Living with Thyroid Disease: What it’s really like…

Having a disease or sickness that nobody can see is hard. Nobody understands what you’re going through. Unless you’re living with Thyroid Disease, you truly don’t know what it’s like. For those of you that are living with it, you’re not alone. Today may have sucked but tomorrow can be better!

Being diagnosed was the easy part…

I’ll probably never forget the road that lead me to my diagnosis. After going back and forth with doctor after doctor, one finally heard my symptoms for what they were. I knew I wasn’t just a lazy college kid, I knew something was wrong. I worked out regularly and I watched what I ate (at one point I had completely cut carbs and sugar!) but over the span of 11 months I had gained over 100lbs and I couldn’t figure out why. I was constantly going through severe mood swings and dips into depression. I was unbelievably exhausted no matter how much sleep I got the night before. My hair fell out in clumps… The list goes on and on, until finally my gynecologist told me it sounded like I had something wrong with my hormones which may be my thyroid acting up but I needed a blood test to confirm. She got the results back and referred me to a specialist because my levels looked as though I “had no thyroid at all” … My Endocrinologist diagnosed me with severe Hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s Disease. I knew nothing about what this meant so he sent me home with some homework.

I was given a list of possible Symptoms and something clicked.

Symptoms for Hypothyroidism include but are not limited to:

Weight gain ✅

Fatigue ✅

Depression/mood swings ✅

Dry skin

Hoarseness ✅

Stiffness/swelling in joints ✅

Increased sensitivity to cold

Impaired memory ✅

Anxiety ✅

Decline in oral health ✅

Symptoms of Hashimoto’s Disease include a lot of the same symptoms, if for any reason you think you’re experiencing this please consult a doctor. They’re trained professionals that can test your blood and read your levels to tell you for sure. I’m just explaining what I experienced.

What kind of treatment can be expected?

I’ve spent the last 3 years going through a trial and error process of what level of medication works best for me. I’ll let you know when we find that magic level… Right now, I just take one medication every morning and I’m happy with it. I say this because I was very anti-medication at first, part of it was lack of knowledge, part of it was fear but now that I’m seeing the change it’s made, I am happy.

How do you deal every day?

Everyone asks but nobody really gets it… they tell you to find a hobby, take a walk, go to the doctor, or just get over it. That’s the worst part. They don’t get it. They don’t understand how yesterday was fine but today the idea of getting out of bed has you in tears. Or how it feels like you’re so tired you can’t hold your eyes open. They can’t see that you’re in actual, physical pain just by walking or how your anxiety has you feeing like you can’t even breathe. Nobody sees it. Nobody feels it. So nobody gets it… The truth is, the past few years have been some of the hardest of my life. I never realized how much my thyroid effected until my body felt like it was at war with itself.

Today:

Today I still have bad days but they are so few and far between that I barely notice them anymore. The bad days are no longer crushing me. I can wake up in the morning and I’m happy. I’m happy to be alive. I’m happy to start each day. I haven’t had an anxiety day in I don’t know when. I’m not in pain. I’ve even started to lose the weight (check out my weight loss journey, here). Every day is a new day. Every day is a new chance to get over this and I jump at it. Today I’m not letting Thyroid Disease get the best of me.

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