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Are You There, Thyroid? It’s Me, Heather
Dear Thyroid,
I am undecided as to whether I miss you or not. Sometimes I think that I would have just rather waited to obliterate you. I felt JUST FINE when you where around, so what was the big deal?! It was a sooner or later option and I chose sooner because I thought that I could be done with you quicker.
June 10 I had my gallbladder removed. Five days later you were completely gone too, along with your large goiter and multiple nodules.
Just take a pill every morning for the REST OF YOUR LIFE is what ‘they’ told me. I have experienced a myriad of physical issues since you checked out. However, I have this awful feeling that something else is seriously affecting my health. I am currently in the process of finding out just what that ‘something else’ is.
According to my endo, he doesn’t think it’s YOU anymore, you selfish, butterfly shaped organ thingy!!!
Perhaps an adrenal gland dysfunction or maybe yet…a pituitary tumor!!
PCOS, really – I think not.
Oh goody!!!
Someone finally agrees that my feeling ‘slammed’ and ‘mentally challenged’ may be due to something other than my thyroid ‘issues’.
So, back to deciding on whether I miss you….yes & no.
Maybe you presented yourself before whatever else is going on within my body so that there would be time to catch/treat the OTHER masked invader. For that I guess I should say thank you and goodbye. And yet still- I miss you because before your absence, life was as normal as it had been in quite some time.
Thyroidless In The Bayou State
–Heather
(Bio) Heather Johnson. DOB 11-21-76. Wife and mother of 3. Oldest (11 yr old) is a cancer survivor and 2 yr old twins thanks to IVF :). Life got really heavy, really fast in 2003. There has been some reprieve….and then my thyroid threw a monkey wrench into my life 🙁
Tags: Dear Thyroid Letters, thyroid cancer, thyroid cancer community, thyroid cancer forum, thyroid cancer patient feelings, thyroid cancer patient letters, thyroid cancer support, thyroid cancer treatment, Thyroidectomies
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17 Responses to “Are You There, Thyroid? It’s Me, Heather”
Leave a Reply to Linda B Reed
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Great letter, Heather, and I can truly relate. Hang in there…you’re not alone! 🙂
Hey sistah! Feeling ya! Thanks for sharing and also PLEASE keep us apprised of how it goes with the rest of your results. It BLOWS completely to keep feeling like ass after you are ready to be RECOVERED.
GIANT HUGS. Keep sharing. We’re here.
xoxo
Melissa
i’m lovin’ the feeling like a$$ comment…cause that’s how I feel a lot of the time!!! thanks for the support 🙂
Hopefully it will get better if/when they get your hormone levels regulated. Sometimes I wonder if I didn’t prefer the argumentative/hyperactive/too thin person I was when I had a whacked-out thyroid to the slightly stupid/sluggish/chubby me I have become since they nuked it, but “they” told me my life was in danger if I didn’t take drastic and immediate action.
It’s been 17 years since my date with my radioactive iodine pill, and most of it has been fine. I hope you will be fine soon too.
Totally feeling what you said about wanting the energized, mad mind skills, ‘thinner’ you back. I feel like an idiot these days. My recall is awful, I can’t spell the simpleist of words….it’s just crazy!!! And I’m mortified of gaining weight. I’m a sturdy woman 5’8″ and 184, so by no means am I a bean pole. But neither do I want to pack on the pounds to further assist mself in having no energy.
Heather,
Great letter, thank you so much for sharing with us. It seems good that your doc is actually considering adrenal issues, they really can make a mess.
Be well,
Amanda
I’m at a stand still b/c I don’t know what to do now. The endo says the 24 hr urine (for cortiol) was mid-nomral. And then scheduled me for a 4 month follow up. I wish he would have ordered an MRI or CT to physcially see how the adrenal glands and pituitary gland look. I saw this doc once & feel like I have no resolve to some issues. In fact the doctor told me he didn’t feel like the other issues were related to the thryoid (lack there of) ….my TSH was .68 — just disappointed that he didn’t offer to look any further.
I’m right there with ya. I too have a mirade of health issues since my thyroid is gone.
It is ridiculous how much is affected when that darn thing is gone! Stay strong!
Hi Heather,
I am a four follicular thyroid cancer survivor. For the first two years after my TT and RAI I did really well but then things started to fall apart. I had all kinds of health issues and thought that the RAI must have killed my immmmune system. I was wrong. It was my TSH levels.
