

Yes, I realize that it can be hard to be creative, but if you are really so similar to another group, and can't emphasize why you are different, then maybe you shouldn't be in business. If your only option is to try to badmouth other groups, then you should spend that time to go find or make a niche for yourself.


I find it so refreshing when advertisements and campaigns are nice to others.
My favorite may be one in the series for the new Samsung Galaxy Pro Tablet. The owner of the Samsung tablet allows the other dad to save face when he tries to salvage some of his dignity. In response to the remark on having 'Pony Princess Hair Salon,' the Samsung owner says "I hear there's amazing hairstyles in there."

It communicates the point of the advertisement, the Samsung tablet features, while being nice to the owner of the other tablet, and being humorous. Samsung didn't have to tear anyone down, because they legitimately have a cool feature to tell their audience about.

Now, most of the other videos in this series of advertisements for Samsung do make fun of the other brands in a rather harsher light. They still focus on humor, though, and the idea that Samsung tablets have new features that would be helpful.



Wishing we could all be a little more polite,
The Purple Writer

A blast from the past.

The other week in my honors seminar on superheroes, we watched an episode of the old Batman TV series. Man did that bring back memories! I remember watching the old Batman movies over and over again with my dad and brothers. So much good, cheesy fun.

"Holy forgotten memories, Batman!"

So, I was cleaning up my room at my mom's house over Spring Break, and found a picture from a couple years in the past. It brought a flood of great memories. 

It's only been two years, but it's almost sad how quickly I've forgotten my life when I was in high school. I remember my friends, of course, but sometimes I forget exactly how close we all were.

Most of my friends were fantastic artists. It must have been one of those funny things, like how now I'm an English major and yet have a bazillion friends in engineering.  Anyhow, I think it was the summer before my senior year, I got this drawing for my Birthday.

Team Awesome Forever! #tbt

Isn't it so cute!

My friend Greer drew it for me (she's the red-head on the left). She drew the three of us (I'm in the middle, and my best friend, Laura,  is the blonde on the right), and included our favorite mythological creatures, of course, in our favorite colors.  The red dragon, the purple pegasus, and the green gryphon. Pretty fitting.

We were going to be team awesome forever! We still get together over breaks, and have tons of fun together, but then we go back to our separate universities and don't talk to each other for another couple months. The same things happens with my other close groups of friends.

We knew each other so well that a few months or years doesn't change us enough so that we can't enjoy jumping right back into having fun together. But, I'm not sure how much longer that will last, and that is a bit scary. I love my friends, and although I continue making fantastic new friends as I move through life, I definitely don't want to lose my old friends.

I guess it's a bit of a balancing act. I don't want to stay stuck in the past, but I don't want to be looking so far into the future that I forget who I used to be.

That's why I'm glad we have little things like this drawing to bring up these memories, even if only for a few days. So, I posted this drawing on "throwback Thursday" and shared the memories with my friends.

I plan to try to find something like that to share each week, if I can. Spending a few minutes remembering the past can only help me stay grounded in the past as I keep moving forward.

Enjoying fun memories,
The Purple Writer