Posts Tagged ‘hypothyroidism support’

Thyroid Poetry by Sarah Downing

dearthyroid | February 19th, 2010 | 23 Comments »

Thyetry, poems, poetry, thyroid poetry, Dear Thyroid letters, thyroid patient letters

You crept up on me you SOB
Destroyed my life as it used to be
Accused of laziness because I’m tired
A symptom that this illness has sired
Accused of greed because I’m overweight
But I’m hardly ever hungry; I just caught you too late!
Thanks to you, thyroid, I have Epstein-Barr
With you, Hashimoto’s, I will go far
My adrenals conked out a long time ago
My cortisol’s sky-high; my metabolism’s low

Well, it seems I’ve been struck by the family curse
And my health is going from bad to worse
It’s not my way to give up and put up
Although some doctors would rather I shut up!

So I found a new doctor
Neufeldt is his name
Treating thyroids is his game
And that last line is really lame!;-)

Now I have to be patient till he finds the right pill
But that’s bloody hard as I’m feeling quite ill
My whole body aches
The insurance won’t pay
For the necessary chiropractic
Because they say I’m okay
Apparently their doctor knows better than mine
Although he’s never seen me and never touched my spine!
Don’t you think that’s really out of line?

My whole family’s ill – my fiancé, my mother, my sister-in-law and my fiancé’s brother.
It seem this disease is more common than we thought
So why on earth is it so rarely caught?
Is it because the doctors aren’t taught
That TSH alone is just not enough
In fact, diagnosis is really quite tough
My fiancé was a prime example
Our old doctor took a blood sample
And said that his thyroid’s functioning was ample

The new doctor took one look at him
Knew something was amiss
Did sonogram and scintigram
And he could tell from this
That my fiancé was suffering from thyroiditis

It seems this disease is awfully vicious
And its effects are oh so pernicious.
I wish that the world would become more aware
Because non-diagnosis just isn’t fair
And it sucks even more when doctors don’t care
So I read and I read and I learn and I learn
To help myself and others this disease to spurn

Cheers,

Sarah

Get to know Sarah, follow her on Facebook and read more about her at her Translation and Journalism Website. Sarah has also started a discussion in the forums, which we encourage you to join “Inadequate Health Care for UK Thyroid Patients“.

Reminiscing

dearthyroid | February 15th, 2010 | 5 Comments »

Louise Sopher, thyroid patient letter, thyroid literary support, thyroid disease, thyroid blog

Written by Louise Sopher, Hypothyroid Patient

So, Thyroid, here we were, not long ago – you and me – standing on this platform of scenic views, watching the world go by.

We floated up in space, jumped from planet to planet – but the jump took lightyears (it seemed the planets didn’t feel like moving us anywhere); we saw the Earth as it rotated and watched the sky as it moved along with time. And we stood outside of time, never changing, never doing anything at all except sleeping, dazing, dreaming, staring…

Hypo, if you’re not standing side-by-side with it, throws you into the depths of space and leaves you there until something is ready to pull you out. Everything stands still where you lie, but the world moves on around you and you can merely observe.

Standing side-by-side, though, with your hypo, is one way to try – to fight Time Himself, in a battle of powerful minds; to fight Fatigue (that’s a ‘normal’ phrase isn’t it?); to fight yourself – you’re going to need to learn how to punch.

“There it goes,” we say, a droned voice barely a whisper in Space, as we watch a satellite busy with chattering voices.

How do people speak that fast? We try, both of us – it’s one thing to laugh at!

We once heard the very ticking of Time Himself - tick, tick, tick – every second, as our head was heavy and our mind so blurred…but we didn’t know, then, that you had a problem. You never said, you know, that you were being attacked. Or my fogged-up brain never heard you.

We are our own story, you and me.

That world we saw – not everyone gets to see that. Some people fight, just to stop, just for one moment, to watch the world go by. Some people run, because they don’t want to be normal – they want to be original; want to be different. Some people spend their lives running or trying to stop.

But here we are today, finally, rescued from the observation deck and thrown head-first into a busy world. And I love it. Finally taking part. Finally doing everything.

Some people run? Some people try to stop? I like originality; I will never want a “normal” imagination, but I don’t want to stop.

“Normal,” is fantastic.

(Bio): I am aged 18 and was diagnosed with hypothyroidism last year. I recently set up my blog – Small But Mighty: A Thyroid Life because I was angered by the poppycock awareness that we have of thyroid disease. Posts are about thyroid articles in the media, along with information. Get to know Louise, check out, Louise’s Blog and Which Charity.

A Thy-pology

dearthyroid | February 5th, 2010 | 13 Comments »

kay, hypothyroid patient, Dear Thyroid letters, hypothyroid support

Written by Kay – Thyroid-What-Isn’t-The-Issue

Dear Thyroid –

Dang, but I’ve said some nasty things about you in the last 3 years!  Things I shouldn’t have said about my worst enemy, let alone a part of my own body.  I’ve blamed you for everything: my bad moods, my lack of libido, my inability to lose weight regardless of diet or exercise – everything!

Now, it’s not to say that some of these things aren’t your fault.  Who could blame a girl for seeing all her symptoms match up perfectly with a list of symptoms of your failure?  The dry hair, the dry skin, the weight gain around my middle, the inability to finish sentences or finding a random word to finish the sentence, and the short term memory of a mayfly.  Even my doctors thought it was all your fault, how could I tell that they were wrong?  Taking drugs to replace your function made me feel better, some of the time, but then you’d appear to fail again, and we’d need to adjust, fail and adjust, fail and adjust.

I know I’m almost 40, I’m approaching that dreaded “middle age”, and all the hype around it makes me just want to go medieval on the world at times.  I could blame you for a lot of the crap making that worse as well, and I wouldn’t be entirely wrong there either.  “This just happens sometimes to women your age.”  “Some women just have this problem.”  “You’re not sick, you’re just not well.”

