Living With Hypothyroidism

Today I’m getting a little personal.  I hope you don’t mind.  I want to share this with you as a warning or things you should look out for in your body because if untreated it could lead to heart disease or even death.

Over 18 years ago I was experiencing some things in my body that I felt shouldn’t be happening.  At 33 with four kids, a full time job, and a husband gone all the time I chalked it up to stress.  I was loosing my hair, felt extremely tired, and had some pretty serious joint paint.  I had also had a few people tell me that my face looked swollen.  I went to the Doctor and she ran a Lupus test which came back positive.  She wanted to do the same test again worried that the first test was a false positive which, thankfully, it was.  So we ruled out Lupus.  In the mean time she was injecting my head with Corticosteroids hoping for some hair regrowth.  This was very painful and didn’t work for me.  Next the Doctor ran a TSH blood test to check my Thyroid Hormone levels.  Sure enough they were extremely low.  That was the culprit.  I had Hypothyroidism.  What the heck was this?

Your thyroid is part of the Pituitary system and is located in the neck area.  Hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) is a condition in which your thyroid gland doesn’t produce enough of certain important hormones which control your metabolism or the way your body uses energy.  This issue can be caused by pregnancy, cancer, or be inherited.  Hypothyroidism runs in our family so I’m certain that was the cause in my case.  My twin brother had thyroid cancer and my sister also has Hypothyroidism.  Also, women more than men suffer from this problem.

Hypothyroidism has no cure.  I was given a small synthetic hormone pill to take every day for the rest of my life.  Eventually this pill will or maybe already has depleted all the natural thyroid hormone in my body.  There have been a few times in the last 18 years that I’ve tried to go off the medication and try something natural.  But, each time I began to feel dizzy and lethargic so ended up going back on “the pill”.  Each year I have to go to the doctor and have blood work done to check my TSH levels to see if any adjustments need to be made to my medication.  As time has gone on I have noticed other things happening in my body which have been attributed to the disease.  My memory and brain have gotten a little more foggy and I’m having issues with my digestive system.  Feeling exhausted has always been an issue.  I could sleep a good eight hours a night and wake up feeling like I haven’t slept at all.  I hate this the most.

Here is a good chart showing symptoms of this disorder.  I would highly encourage any of you to get tested if you have more than two of the below symptoms:

I hope that by sharing this with you will listen to what your body is telling you.  If you are feeling any of these symptoms have your body checked for Hypothyroidism.  The longer you go without treatment the more sick you will become and there is no reversal for it.

If any of you have Hypothyroidism I would love to hear from you and what has worked for you with your symptoms.