Passivity is an Rx for DISASTER!

Being Passive is a recipe for disaster when it comes to your heath…You are your own best advocate. Your doctor is your conduit for getting you the care that you need. They are not the B-all or the End-all of your medical care. They are many times only the start of your journey to wellness. Primary care physicians should be utilized as consultants providing you with sometimes only the preliminary information and recommendations that you need to become healthy. Although primary care physicians have many of the answers that you may be seeking to address health care issues you should always act as your own advocate and do your due diligence prior to any visit to see your physician.

I wanted to share my story with all of you regarding an illness that I have apparently had for the last 3 years. For the last 3 years I have been experiencing hair loss, heart palpitations, tired bulging eyes, blurriness, exhaustion, weight gain, inability to loose weight, hot flashes, cold flashes, anxiety and other symptoms that would come and go. For the last 3 years I have thought that I was loosing my mind because I would have many blood tests, stress test and each time everything would be normal, so I felt that my doctor thought I was a hypochondriac.

Last year my thyroid was checked and it was not exactly normal but my doctor was not alarmed and felt no need to pursue but he wanted to watch it, since my symptoms were so parallel to pre-menopause. There was a chance that I was experiencing pre-menopause, it made sense to me since many of my friends were going through this. Thanks to them, I was prepared for menopause because they had shown me resources like the CBD Queen site that showed how things like CBD can be used to naturally relieve menopausal symptoms. It was suggested that I start some hormonal treatment, but I decided against it because the difference between my friends and I was that my periods were normal, like clock-work always on-time and always ended on-time. I wanted to investigate if this was something else.

I started doing a process of elimination search with food and noticed that when I ate spicy food, drank wine in the evening I would experience hot flashes, so I was convinced that I was suffering pre-menopause because that is what the Internet was telling me. When I eliminated those items from my diet it was interesting that I did not experience the hot flashes, but I was still experiencing the other symptoms. In the meantime I was driving Kurt and my daughters crazy. In December 2011, I woke up in the morning with a huge lump on my jaw, I knew that it was not my tooth because I had no tooth pain and it was painful…I was really nervous and immediately scheduled an appointment to see the doctor for a physical examination. I had some blood work done and my thyroid test were the same as they were in 2011, 2010, 2009…concern.

I was the same exact weight that I was in all 3 years, even though I changed my diet, eliminated alcohol and started exercising, and I was now experiencing cold flashes. My doctor finally suggested I see an endocrinologist to see if there was more to these symptoms. I immediately scheduled an appointment with a doctor that my friends in my social media network suggested. It was now 2 weeks later and I was finally going to see Dr. Feiner, I was anxious, but I was always anxious and hyper. Dr. Feiner came in and looked at my blood test he said you have “Graves Disease” but to be sure I want you to have an uptake test and more blood work. It would have been normal for me to be alarmed and scared but I was just the opposite, I was relieved…there was a name for what I was going through and not my imagination. At that moment I felt like a heavy burden had been lifted and I was confident that I was going to get better. I knew nothing about Graves Disease but I was told that it was not life threatening if treated with medication.

He went on the explain Grave Disease “is an autoimmune disease where the thyroid is overactive, producing an excessive amount of thyroid hormone. This is caused by thyroid autoantibodies that activate the TSH-receptor, thereby stimulating thyroid hormone synthesis and secretion, and thyroid growth (causing a diffusely enlarged goiter). The resulting state of hyperthyroidism can cause a dramatic constellation of neuropsychological and physical signs and symptoms. see this link for more information” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graves’_disease

After several tests and waiting 3 long years I finally have a diagnosis and I am currently being treated. For the first time in 3 years I feel amazing. I have so much energy, I am exercising, reading, dancing, sleeping through the night. I am overall a better person, and I feel like I have a new lease on life. Now to work off all these pounds that have been extremely hard to get rid of for the last 3 years. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), thyroid diseases have the second-highest prevalence among all endocrine disorders, right behind diabetes mellitus. Over 665 million people suffer from endemic goitre or other thyroid diseases worldwide; 1.5 billion people are at risk for developing an iodine-deficient condition. Statistical data show that the annual increment in the number of thyroid disease cases is 5 %.

I sincerely hope this story reaches one of you, maybe if I read something like this 3 years ago I would not have suffered for so long…Remember only YOU know when you are not well, do not allow anyone to make you think everything is ok when you know it’s not.

As always, keeping you in the know..feel free to join my Facebook support group…Thyroid Support group