Hypothyroidism

Hypothyroidism

I am tired…

I am tired of being tired

Tired of feeling my heart race while barely exerting myself

Tired of the stomach aches

Tired of the head aches

Tired of tossing and turning each night

Tired of pressing snooze even more each morning

Tired of thinking I feel better today but then feeling worse minutes later

Tired of unclogging the drain and losing my hair

Tired of watching the scale go up

Tired of being home on Monday and not playing soccer

Tired of watching my volleyball team play without me

Tired of breathing heavy walking the stairs

Tired of reading conflicting information

Tired of hearing “but at least you know”

Tired of food tasting different

Tired of needing a nap after 7 hours of sleep

Tired of weeding out food from my diet

Tired of not being able to drink a few beers and sleep through the night

Tired of feeling like holding my head up is just too much work

Tired of being the slowest hiker

Tired of having not energy to enjoy a sunny day

Tired of wasting the little energy I have on house chores

Tired of hearing myself complaining

Tired of being asked how do you feel today?

Tired of hearing ‘you lost your color’

Tired of feeling faint

Tired of my knees hurting

Tired of itching my scalp

Tired of dry skin and brittle nails

Tired of reading words I can’t pronounce

Tired of knowing that my efforts to stop a pill and start a child is what caused this whirlwind

Tired of being enraged just because I am tired

Tired of wanting to fix things but no energy to fix them

Tired of reading of the horrible things that can happen to me

Tired of telling people it is my body that created this

Tired of hearing ‘but you’re so healthy?’

Tired of the foggy mind and forgetting more than I use too

Tired of crying out of exhaustion, out of feeling alone, out of feeling like I have yet another battle

I am tired of seeing that unbelieving cynical look in people's eyes when I tell them how I feel      

Hypothyroidism

So I guess you can see it has been awhile since I have blogged.  I really want to write once or twice a week but it has not been so easy lately.  In my last blog I was complaining about feeling run down and tired.  I had planned to extend my diet into juicing.  However, I got busy and felt like the life was drained out of me.  I had several symptoms and I could not identify what I had. 

My symptoms were:

Extreme fatigue

Headaches

Backaches

Cold

Itchy skin

Weight gain

Brittle nails

Brian Farts

Glands hurt

Can’t fall asleep

Can’t wake up

Intestinal discomfort

                I did some research and thought I was pregnant, I had mono or I was pregnant.  I continued to take pregnancy test after test and they each came back negative.  I thought for sure I was pregnant so I called my Dr. and asked about the 3 and if I could be tested for all or 2 of them.  I had a simple blood test done for thyroid and pregnancy.  Just over two weeks ago I got the results.  I found out that it was my thyroid.  I was heartbroken that I wasn’t pregnant because I thought all of these symptoms were similar to those pregnant women report.  Turns out Hypothyroidism have some of the same systems. So about 2 weeks ago I began researching like crazy this disorder and talking with my new primary care Dr.  I set up a meeting with a new Dr. that my friend who also has Hypothyroidism recommended.  She said that he is far better than her Endocrinologist.  (If you are on the west side of Cincinnati I totally recommend Dr. Siebert).  I had a ton of questions for my Dr. ranging from can I treat this with nutrition to the symptoms to can I get pregnant.  He was very helpful explaining what a hypo thyroid is.

 In most people it is when the autoimmune system identifies the thyroid as a threat and attacks it.  This damages it and prevents it from creating enough of a certain hormone active, T3 or triiodothyronine.  T3 is similar to a gas pedal for the body.  It tells your brain and there for the rest of your body to metabolize food and produce energy.  With low levels of T3 people report fatigued and weight gain. 

                To understand a bit about the value of your thyroid I copied this. I don’t think I can explain it any better than this.  It is a great summary which I read from several of the resources below.  This one is pulled from Live Strong

The thyroid is “area of the brain called the hypothalamus creates thyrotropin-releasing hormone, or TRH, when levels of thyroid hormone in the blood become low. This stimulates the creation of thyroid-stimulating hormone, or TSH, from a gland below the brain called the pituitary gland. This, in turn, stimulates the thyroid gland to create and release thyroid hormone. The thyroid produces two types of hormones: thyroxine, or T4, and T3. The thyroid gland produces mostly T4, which is considered the inactive form of thyroid hormone. T3 is considered the active form of thyroid hormone that the body uses. T4 is converted to T3 in tissues such as the liver.”

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/240969-how-does-thyroid-t3-supplement-work/#ixzz2VJ05ae8v

                Now back to my Dr. visit.  He said that there is no way to treat this with nutrition and that basically the damage was done.  So the best treatment is with medication that is a bacterium created T3 and it identical to the T3 your body produces.  I have been on this medication for 13 days.  The medication takes 4-6 weeks to build up and relieve the symptoms.  I can tell you that it has been a super long few weeks.  The symptoms are getting worse but I have noticed that some things I do minimize or maximize the symptoms. 

So as you can imagine there will be more to come on this topic in the future

Resources

http://chriskresser.com/low-t3-syndrome-i-its-not-about-the-thyroid

http://www.livestrong.com/article/240969-how-does-thyroid-t3-supplement-work/

http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/long-and-pathetic/