The Personal Account: Thyroid Patients Tell Their Stories on the Web
Dateline: 04/28/97
 | When it comes to thyroid disease, everyone's got a story to tell. And it seems, particularly, to be quite honest, the people with hyPERthyroidism. (Perhaps the |
Dianne has dedicated her page to "everyone with Graves' disease." Dianne has a unique way with graphics of eyeballs, and animated, cartoon, photo and graphic eyeballs populate her site, used as icons, click points, and hotlinks!
Among the best personal accounts of battles with Graves' Disease is Dianne's own story. Dianne's is a straightforward account of her diagnosis with hyperthyroidism, and ultimately the shift to hypothyroidism after radioactive iodine. She mentions various symptoms she encountered, and peppers her report with updates on how she was honestly feeling at various points during the process.
Bruce's site plays the "X-Files" music as background at his site. (Given how weird thyroid disease can get, maybe we DO need Scully and Mulder to help us figure it all out?) In any case, Bruce admirably takes on the difficult and task of describing the eye problems he's had with Graves' disease.
As a nurse, Rachel's account is a detailed and very warm and knowledgeable report on her experiences with Graves' Disease. Rachel has some strong and interesting perspectives on the medical profession and their knowledge of this disease.
Jake's story is a very detailed accounting of the serious eye problems he's encountered, but you'll enjoy his positive attitude in telling his story.
Sheila's story shows her extremely positive outlook and search for the silver lining that is part of her personal account.
Glynis describes her harrowing post-partum bout of hyperthyroidism. You can read her similar account at her personal home page.
Redhen's "funny" eye story ends with her filing a malpractice charge with the State Board of Professional Regulation against her doctor! How's that for patient empowerment!
Others to check out:
And just in case you're thinking that the hyperthyroid faction's the only one with something to say, check out FalconsReach, Kris Millering's home page, which features a personal account of her struggle with hypothyroidism. Kris tells the honest and straightforward story of coming down with hypothyroidism as a child, and battling it into adulthood. As Kris says, "medical journals generally make out Hashimoto's thyroiditis fairly simple to treat, though a lifetime process. My experiences say otherwise..."
If you know of other web sites featuring personal accounts of thyroid disease, send me an email and let me know and I'll be sure to include them in future articles.
