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Diagnosed with Enlarged Thyroid at Age 9
Dear Gigantic Oversize Massive Tumor infested Thyroid,
I first met you when I was 9 years old. I was the youngest patient with an enlarged thyroid my doctor had ever seen. I was getting my hair washed at a hair salon that day. When I leaned my head back, a giant ball appeared in my neck. My panicked mother went around the hair salon feeling strangers throat’s only to find no one else had this.
She then rushed my to my doctor who looked at me like a freak of nature and had every doctor in the building come to feel the 9 year old with the gigantic thyroid.
Thank you Thyroid for my first experience feeling like a freak of nature. Then it was to the top endocrinologist in northern Illinois who, too was stunned at my condition. Getting a complete physical at the age of 9 by a doctor and 5 interns scared me to death and it took years to not be panicked at medical facilities.
The years that followed were filled with monthly blood works ups, and ultrasounds. I gained weight and didn’t stop. I was exhausted, all the time. I lost hair, a lot of it. My skin was pale with dark bags under my eyes. I was 12.
At age 14 after, yet another ultrasound, they found something that worried them and gave me a 10 needle biopsy done without any anesthesia. I laid there on the table having needle after needle put into my neck being told ” not to move “. The test came back non cancerous.
The only reason why I did not balloon up to 250 lbs in high school and college was because I was an athlete. When I did stop training for a few weeks, I packed on weight instantly. Stlll, I have gone my whole like overweight in some form.
Perhaps I hate you the most, thyroid for what you put me through in March of 2009. I was 8 weeks pregnant and suffered a miscarriage because of you. You through my TSH levels out of wack overnight it seemed, and caused me to lose my first child. I also almost bled to death and had 4 units of blood because of a hemoglobin level of 5.
Damn you thyroid. Everything is harder. My levels have never been even. I currently take 250 mcg of synthroid and have been up to 275 mcg at one point. Nothing helps, I am always tired and groggy.
At age 22, they diagnosed me with Hashiomoto’s, which they said I have had this whole time, obviously but was never actually told that. I was always just told I had ” hypothyroidism multi nodular goiter.”
When my husband and I moved to Arizona at age 24, I had another biopsy and they were certain it was cancer. It was not. I want you out, thyroid, I want you gone. I know you are killing me everyday.
Written by, Sarah
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(Bio) My name is Sarah Robinson. I am 25 years old and live in Queen Creek Arizona with my husband and 15 month old son. I am some what a medical mystery to doctors and no one can seem to fully help me or know how to.
Tags: adolescents diagnosed with thyroid disease, children with thyroid disease, goiters in Hashimoto's patients, hashimoto's thyroiditis, miscarriages due to imbalanced TSH, symptoms of thyroid disease, thyroid letters written by patients, thyroid support, weight issues precipitated by thyroid disease
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6 Responses to “Diagnosed with Enlarged Thyroid at Age 9”
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Nine. I feel blessed it did not really hit me until my early thirties. I am now fifty and have learned a thing or two, mostly by experimentation. Cutting out carbs, gluten is very helpful and will help the autoimmune attacks to become less. Moderate exercise will keep your mind and body healthy, overexercise will trigger the autoimmune attacks and you will probably gain weight, so find your balance. Take your vitamin D as the autoimmune attacks will eventually deplete this important vitamin and cause other symptoms you have not mentioned yet. If your blood pressure is out of whack from the constant immune attacks, do not hesitate to be put on a low dose of blood pressure meds, this will also slow down the attacks…and no one likes palpitations. Most of all, do not worry, we can manage this disease if we just love ourselves for who we are. Hashimoto’s suffereres know their body better than anyone else, find what works best for you..you probably already know, but doing it is the hardest part. You are so young….we will fight this together and continue to educate our doctors until every doctor understands the hell of this disease. Blessings to you.
Thank you for sharing your story . (Our daughter is 7 and was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s two years ago) reading the personal accounts really helps me to help her in coping with everything .
It is so great to hear from someone else who started so young! Only it took the doctors months to figure it out, even with a huge goiter they didn’t seem to notice, or figure out that a twelve year old who sleeps 16 hours a day should be tested for thyroid function. 🙁
I too was in the Northern Illinois area, but was never blessed with any specialists since once they figured it out I was magically cured with Synthroid. (what a joke!)
Anyway, so very sorry to hear of your troubles and the loss of your first child. We all know how hard this disease can be, and have to wonder every day how so many in the medical community can just “not get it”.
Keep hanging in there, one of these days they will no longer be able to ignore our screams for better treatment!
Heather
I was also around age 9 when I was diagnosed with Hashi’s. I remember going for dinner at my grandmother’s house and leaning my head back on her couch and she immediately asked my parents “what’s wrong with her neck?” I remember my whole family feeling my neck that night, and of course going to the doctor, and another doctor. I don’t remember much other than getting what seemed like a lot of blood tests done.
But I feel really lucky because Synthroid worked for me. That’s all it took for me. But then I think I have always had some hypo symptoms all my life (weight gain, dry skin, hair loss, lack of energy, goiter, and those dark circles under my eyes) but none of it was bad enough to do anything else about it. Now I’m in a hyper swing for the first time and it’s taking forever to get it sorted out and I’m finally actually learning a bit more about this disease and how bad it can be for so many people.
I hope you will one day be balanced and healthy.
Im so sorry to hear your story and can understand. I was diagnosed when I was also 9, and only after my mother forced medical practitioners to taker her seriously. I had a massive goitre (my age also confusing the practitioners). When removed they found it had some precancerous nodules and that I had hashimotos. I am now 28 and have finally had enough, I cant do this on my own anymore. I have had to give up my sport (ultrarunning) as it is too hard on my immune system. I have leaky gut and have been chronically constipated for three years now. Tired is an understatement. I am struggling to work and study, and being a busy person by nature the ‘slowing down’ factor has been the hardest battle so far. Im so grateful to have stumbled across this website and as part of my healing journey am committed to submitting some letters. Good luck for your journey, it is difficult I know, but I am not going to let it win.
x
Sarah (NZ)
Check out the Kalcker parasite protocol and the CD health Facebook groups-they’re fixing thyroid and other autoimmune conditions by getting rid of intestinal parasites. The parasites tests are inaccurate and never show anything.
As these people are getting rid of their worms they’re health is returning. You don’t need to accept this Hashimotos as your reality-I’m not