Once I started to learn about thyroid disease things got better for me, like a whole lot better. I feel closer to my old self than ever. The first thing I did was insist that my TSH levels get checked more often than once a year at my follow ups. It took me 4 dosage changes and 8 months to get to a normal TSH for me (1.2). For cancer supression most endos want to keep you as hyper as you can tolerate. I also found an internist as my PCP who believes that your thyroid plays a major role in your health and if those levels are off you will be too (mentally and physically.)
It may be something else but for me it was not. Learning to advocate for myself and having the courage to change doctors has made all the difference for me. I know that when you feel like crap it is hard to do fight the good fight but you are worth it. Our bodies change and we have to change along with them if we want to have a life again.
If I can help you further please let me know. You do not have to waste your time and money chasing good health any longer than necessary. For some reason until an endo knows you know all the symptoms that go with your disease they don’t tend to tell you. You can’t wait for them. They have hundreds of patients and you have one, yourself.
I wrote a letter to Dear Thyroid a while back and if you read it you will see that I was not in a good place. All that has changed for me and hopefully it can for you as well. Don’t take no for an answer.
Good luck!
I have seen one endo, one time (Jan 31, 2011) and still have no peace of mind about some issues I’m experiencing. I dont know if I should call him and tell him to look further into my situation or just 86 him and get a second opinion. It’s a 4 month wait to see his doctor, as he is the only one in town.
Heather your not alone knowing that helps I hope. You’ve gone thru two major surgeries in a short amount of time and are still healing. Just the gall bladder alone can mess you up for awhile. And getting your TSH cked and your T3 and T4. Which replacement are you on synthroid, Lthyroxine or armour. Sometimes they need to change your replacement. Hang in there. It will get better.
The endo decreased my levothyroxine 100mcg & added cytomel 12.5 once a day…..he also started me on metformin b/c some of the labs he ordered suggsted that I might have PCOS. until yesterday, he had suggested that some of my labs could indicate a pituitary or adrenal tumor. My 24 hour cotisol urine ‘says’ otherwise. Then why some days when I wake up can I not hardly find the energy to get out of the bed. Why are my toes and fingers going numb? Why in the HELL am I lactating?!!!! I haven’t breastfeed in 1 1/2 years!!! (This happened around the end of Jan and has since stopped.) At this time my TSH was .68!!! So I’m thinking these other issues are due to something other than my thyroid. He checked my sugar level and that was normal. This doctor told me that he didn’t think that the above symptoms were related to my thyroid issues….but b/c all the labs show normal, he just scheduled a four month follow up…………..with his NP!!!!!!! Everyone in town said this endo is the best (he’s the only one here!) but to be honest, I feel neglected as a patient. Because all the labs he ordered were normal, he didn’t offer to look any further 🙁 I don’t know where to go from here. Trust me, I DO NOT want there to be anything seriously wrong with me. But I would like a more concise peace of mind. Why could he not just order me to have an MRI or CT, just in case the labs were skewed? There is a wait of about 4 months to see this endo..my appt came and went & all he did was add cytomel (okay w/that) and metformin ( really?! )he aslo added Vitamin D3 (hmmm) and then he didn’t offer to look any further. I’m thinking I want a second opionion.
Hi Heather,
You hang in there! Tough times never last, tough people do.
This you all ready know by living it. Thank you for sharing your letter and please do keep us apprised of your situation. We are all here for you!
Lisa
thank you for your support!!
Hi Heather! welcome to the thyroid-less world. i have a blog- losingthebutterfly@blogspot.com if you would like to check it out sometime. i started it right after i got my cancer diagnosis- that was in april, 2010. and i am still writing- though not as much. i had to have my entire thyroid, two of my parathyroids, and 10 lymph nodes removed because the cancer had spread a bit. i hope you get along fine, and if ever you would like to email me feel free: dreamfields4ever@aol.com. take care!! bea
one more thing- i am not sure what state you live in, but i have just discovered an endocrinologist who specializes in papillary thyroid cancer patients. i will be seeing her on april 18th. i am hopeful that she will be on top of things and i can get a little of my Peace of mind back. her practice is in North Carolina. please contact me if you would like any additional information on this doctor. good luck!!