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Thyroid, Help A Guy Out, Huh?!
Dear Thyroid,
I wonder what plagues you so, and why do you make my life a living hell at times? I hate the way you clog my brain when I want to do a simple task and you make it difficult. How you toyed with my mind and made me manic one week and depressed the other. I am an artist but the ups and downs really take a toll on me…..how about a happy medium?
Sometimes it’d seem like I would feel better when I stopped taking the .175 of Levothyroxine. Less manic, more calm, able to think, maybe a little less energy, but I felt better for awhile. I could collect my thoughts; my creativity seemed to come back for awhile. Then, I get stomach bloating, depression,
I’m a guy! I shouldn’t get stomach bloating.
And to be honest…..lately I felt like a human slug, I’m only a few pounds overweight, but I feel lethargic, toxic, irritable; I yell at my 4 year old for something I probably wouldn’t usually yell at him for.
I sleep late almost every day and it seems to make no difference. I went to bed at 9 the other night and woke up at around 9am and still felt tired. At times, depression seems worse than ever and I know you’re partly to blame. I constantly look back for clues, like a private detective who retraces his steps to make sure he hasn’t left anything out while trying to solve a crime. Trying to figure out if anything, that I may have done wrong to get this horrible disease? Pieces of the puzzle, so many pieces missing, only a few have been found, everyone’s case is different.
Now, I have no insurance; I’ve accrued over $1500 in urgent care and emergency visits. I have no primary care provider cuz I’m unemployed right now.
Most doctors don’t want to write more than 2-3 months of prescriptions, cause they want to be able to monitor your TSH. That’s why the last time I ran out for almost a month my TSH was up to 42. I didn’t think it was going to be that high.
Dear thyroid, tell me how to fix you.
Travis
(BIO) A little bit about myself; I’m a forty-two year old male who was diagnosed with Hashimotos around 2004-2005. It’s hard to remember the exact date or year, because it seems like a blur in the memory, even though I recall doctors bringing it up when they look my records up on occasion. I remember getting home from the warehouse job I had held for 8years in total and being very tired. Usually, I would always have energy to do something I enjoyed like biking, hiking, but not that day. I plopped down on the couch and felt and said to myself: “something is wrong with me…….I feel like I don’t have any energy to get up.” I went to the doctor and he ran a series of tests; diabetes, cancer…etc. He said; “all your tests came back negative, but I’m going to run one more.’ I soon found out my TSH was in the 16 range.
Tags: brain fog, depression, exhaustion, irritability, men with Hashimoto's, men with thyroid disease, misdiagnosed depression, symptoms of hashimoto's, symptoms of hypothyroidism, thyroid disease causing depression
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7 Responses to “Thyroid, Help A Guy Out, Huh?!”
Leave a Reply to Greg Kleckner
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As a “hypothyroid victim” I know how you feel.It’s frustrating when your whole life is impacted by a silly, lazy endocrine organ. The weight gain, the depression, the exhaustion, and the brain fog. The prescription doesn’t quite get you back to normal, or it helps with somethings and not others. I have tried everything. I was this skinny, well spoken, and had tons of energy. My entire life has been turned upside down. I was diagnosed about 2 years ago and nothing has been the same. Doctors call it an epidemic. I don’t care if it’s an epidemic I WANT ANSWERS! I WANT HELP! I recently started working for a nutraceutical company and they suggested I try a couple things here and there. Has anyone or have you ever tried Gf Thyroid or TMI? It has helped me greatly with the symptoms when I take them a long with my prescription. I received it from my chiropractor and it seriously has made a huge difference.
I have been hypothyroid for most of my life, due to a multi-modular goiter. Nobody ever mentioned the name hashimoto’s to me, but in retrospect that’s what it was. It was all kept under control with levothyroxine, but I never felt 100%, thinking it was due to having a full time job , two lsmall toddlers, a lot of stress in my home situation. I had weight troubles , not huge, but still…and then suddenly for no reason at all I would loose a lot …no dieting…only to gain it back again. I always felt tired, had panic attacks, felt stressed and had hard time handling it, mostly taking it out by yelling a lot at everyone at home.. I got treated with antidepressants. Then the constant acid reflux started and did so for 8 years, no matter what I ate or didn’t eat. Even water gave reflux. No doctor could find anything wrong with me.
