summercloud
It feels weird to be posting my success story here as it’s maybe old news but I’m going to go for it anyway! Just for reference, I’m 36 now.
I was diagnosed with Grave’s Disease when I was 5 years old and had my thyroid taken out (throidectomy, right?) when I was 7. I remember having to take a really bitter pill in-between those–was that to try to get me into remission? My parents used to crush the pill up in chocolate syrup; I still can’t eat chocolate syrup on ice cream. There must have been some sort of emergency at age 7 because I was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance to have the surgery. My memories of that time of my life are pretty vague. And don’t look pictures of me–I was pretty sickly!
My major complication as a kid was that my scar healed very poorly and was “revised” (cut off and re-stitched). I still have an impressive scar on my neck.
I’ve never know what it’s like to have a thyroid or not be on levothyroxine. My dosage has been mostly-stable since I was a kid, but every so often it’s adjusted up or down a dosage. A few years ago when I went down from 175mg to 150mg I had two weeks of debilitating depression and couldn’t work. I remember the same thing from high school but had no idea it was a common side-effect. I feel like someone should have told me.
Recently I decided to try intermittent fasting and started skipping breakfast a few times a week. Ooops! As you all know, one has to be super consistent with the timing of levothyroxine and meals. I’m back to eating breakfast every day–my doctor said as long as I’m always consistent the dosage reflects those habits. I got her to agree that I can be retested in January.
I’ve got my opthamologist scheduled for Febuary (I hate those visits so much!); I’ve been lucky with my eyes so far and I hope that continues.
I wonder a lot about how much about “me” is the way it is because I have no thyroid. I get sick a lot; I have excema; I get dehydrated easily…are these related? No idea!
This feels sort of like bragging as all of my symptoms and troubles are so much less than everyone’s here. But I hope that someday everyone who posts can be stable as well!
Thank you for listening!