Did you know that January is Thyroid Disease Awareness month?
Here is my personal story:
Something began happening to me sometime after the birth of my second child. I am 34 years old and just started noticing some unusual symptoms I was constantly tired, at times more emotional than normal, was gaining weight out of nowhere, my face became very puffy, my hands/ankles were swelling, my endurance had tanked, was constantly cold (even in the Florida summer), developed severe arthritis in both knees, and all of this seemed NORMAL to me. During this phase of my life (over the course of the last two years), Garrett had gone back to school, I was preparing for the Professional Engineering Exam, my girls were go-go-go, I had recently started a new job, was working full-time, and being "MOM". Therefore, I had just attributed many of these things to stress or not getting enough sleep. Nothing was overwhelmingly out of the norm that I thought to see someone about it. My mom did however on several occasions when hearing my frustrations with my weight suggest that my weight gain was not normal and encouraged me to go to the doctor. Being a full-time working mom though, I brushed it off and just tried my best to control what was going on, with little success may I add.
Several months later at work, I had a biometric screening done that our wellness program kindly offers. During this screening, the lady that ran my blood work just looked at me wide-eyed and said "This doesn't seem right; your cholesterol is through the roof." My total cholesterol level was well above 400 mg/dl. Again, I thought the machine must've just malfunctioned, but she HIGHLY recommended I see my physician for follow-up routine blood work. With the push from her and my mom's encouragment, I bit the bullet and had a well-visit, which I had not had in years.
While seeing my physician, she checked me out and physically I was perfectly fine; there was nothing alarming that she could find just doing a routine normal checkup. However, she did run a full panel of blood work. Just a day later I received a call from the office stating that I needed to come back in as soon as possible to see my doctor. I left work early and went to the doctor's office to find out that my TSH (thyroid simulating hormone), cholesterol, and creatinine levels (to name a few) were abnormally high. So, thus began my journey of many appointments with two specialists, a nephrologist (kidney doctor) and endocrinologist (thyroid doctor).
- TSH: above 200 mlU/L (normal range: 0.4 to 4 mlU/L)
- Total Cholesterol: above 400 mg/dl (normal range: less than 200 mg/dl)
- Creatinine: above 4 mg/dl (0.5 to 1 mg/dl)
When I visited the endocrinologist, his first words were "these TSH levels are the highest numbers that I have personally seen in my career" (and he is not young). He wanted to make sure he ran the blood work again to make sure there were no errors in the results and no typos. Again, my numbers came back alarmingly high. He called the lab to verify that the results he was seeing were indeed what was determined from the lab testing. This is when I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's. Basically, my body is actively trying to kill my thyroid. At this time, I learned that my Hashimoto journey is just beginning. I was provided a sample pack of synthetic thyroid hormones to get me by until my larger prescribed dose came in. While leaving the office we noticed a beautiful image on the wall portraing Jesus standing over a doctor while he was working on a patient. It was then I knew this was the doctor for me and God had everything in control. I went back 6 weeks later after being on the larger dosage of 100mg. My numbers were still alarmingly high, but slowly coming down. I then spent another 6 weeks on a dosage of 125mg. Amazingly my numbers began coming down into normal range. So here we are today, remaining on the larger dose and awaiting my next appointment. If my numbers remain in the normal range, my following visit will be spread out to 6 months. Then once we get everything stabilized and numbers where they need to be with a dosage that controls my disease properly, I will only need to check in once a year to make sure everything is good.
During this time that I was seeing the endocrinologist, I was also seeing a nephrologist. With my first visit again there was again more blood work (I have never been pricked more in my life during such a short few weeks). These results showed that my kidney function was failing and they needed to determine the cause immediately. I was nearing stage 4 of chronic kidney disease (CKD). I had an ultrasound done which showed normal kidney dimensions and nothing alarming. That was good and bad because they still did not know the issue. So that then meant I had to have a kidney biopsy completed. Again, they could not find the cause my poor kidney function. I was nearing dialysis. The nephrologist did know that I was seeing an endocrinologist though and was aware that whatever was going on with my thyroid may also be impacting my kidneys. We still had to complete the appropriate tests though and have appointments together to make sure whatever was attacking my thyroid was not also attacking my kidneys separately. At a follow-up appointment after more blood work, the nephrologist looked at me said, "whatever you are doing, keep it up!" My kidney function was coming back and my numbers were reverting back and have moved me to CKD stage 3a. I told him that I was placed on a higher dosage of synthetic thyroid hormones. He then knew that the thyroid was the culprit the entire time.
Today, I just see the endocrinologist. He is monitoring all of my numbers, including my TSH levels, creatinine, and cholesterol. I am and will continue to take synthetic thyroid hormones for the rest of my life. Additionally, I have learned that once you have an auto-immune disorder, you are more likely to develop more auto-immune diseases over your lifetime. For those that want to learn more about Hashimoto's, I did some research and am working to compile my best explanation of it. I plan to share that in the near future, as again, this month is Thyroid Disease Awareness month.
I cannot emphasize enough the importance of well visits. See your doctor, get routine blood work, and ask questions! I owe my mom BIG time for staying on me and encouraging me to get back to the doctor, despite my disregard. For that, I am grateful!
