DEAR THYROID^TM

What a thylicious day in gland land! A hearty breakfast was served by Rachel’s Dear Thyroid Letter, and the anguish and devastation her thyroid cancer has bestowed her. A delightful and informative lunch served bedside by Dr. Gottfried nourished our hormonal and thyroid related questions, thoughts and concerns.

One of the things I love most about this community is your fearlessness, even when you’re afraid. You advocate for yourselves. You take time to connect with other members and say “I’m scared, too.” You offer support, share your stories and educate us with each keystroke.  You’re perfect. Never change.

Torn Away from Me, I Still Bear your Scars, an excerpt from Rachel’s beautiful letter “As it turns out, life is hard without you. I’m horrible I can’t take my pills as I should; I can’t visit the doctor as I’m told. I don’t want to feel bad, and I feel worse now, but I’ll be okay. You were a part of me.”

Today’s comment…

MollyH78 says:

I almost did not pop on here today, as I thought it would give me even more anxiety than I have been feeling the past few days. This anxiety has given me migraines, upset my stomach and made it almost impossible to get out of bed.

I too will be having a thyroidectomy and lymph node dissections on July 6th. I have thyroid cancer, am 32, have an 8 year old son and a husband who is in remission for the past year from melanoma. I have a lot to be anxious about and a lot to be strong for.

But, reading your letter today, I realize, it is ok to be in this funk. I can be here, in this place of being scared, tired, angry and downright let down from a thyroid that has, up to now, given me the illusion of being fine. But it hasn’t been fine, and I will wallow in this for a while. And now I am ok with that. When it is taken, I will cry, and I am ok with that. When I am exhausted and sore, I will curse in the ways I need to and I and everyone else with be ok with that. And then, I will live. I will move on from the funk and leave it behind me. I will find my new strength, although different from now, it will get me through to see past the illusions.

And I will live.

And so will you.

I guess we all deserve the relish in the funk. Sit in it, roll around in it, and then get up, brush ourselves off and be ok. My thoughts are with you and hopefully when you are ready, you can crawl out of your funk. I would love to hear when that is, and when I am crawling out of mine, I actually feel there are lots of hands around this beautiful place I have stumbled upon, that will help pull me out too.

Thank you for writing today. You helped me a lot.

Molly

Crazy Happy Thyroid Dance, a guest blogging series written by Dr. Sara Gottfried, an integrative practitioner who gets; really gets the importance of treating the entire person as a person. Today, she kicked off her series with a wonderful intro about so many autoimmune disorders, nutrition, the endocrine system, hormones, and more. Here’s an excerpt from her fabulous post: “the interdependence of the endocrine systems of the thyroid, sex hormones (estrogen and testosterone, mostly) and the adrenals. Turns out I needed to teach it to myself – it’s not in the medical textbooks or even conventional medicine discourse. One I got “it,” meaning how all these crazy thyroid, adrenal and sex hormones fit together”

Today’s comment…

Brenda says:

Okay, color me confused. I have hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s, complete with its fashion accessory a/k/a a multinodular goiter, and I was rocking along pretty well UNTIL I hit another roadblock – menopause. Yipes! Since then, some days I feel like I should just put orange barrels and crime scene tape around the couch and cry “Uncle!” Or maybe just cry.

On the bright side, I have an excellent endocrinologist who has worked with me for almost two years now. He listens, he talks to me like I actually do have two brain cells that occasionally fire simultaneously, has never put me down or blown off my symptoms as unrelated, and did I mention he listens?! In fact, he actually suggested adding Cytomel (T3) before I had a chance to ask him about it.

I think it’s highly likely that my hormonal status has instigated most, if not all, of the symptoms I have been having, including suddenly not being able to tolerate most thyroid meds. I have also piled on the pounds, despite eating right (gluten-free) and exercising, but he doesn’t seem to be nearly as concerned about that as I am. {Sigh}

At this point, after numerous tests, all systems are in “normal” range including: TSH, Free T3, Free T4 (in normal ranges for the first time in 18 months), adrenals, and parathyroid (despite having a “notation” about a parathyroid gland on the last ultrasound report which I will be discussing with him tomorrow.)

Cutting to the chase, I would like to know how being in a menopausal state is contributing to my thyroid problems and symptoms, and how can that be corrected to get everything working harmoniously again? Preferably before I grow to the couch.

Tags: Comment of the Day, community building, Dear Thyroid, graves disease support, hashimoto's disease support, Health Community, health support community, hyperthyroid support, hypothyroid support, literary community, literary support, thyroid cancer support, thyroid community, thyroid literary community, thyroid support community

Follow Dear Thyroid on Twitter/@DearThyroid | See our Facebook Page | Become a Fan on Facebook | Join our Facebook Group

You Can Create a Dear Thyroid Profile and share with friends!