Dear Thyroid^TM

Written by T – Hypothyroid Patient

Dear Thyroid,

Because of you I spend my day looking and researching for ways to make myself feel better. I first gave notice to you when I was in my 30’s, and now 20 years later you still haunt me. I recognized that you were not being a friend to me when I could hardly get out of bed in the mornings and all I really wanted to do was sleep the day away. But I had to hold down a full time job as a home health nurse and the bills had to be paid. I discovered you after researching what could be making me feel so bad.

Not being one that just ran to the doctor for everything, I tried to fix me, but nothing was working so I finally dragged myself to see a doctor. I told him that I was sure that I had a problem with you, hypothyroidism. My hair was falling out. I was too tired to get out of bed. I had no appetite, but was very much overweight. Obese to say the least.

The doctor took some blood and tested your function. My TSH was a whopping 76! No wonder I felt awful! He began me on Synthroid in which I did begin to feel so much better.

But because of you not behaving as you should in my body, I will battle being overweight for the rest of my life. I will battle being in the proper ranges of T3, T4 and TSH for the rest of my life. I will constantly be fighting symptoms and trying to figure out “why”. I will always be looking for solutions to fix the many everlasting problems you cause.

You are always trying to get the best of me and think there are some doctors that like it that way. That is why they prescribe synthroid to those who do not respond to it, as is my case. After being on Synthroid for several years and changing doctors for various reasons, I requested to be able to try Armour Thyroid. And it made a world of difference. I must have started not being able to convert T4 to T3 (or is it the other way around?). Whichever it is, you, my dear thyroid are a constant reminder that you cause turmoil.

It was the middle of last year that I had to change doctors once again, because mine was leaving town. And I chose one that did not believe in Armour Thyroid. I’m sure it is a “money” thing. He didn’t give a hoot that I would not feel better on it, and oh, by the way, my dosage was needing to be changed. For some odd reason my TSH had been within range for a long time, but it began to be very low—almost nonexistent at something like .003. I was having awful symptoms. I was losing hair like crazy, wanting to sleep all the time, heart palpitations, tired, no appetite. The only one that wasn’t an obvious hypothyroid symptom was my heart feeling funny. I only have that when you’re overactive. But no luck losing weight, either.

So I finally started going to another doctor who had no problem putting me on Armour. I was so depressed, my hair kept falling out, and I suffered from muscle cramps with the smallest movement. I had no appetite but I was putting on more pounds. I knew that my levels were still not right. But since being changed to Armour, I am feeling much better and less depressed. And by the way, my new doctor did confirm that some doctors along with the pharmaceutical companies pushed synthroid because of not having control of the”natural” thyroid. In other words they don’t make money on it, the bottom line.

I know I will always be at battle with you. You are the thorn in my side. But I will not go down without a fight. I am on constant watch for new procedures that will defeat your fight to put me out of balance. Oh my dear thyroid, look out! I’m on a mission to put you back in your place and have you to be behaving once again.

Signed,

T

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How long have you dealt with your thyroid problems, diagnosed and undiagnosed? Did you know there was something wrong long before you went to the doctor, but couldn’t quite put your finger on what it was? What proactive measures do you take to fight back? Let “T” and all of us in the thyamily know in comments!

Dear Thyroid is a literary support community written by and for thyroid patients and their families. Our goals are: online support, offline support, empower each other by sharing our stories, create awareness and find our way through life in the Gland Canyon. By sharing and reading each other’s letters, we learn from each other, feel less alone and connect.

As we say, our thyamily vs. community is outspoken, brave, funny, irreverent, smart and beautiful. Our thyamily continues to grow. We have many types of thyroid patients; Graves’, Graves’ Eye Disease (TED), Hashimoto’s, hypothyroid, hyperthyroid, thyroid cancer patients, thyroid cancer survivors, thyroidectomized, nodules, goiters, and patients born without thyroids, what fun!

Thyroid patients write and submit love and hate letters to and from their thyroids; poems, haikus, songs and rants. Of course, we’ve thyroidized those names to, thyetry (poetry), thykus (haikus) thyongs (songs) and Thyrants (rants). Similarly, families of thyroid patients are encouraged to write their love and hate letters to their loved one’s thyroid.

For our visual storytellers, we have a Flickr Pool. Every month, Liz comes up with a theme. Patients tell their story through pictures. January’s theme is “Before the Disease”. Previous themes can be found here, Dear Thyroid’s Flickr Pool.

We also have two columns:

1. Sundays, we publish “How To Kick Your Thyroid’s Ass”, by Liz Schau. HTKYTA is a nutrition column for thyroid patients. We love this column because it empowers us to look at our respective diseases differently by considering new approaches to managing our symptoms and so much more.
2. On Wednesday’s we publish “Going For The Throat”, by Robyn Davis Hahn. Why yes, we love this column too, and find it very empowering. GFTT is a health care column covering a broad spectrum of issues that thyroid patient’s face and much more.

We have Dear Thyroid Forums for patients to connect, rant, and share personal stories, health care stories, ideas, news and information, among other things.

Our health podcast is called “Tales from Thyietnam”. We interview renowned thyroid patient advocates, doctors and folks with a deep understanding of thyroid diseases and cancers from the patient perspective.

We also offer thyroid humor T-shirts at our store. We have wonderful resources for thyroid patients as well.

Dear Thyroid endeavors to become a non-profit organization, so we do not accept revenue or donations of any kind. When you buy products from Dear Thyroid, which we encourage you to do; you’re loudly and proudly saying, I am “Wearing My Disease On My Sleeve™”

Find out more About Us! Click around the site. Share your story with other patients by submitting a letter. Participate in offline support. Wear your disease on your sleeve. Get involved in the forums. Connect with other patients. We’re here to un-isolate ourselves and we’re in this together.

With Love from Dear Thyroid,

Katie