Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Not Much Info on the Internets

Here's the thing: I don't notice very many changes when I have my thyroid dose changed. I had my dose adjusted a couple months ago because of the pregnancy. I actually noticed a couple things different, so that was new for me.

Lately I've made a couple lovely new jewelry items. I will make a lovely necklace and then put it on and wear it until I make a new one. I make stuff for myself out of sterling silver mostly. I made a necklace and wore it for maybe a week or 10 days and then noticed that half of it was BLACK with tarnish. Then I made another and wore it for several days and noticed that half of this new one was also BLACK with tarnish. I have been wearing sterling silver for years with only normal tarnish levels, and in fact have noticed that wearing stuff usually keeps it from getting all black with tarnish, because it's rubbing on your shirt or whatever. So I made another necklace and wore it for maybe a week and was unaccountably horrified when I found that half of it was BLACK with tarnish.

I just did a search online and there is just barely more than an iota of information on this. In fact the only real reference I found to any of this was a lady asking on a forum why her sterling necklaces were suddenly turning terribly black with tarnish. She mentioned that she had had her thyroid dose raised and had had a miscarriage the previous year. I have been pregnant six times, including right this second, so connecting these dots tells me it's the thyroid hormone and not the pregnancy or miscarriage.

Isn't this weird? All of a sudden all my silver necklaces are turning pitch black around the back of the neck, to the point where I gasp when I discover it. I can't find any science to back this up, but I have to conclude that my higher thyroid dose has combined with some inherent acidity in my skin or something and produced really high silver-tarnishing powers.

On a possibly unrelated note, I have a skin acidity that corrodes the nickel plating off of flutes and knitting needles... Related? or Unrelated? You be the judge!

4 comments:

Jodi said...

Could you turn this into some sort of super power?

Katy said...

I will admit, that's pretty fascinating about the sterling silver turning black. It makes sense in a way though. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the cause of the corrosion as well!

Becca said...

Super Bionic Metal Dissolving Woman!

If you ever find out the answer, I'd love to hear it because this is really curious.

Will said...

I think your medicine is causing you to slightly ooze some form of iodine, which is then reacting with the silver. A possible test for this would be to wear starch around on you for a while and see if it turns black.

In case I forget tomorrow, happy birthday, BTW.