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Thyroid, I’m 25 Years Old, BACK OFF
Dear thyroid,
My father told me about you a few weeks ago. All my life I had never paid attention to you because I never thought you would be the problem. I knew I was a genetic carbon copy of his bad genes: high triglycerides, type II diabetes, pot-belly, unexplainable weight gain, thick hair, glasses, chronic and annoying forgetfulness… I even ignored, for a time, my mom’s advice to get my blood checked or ask my doctor about these issues (minus the thick hair… thank you, dad, for the thick hair!) because I am only 25! Why would I even be close to having diabetes or any other of those conditions?
Like I said earlier, my father told me about you a few weeks ago. He said he was taking medicine for you and encouraged me to start paying attention to you.
Lately, I have been resigning myself to just accept the fact that I am a lazy person. I have been taking three naps a day (thank goodness for my occupation as a teacher and being off during the summer), can’t find the energy to keep the house presentable, and having to make a trip five miles to see my family feeling like a big to-do. Then I took my mom and dad’s advice: I asked about you. I went to the doctor and had my blood tested. Diabetes? Nope. High triglycerides? No way. Hypothyroidism? Bingo.
Thyroid, I am only 25 years old… much too young to have to take pills everyday for the rest of my life. In fact, once my prescription was filled, I wasted an entire day feeling nauseated after drinking a glass of milk shortly after taking your medicine without reading about your medicine. Why? Why would you punish me with my favorite beverage? After reading about my medicine, I have learned what foods to avoid to help it work better, and I have learned my lesson to wait a little longer to drink milk.
One week later, I have to say, I think you’re getting better. Yes, I am mad at you, but my diagnosis could have been so much worse… I almost feel guilty complaining about you as I don’t have cancer… just one little pill a day.
The other day I drove across town to buy a nice salad for lunch. Just being able to get out was something I have missed doing! I feel like you’re slowly remembering what a metabolism is. Thank you.
My journey with you is far from over. I need to do more research about you. I also need to have more blood work done to make sure you’re working up to speed. Thank you, though, for accepting the meds and making me feel a little better.
Can we work together, thyroid? In just a week you have become the center of my life due to the mystery that surrounds you.
School starts up again for us tomorrow. We can do this… we can be well together, can’t we? I hope we can
Your gal,
Casey
Tags: Back Off, chronic and annoying forgetfulness, dear thyroid letter, hypothyroid, hypothyroid blog, hypothyroid letters, hypothyroid patient letters, hypothyroid support, I'm 25 Years Old, thick hair, thyroid, type II diabetes, unexplained weight gain, Written by Casey
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6 Responses to “Thyroid, I’m 25 Years Old, BACK OFF”
Leave a Reply to Hypogirl
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Hi Casey!
I used to love drinking milk too! I don’t drink it anymore makes my tummy hurt. I am so sorry to hear you have joined the Thyroid club at such a young age. Mine showed up all by itself – I know no relatives that have it as well. This will get a little easier as time goes on and wait until after 6 weeks where you may feel even better. I will give you a little bit of a warning though – Do you know if you have Hashimoto’s or not? The reason I ask it that typically the thyroid decides to quit in stages. So please keep a close eye on how you are feeling. It could make all the difference in the world. You may need more medicine as the weeks go on. Visit Dearthyroid often for great information and tons of fun reading!
Also, if you are interested I hold a podcast called Hypogirl. In it I explain a lot of what I went through and where I am now.
I wish you all the luck and we are here for you!
Great story Casey!
My name is also Kaycee and Im also 25, which is what drew me to this read! This thyroid crap is for the birds, especially being so young. I’m happy for you that it’s not much worse than just a little pill a day. And lucky for you that little pill seems to be working! Unfortunately for this 25 year old, its not working. and its more than just a pill. Its probably wrong to say “glad you’re here”, but welcome to the crowd 🙂
Kaycee, I’m sorry to hear that your current treatment isn’t working for you. I get how hard it is. It is SO much more than a pill. We’re here for you!
Hi Kaycee; so sorry to hear that you are going through what Casey is going through. We hope that you’ll write and submit your own Dear Thyroid letter (submissions@dearthyroid.org). We also offer so much support via Facebook (http://facebook.com/dearthyroid), Twitter (http://twitter.com/dearthyroid) and on our website.
Anything you need, please don’t hesitate to let us know. As HypoG mentioned, we’re all here for you!
Best,
DT
Casey, I’m so glad you’re part of our community! I know it’s hard to deal with thyroid disease AND life at the same time, but we’re here to help you any way we can!!
Casey,
Great letter,
So pleased to hear you are already feeling benefits from taking thyroid replacement medicine, do be vigilant with it, ask for hard copies of your thyroid results so you can track how you feel and aim for a point in your levels that you do feel good at. You may need slight reductions or increases in your medication as your levels start to move. Make sure too that they are not just going by TSH alone and that you are getting a full thyroid blood panel done, which should include a Free T4/ Free T3 along with that TSH, make sure that you also have the normal reference ranges for those tests. It wouldn’t hurt either to ask for a TPO (Thyroid Peroxidase) antibodies test to see if your hypothyroidism is autoimmune in nature, if you haven’t already had one done.
Wish you all the best and hope that the new school term isn’t too taxing thank you for sharing your letter with us.
Lolly