DEAR THYROID^TM

One more time for the cheap sweets! I would like to apologize for re-publishing Pattie’s letter. This was my (Katie’s) mistake, and I am sorry. But. Wait. I’m not. The second publishing was as remarkable as the first. Thank you, Pattie. Thank you, thymmunity for connecting with Pattie and reading “I’d Prefer A Rent Controlled Thyroid, To An Evicted One… I Think”.

If you haven’t read it, please do. Here is an excerpt from her letter:  “I have lost myself! I don’t recognize the woman in the mirror. The heavy woman with dark circles under her eyes. The woman that rarely smiles, and snaps at everyone.” How many times have we all said that?!

Beautiful.

Thank you for reaching out to Pattie and sharing SO MUCH of you with her, with us and with each other. I LOVE THIS THYAMILY TO BITS AND PIECES. Thank you for always being so true to yourselves.

Today’s comment…

kitINstLOUIS:

Pattie,

I have both Graves and Hashi’s, so after 8 years of fighting to get my thyroid stable, I chose to have it removed almost a year ago. OMG, what a nightmare those first six months were, emotionally and physically, I was completely debilitated and was promising myself I wouldn’t make myself live through any more torture if I would just hang on until that 6-month mark. I know, that’s pretty dark, but I was so miserable. I’m still not perfectly adjusted, but I am SO much better than I was, and still getting better.

Thyroidectomy is a huge trauma to the body, I don’t know why they don’t prepare us better for that fact.

Please hang in there, girl. You’re beautiful and lucky in so many ways. You feel horrible now, and that sucks large, but it WILL get better. And don’t rush to get your dosage increased…I went mad-hyper doing that and that threw me back to square one.

In today’s Thyme for a Literary Healing, we’re going to discuss reinventing ourselves. Thyme For Literary Healing: How Do We Reinvent Ourselves?! Post disease, post diagnosis, and now living with the physical, emotional and psychological changes our thyroids have bestowed us; how do we redefined ourselves?

The responses were ASTOUNDING. I hope that you will share yours with us, too. I believe, with everything in my heart that the more we share our stories, the more we learn about ourselves and our respective diseases.

Bee says:

I don’t think I realized how much I took good health (even post cardiac surgery) for granted until I was diagnosed with hypoT. So this disease made me realize that health wasn’t something to be taken lightly. It redefined my perception of the length of my life and made me realize that every day wasn’t just ANOTHER day but a day I better figure out how to be thankful for. The sad thing is that during the first couple yrs. post thyroid diagnosis; there were days I just didn’t care if I made it thru! I don’t mean that in a suicidal way; I was just so numb to everything and felt like I was living in shades of gray with no color. I got fat. My hair fell out. Nothing fit. I was ashamed of my appearance and really avoided looking in the mirror. I certainly didn’t want to see old friends because I’d find myself trying to explain my appearance and truthfully that was so insignificant compared to the desire to actually want to live in color again. I knew I was pretty damn special on the inside and it really pissed me off to have my life defined by appearance-and then have the double whammy of not having any control over that appearance at all.

I am finally doing things to accept me for who I am and not what I look like. I actually bought tank tops for the first time in 4 yrs. This may sound petty but I really couldn’t stand the size of my upper arms or stand looking at the fabulous thyroid fat pads resting on the tops of each collar bone. It wasn’t until I realized I was torturing myself physically by going out in 100 degree heat covered up just because I was ashamed of a body part that finally made me say screw it . I’m hot and I can’t stand sweating one more second. Also, I have been trying to eat better. I always thought I ate well; but I was a consummate dieter-at times to the extreme. My dieting ideas shifted away from dieting for weight loss to watching what I put in my mouth for health. If the weight shifts because of this new approach, great. If it helps regulate my bloating, water retention, and insulin resistance that’s even better.

It’s still about me, me, me…but in a let me live, live, live way….thank you very much!

Tags: Comment of the Day, community building, Dear Thyroid, Health Community, health support community, literary community, literary support, thyroid community, thyroid support community

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