I know, now, that I had crap doctors.  Ones that were treating the number and not the patient.  Ones that were willing to blame the patient – her age, her husband (yeah, what the hell?), her mind – for her own problems.  Ones that saw only individual symptoms and their treatment, in an astounding exhibition of professional tunnel vision.

But, I’m sorry.  I apologize.  It’s not all your fault, and it’s even possible that you were just dealing in your own way with a shitstorm caused by other parts of my body.  It doesn’t help that those parts of the body are also controlled by the little nubbin of brain that also controls you.  Might you have just been caught in the crossfire?  I’ve worked my ass off this year, pushing and pushing, to get doctors to answer my questions, to get them to be curious, and to give me answers that make sense.

You see, waaaaay down at the other end of the body are these things called ovaries.  You and they don’t talk directly to each other, but you have a lot to do with one another in a round-about, body metabolism kind of way.  They make estrogen and progesterone, which affects huge parts of my body, you make thyroid hormones, which affect huge parts of my body.  See where there could be conflict and confusion?  Will you forgive me for thinking it was all your fault?

Now, please understand Dear Thyroid, my ovaries are particularly misbehaved and produce large obnoxious cysts.  And when they decide to go away, they don’t do it quietly.  Oh, no!  They explode in an estrogen and progesterone bomb, leaving it to the rest of the body to deal with the consequences of their bad attitude. Hair loss!  Weight gain!  PMS whole cycle round!  This is a toxic clean-up operation that can last months on end.  Without fail, they just start up again, producing more and bigger cysts, which even un-exploded are not happy residents and cause all kinds of problems in the neighborhood.

And in the middle, Dear Thyroid, between you and the ovaries are these things called a Liver and an Intestine.  These guys are supposed to do the clean up of the mess from those danged ovaries, and they been doing a truly shoddy job.

Oh, and I’m sorry about the whole vitamin D thing.  I was as completely shocked by that as you are.  I can tell now that bits I blamed on you, in the depths of the winter, and even in the middle of summer, were likely not your fault at all!  I thought I ate enough dairy, and drank enough milk, but I was nowhere near what I required there.  I blamed my winter sluggishness on the clouds and on you, Dear Thyroid, and have always needed a medication adjustment in the spring.

So, I want to apologize to you, Dear Thyroid.  I’m working with new doctors who actually listen and work the whole problem, not just TSH levels.  I’ve had CT scans, ultrasounds, and more vials of blood drawn than I ever imagined.  I’ve talked to gynocologists, endocrinologists, immunologists, and truly great general practitioners.  I think we’re getting a handle on the whole body.  The infections may be under control for the moment.  The where-the-heck-did-this-come-from weight has gone away again (thank you vitamin D!).  I actually have energy and am looking forward to starting to work out again.  I’m not dragging myself around anymore, and none of the changes have directly involved you.

I promise to work harder – on changing my diet so that yeast and bacteria don’t get out of control, on eating more protein so I have energy throughout the day, on eating the things that I should be and getting the exercise that I need.  I also promise to work hard with my acupuncturist and my new doctors to make sure I stay on track.  And to keep pestering them so that they stay on track, too.

Dear Thyroid, I’m actually looking forward to my next thyroid function test so that you can show me how excellently you’re doing!

p.s. Hey ovaries?  Yeah, you!  You’re on warning.  Quit screwing things up.  I’ve got a life to live.

Bio: Kay is a former academic, trained in anatomy and physiology, which is why she’s been so ticked by doctors giving her advice and treatment that made no earthly sense (sure! I’ll take those antibiotics once a week, ad infinitum, so that not only can I have bacterial infections for the rest of my life, they can be antibiotic resistant!)  She’s now a SAHM, makes things with sticks, string, and fabric, and is constantly in search of a vocation.

My Hate for you Continues, Thyroid of Mine!

dearthyroid | January 29th, 2010 | 18 Comments »

Dear Thyroid Letters, Hypothyroid patient Lori, hypothyroid support, hypothyroidism blog

Written by Lori (Hypothyroid Patient)

Dear Thyroid,

My post holiday shopping was ruined because of you.

My whole family was affected by my bad mood. Why was I in a bad mood? Because of you and your stupid inactivity, why can’t you understand that I am tired of feeling so fat and sluggish?

You know this, I did not eat ONE SINGLE fattening thing over the holidays. I ate all vegan food. I never touched the fudge, cakes, pies, ham, or anything else, so proudly displayed on the table at my mom’s house. Did I lose a single pound? NOT ONE! Your lazy ass decided not to burn any calories leaving me feeling bloated and fat.

So, the bad mood started when I discovered I would have to move up to a 40 C bra. I have never had a bra that big… EVER. The “C” is fine, but NOT the 40. My boyfriend thought he was helping when he pointed out that I should not feel badly because he wears 40 waist pants. Oh wow! That helps a lot, thanks BF. I am almost as mad at him as I am at you, evil thyroid!

I can’t even mention the size of clothes I had to buy out of desperation to keep warm because, thanks to you, I froze my ass off in Florida. I have never felt so cold to the bone!

So, I guess if I was a pig and ate crap during the holidays, this anger would be directed at myself, but it’s not, it is directed where it belongs! At you! So, it would be nice if you would figure out what you are going to do and get to work and stop being a lazy ass because I have done everything I know how to do.

I hate you. A lot!

Lori

WOW – Lori is angry. Her body has completely changed. She’s become physically unrecognizable to herself, something we can all relate to. Have you made peace with your ‘new self’ or do you feel as angry and frustrated as Lori? Speak up, beautiful babies.