The Basics

Anyone who has been given any sort of thyroid diagnosis is familiar with the varying opinions on how or even what to treat.  Sometimes it feels like you are in the middle of a screaming match and all you can do is go with the voice you actually hear.

Here are the basic facts about Hashimotos as far as I am concerned.  My immune system is attempting to destroy my thyroid.  As my thyroid dies my pituitary gland keeps requesting more t4 by sending out TSH (Thyroid stimulating hormone).  My Dr's test my thyroid function by measuring how loudly my pituitary gland yells at it.  There is no direct way to measure if my body is getting enough t4 converted to t3. There is no way to know if my pituitary gland is correct, or a loud mouth. The only way to guess how your cells are doing is by symptoms. There is no official undisputed protocol for treating the immune system that is attacking my thyroid (aka the problem), only the symptoms.

Thus the constant yelling...

Having Hashimotos can be very frustrating.  I'm hoping to turn myself into a case study/ lab rat of sorts.  I'm sick of reading everyone else tell me what to do and getting a blurb from "Mary Sue" in Alabama about how it worked for her. I don't even know if Mary Sue is real. Do none of the people who have this disease research it? If the majority of sufferers are women (sorry fellas, much love to ya) why are the loudest voices on the topic men? Is the exhaustion so bad none of us can make it through med school? (There is an argument to make there..) So as I find the energy I will detail out some of my possibly related past, what has worked for me, and the things that I try as I go.  Even if no one reads anything I write it should help me be able to see things as a whole, and not each item separately. 

I am biased in that I believe that the body functions all as one, and that my bodily systems are not isolated. I also believe that there was more that lead up to my Hashi's than just a random occurrence.  My grandmother had it, my mother has it, and I have it.  My grandmother would be 100 years old next year.  Her mother gave birth to a 15lb daughter (gestational diabetes as complicated by Hashi's?) and had many of the same issues, although Hashi's wasn't diagnosed 100 years ago.  Clearly the "cause" has stayed fairly constant.

Sick of Being Sick

I have too much going for me to feel bad.  I'm a mother, a student, a sales person, a wife, a volunteer, and a friend. My body's little rebellion in the form of the autoimmune disease Hashimotos Hypothyroidism has gone too far.  I'm no longer going to sit back and take it body. Oh no, I'm going to try and fight back. (Artha as a medicine?) Ever since the birth of my daughter a year ago what I once could manage and live with has become a major inconvience.  I have injuries that won't heal, a chronic vitamin D deficiency, and 15lb that won't budge.  Add these to my normal thyroid malfunctions, and you've got one unhappy Mama.  So today, as blogger as my witness, I am going to chronicle and put down everything I am doing to look for a way to feel better. My old enemy frustration will now be my muse.  It's on immune system, it's on.