Giving Thanks, Thyroid Style
Wednesday November 26, 2008
What do YOU give thanks for? If you're a thyroid patient, it might be your doctor, or your electric blanket, or sympathetic friends and family. Humorist Jody LaFerriere was a newly diagnosed thyroid patient when she sat down to think about what she was thankful for, including her thyroid pills, the television, and...storage bins? (You'll have to read it to get THAT one explained!) You'll love Jody's wonderful sense of humor, so don't miss this thyroid holiday CLASSIC!!
Photo: clipart.com
Comments
I am most thankful for my body which, in spite of thyroid problems/Grave’s disease for the past 19 years, does it’s best to be healthy so that I can enjoy living.
I chose “Other” for all of the above! Woo-Hoo! I finally found a doctor who switched me to the name brand Levoxyl and I feel so much better! Happy Thanksgiving all!
Learning to know my body and tell when my meds need to be adjusted. And a doc who supports and trusts me to know my own body and allows freq. testing to make sure I’m on the right track.
After a lifetime of not understanding my body or the ability to trust my feelings, I now do (last year and a half) and can tell when I’m not ‘normal”.
I am thankful to still be ALIVE!!! Not only am I hypothyroid with Hashimoto’s, I also have an inoperable brain tumor. I fight depression, fatigue, fear, and weight gain all the time but I am still happy and thankful to be here. =)
Although I am truly thankful for all of the things listed, I am most thankful to be feeling healthy and strong again. I am a surgically hypothyroid person. Both lobes (one lobe 6 years ago, the other this past spring) developed fast growing adenomas, which mercifully both times were benign. The second time in particular, the rapid growth of the adenoma sent my hormones on a roller coaster ride. Within just a few weeks, I went from feeling ok to not knowing what each day would bring. I could not sleep, I felt like a crazy woman, my blood pressure shot way up. Almost immediately following surgery, I started to feel like myself again. I am so grateful for a doctor who listened to me, and not just the lab results.
I am thankful for Mary Shoman; for her dedication to helping inform others on all phases of thyroid disease. Mary has helped me to understand how to deal with doctors and to intelligently manage my hypothyroidism. She has been my educator for this disease and has been much more helpful than any doctor I’ve tried to work with.
I am thankful that I am a one-year thyroid cancer survivor.
I am thankful for my own perseverance for knowledge that prevailed over a lot of unhelpful and stubbornly uninformed physicians in diagnosing and treating my hypothyroid and for resources like Mary Shomon. I am most grateful for my personal trainer who by way of his own thyroid disease has perfected a program designed to improve the health of thyroid challenged people. I have lost over 11 lbs of fat in 3 months of hard work when I was beginning to think it was not possible. And I’m not done yet!
I am thankful for most of the above mentioned things. But I am also thankful that, at age 68, I have Medicare to pay most of my medical expenses –not just hyperthyroid care but a pacemaker last Jan. which has kept me alive and functioning, expensive heart and migraine meds, etc.
I’m thankful for an MD and an ND who work together for my total thyroid health. It’s been a difficult 2 year journey so far – but I’m not whipped yet and know that at least I’m closer to my goal! Hashimoto’s does not have to define me forever! Hypo/Hyper – I gain weight and lose hair so to have doctors willing to work with me and a husband willing to pay for that care ( no insurance) is great!
all of the above
I am most thankful for my husband. Its been a year since I had my thyroid surgically removed. Its been a roller coaster. My husband reminds me everyday to take my medicine,he understands when the house is too hot for him but I am warm,he understands when I am tired and will order dinner or clean house,he writes things down so I don’t forget.
I am thankful that I did not lose my mind over the past 8 months.. My med’s just don’t do for me what they should. I have had a horrible year struggling with depression, aniexty and panic. I hope help is around the corner.
My doctor called me this morning to go over my recent blood work results. Normally I would just get a letter in the mail, not a phone call. I had been very very lax in taking my thyroid medication and he felt that my results were probably due to that. Cholesterol was 295 (mine was always low) and my thyroid was 68. So, guess who’s going to NEVER miss a thyroid med again???!!! We’ll be retesting me in six weeks and hopefully everything will be back to normal. My usual dosage was 200 mcg and I was really foolish for being so lackaday with my daily meds.