After nearly 15 years, my goiter was becoming very big all of a sudden and I had a complete removal of my thyroid. That was when all went completely to hell. I started t become extremely tired, could not do anything anymore, weight flew on ( after having lost more then 20 kg during my harsh divorce). My THS kept creeping up with each new blood test. That’ s when I started my research on the Internet because no doctor was able to help me ( I live in Portugal). So I took matters in my own hand with the listening, but obviously not completely -getting-it ear of my GP. My first bible was the book Stop the thyroid madness” . It thaught me a lot and I started using dedicated thyroid. But it did not help me, so I switched to T3, as i realised through my RT3 that i was not converting my T4 into T3, so i got virtually no active thyroid actually reaching my cells. they were completel depleted from all energy they needed to just perform simple day to day tasks.I discovered that my adrenals had suffered from all the emotional, physical and whatever stress I had gone through the last years. In the meanwhile ingot more tired and gained more and more. I could hardly move.
My life savior came via the UK thyroid forum where I read a thread referring to a new method using T3 only but with a special timing system, no known as the Circadian T 3 method amongst us who use it. I got the book which came out a few months later, but was already using the methos and felling much better, even felt the weight slowly starting to shift. The book is called recovery with T3 by Paul Robinson. As I understand it this method also works with Natural dedicated thyroid or combi medications. It gave me my life back and while there are still some small issues to solve , some more weight to loose, I have found an interest in living again, reading again, cooking again…and I am a much happier person altogether knowing and feeling I am getting my life back. It takes a lot of patience , baby steps and for me experimenting, since I took matters in my own hands. But it is worth it. So there is hope, you just have to dare and jump ( I don’ t even listen to drs who talk about my suppressed TSH and FT4 or my very high FT3. It just means i am finally getting the Medication to go where it needs to go …into my cells where I need it. For more info you can read on the respective websites:
http://recoveringwitht3.com/
( my full story is there with the success stories)
http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/
Hope this helps!
Travis,
your letter is so true. I am diagnosed with Hashi’s for almost 2 years now and I know exactly what you are going through! I a now going to try to go on a gluten-free diet and see if that helps. If you ever want to talk about your condition with someone who shares your destiny, send me a message. Good luck to you! Bye
Travis,
I was recently diagnosed with Hashi’s and completely, in every way, related to your letter! In fact, if I changed the name and the ages of you and your son and gave your letter to my wife, she’d think I had written it.
Beautifully worded!
I feel comforted in knowing I was not insane before being diagnosed.
All of things you wrote about….were just par for the course.
Greg
I went gluten, soy, sugar, dairy and iodine as I was diagnosed with a rare form of thyroid disease. Since changing my diet adding vitamins and exercise I do feel much better. I also took out goitrogen foods as my thyroid was choking me. Diet does make the difference. I do restrict myself but I do eat as much as I want of the foods allowed and lost over 35 pounds. Life for me is getting better and better every day. My brain is getting clearer also. Good luck to you and hopefully you will make the changes that are best for you.
I went off of gluten, soy, sugar, dairy and iodine as I was diagnosed with a rare form of thyroid disease. Since changing my diet adding vitamins and exercise I do feel much better. I also took out goitrogen foods as my thyroid was choking me. Diet does make the difference. I do restrict myself but I do eat as much as I want of the foods allowed and lost over 35 pounds. Life for me is getting better and better every day. My brain is getting clearer also. Good luck to you and hopefully you will make the changes that are best for you.
Great post.
I was diagnosed with Schmidt’s Syndrome which is the delightful combo of hypothyroid and adrenal insufficiency. Some days are bad some days are even worse, I have found that if I keep my carb intake down and fuel with lean proten it helps….alot.
Good luck mate…