[LaurelM]

#1019855

My New Year’s resolution was to provide a positive update to the NGDF bulletin board. I haven’t been to the website in at least a year or more. (Kudos on the new look & feel BTW.)

I was diagnosed in 8/05 at about 8 months postpartum from my first pregnancy. In hind sight, I had been getting sick from about 3-4 months postpartum but had been chalking it up as normal postpartum issues. I barely had the leg strength to get up out of a chair, got winded going up a flight of stairs, hair falling out in handfulls, and my favorite, inability to stop crying and a constant feeling like I had just been startled. I was trying to work full time and of course, be a good first time mom. I felt like I was failing at everything.

I thought I had read the pregnancy books backwards and forwards but I somehow missed the sentence that mentioned thyroid issues can occur up to a year postpartum. I guessed that I had postpartum depression but that really didn’t make any sense to me because I didn’t really feel ‘depressed’. At work one day when I was just sitting at my desk with tears streaming down my face, I finally called my doctor’s office for an appointment. They got me in the next day. My doctor was amazing. She assured me I wasn’t going crazy. She did the questionaire for PPD but also insisted that we do blood work and noted that I had shed quite a bit of weight and that I was tachicardic. She called me back the next day. My TSH was practically nonexistant. She started me on a beta blocker and got me into an endo within a few days. I will forever be grateful that she was my doctor.

My endo started me on Methimazole. Since I was nursing, he recommend that my daughter’s thyroid level be monitored as well. It took several months of dosage adjustments, and then several months at a normal TSH for me to feel anything close to normal. At first I didn’t click with my endo (a very nice softspoken gentleman who was careful to explain what was happening to me and what he was recommending). There were a couple of things that I was unsatisfied with at the time (like wanting faster results) but in hindsight, again, I had a great doctor who did not pressure me into making any fast permanent decisions. It gave me time to learn about my disease and throughly consider my options in a more calm and rational manner. He understood and supported me in continuing to nurse my daughter, again, for which I will be forever grateful.

I was on Methimazole until I became pregnant with my second daughter in 1/06. Just days pregnant, I broke out in terrible hives. We were not certain if it was the pregnancy or the Methimazole. It didn’t really matter as in either case we would have wanted to switch to PTU, which I did. I was on PTU for another 2 months and was able to discontinue it. My endo, the OB, and my PCP all monitored my second pregnancy closely which ended up being textbook. The second pregnancy apparently triggered a remission which I have enjoyed ever since.

My endo eventually ‘fired’ me. Well, not really. He just is having my PCP doing the monitoring blood work now with an invitation to come back if I ever need to. I continue to have regular TSH tests and I feel good. Some days I swear that my short term memory never fully recovered but I suspect that has more to do with just being a busy mom of two small children.

I want to thank the bulletin board facilitators (especially Ski & Bobbie) who replied to my original posts. At a time when I was confused, frustrated, and feeling incompetent and vunerable, the NGDF bb was a lifeline. I know that many of the posts are from people who are newly diagnosed or having a difficult time with this disease. I just wanted to provide a positive story.

I don’t know if or how long this remission will last but now I have been educated about this disease. Should I have to deal with it again, I will be able to do so with knowledge and confidence.

[Bobbi]

#1074583

It’s great to hear from you again, Laurel, and especially great that you are doing well right now. Thank you, so much, for contributing this message to the people now on the board. As you may well remember, encouragement from someone who has had successful treatment is always important to morale.

[TaraPetit]

#1074584

Congratulation on your remission!!! May it last a long, long time!!

[torri33]

#1074585

Congrats on your good news! That is what I am hoping for my doctor is really pushing RAI, but I am going to wait. I hope your good fortune continues.

[Ski]

#1074586

Thanks so much for checking in! ” title=”Very Happy” /> I’m glad you’re feeling well!

[Author]

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