Again, thank you, everyone, for the incredible support. I had a really bad night. I can't fall asleep and then when I do, it's for about 2 hours. Then I wake up and the whole cycle starts again. I managed to sleep until 7:15, so I probably got 5 hours? My husband is working from home most of the next 2 weeks, since this is when we were supposed to be away. He doesn't know what to do with me. We are both very pragmatic people, but in this case, I seem to have lost all perspective. Anyway, after an hour of crying, I called the endocrinologist back and told the receptionist what was going on. They are seeing me tomorrow (I think when I said i can't eat, sleep, and my blood pressure is up helped). At least the whole process will go forward sooner.
Intellectually I know most of these things are benign, but my neck is hurting and the ringing in my ear is making me believe it is connected to the thyroid thing. I keep assuming all of my other pains are a big scary cancer all running together. I know it's stupid and not likely, but the thoughts are there.
In answer to the other points, I know about fibromalaygia (sp?) and will definitely bring it up with the rheumo. He is fairly young (40s), Harvard trained and practices in Boston one day a week, so he is hooked into all of the medical research community here. He listened well. I have excellent medical insurance, don't need referrals, so there's no problem there.
My husband got the name of a therapist for me, but I really don't want to start there. My other concern is that Steve will be going away Oct. 27-Nov. 3 to Japan and Korea and I am freaked out about being alone with this issue. All of my friends work, except for one who is really crazy and over reacts to everything. She doesn't know about this.
I will keep you posted.