| Thyroid Success Stories |
5 years ago when I was 28, I was exposed to diesel fumes and burned the lining of my lungs. About 4 - 6 months later, I started gaining weight. I probably gained 40 - 50 pounds in two months. I became very depressed and emotional and I got a brown spot on my face about the size of a quarter. The doctors I saw all said the same thing. I’m too stressed out. I need to try to relax. I need to go on a diet and exercise more. At the time, I did not know that exposure to toxins like the diesel fumes could cause immune problems. It took about 5 years to figure this out.
One doctor found a hormonal imbalance and wanted to put me on birth control pills to even it out. I tried this for 5 days but was ready to kill everyone around me including myself so I stopped taking them. He gave me a TSH test and it came back negative. No thyroid problem. Another doctor checked out my neck to see if I had an enlarged thyroid and said, “No you just have a fat neck”. Needless to say, I was very upset.
Finally, on the brink of suicide about year later, I saw a Naturopathic Physician. I called him in a panic with a red butterfly shape rash across my nose and cheeks after I had been crying uncontrollably for and hour over something very stupid. He thought about lupus and ordered some blood work along with a full thyroid panel. The test showed elevated anti-thyroid antibodies so I was put on Synthroid to ease the symptoms. I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis and was told that in 2 - 3 weeks I would feel better and would eventually lose my weight.
Within 2 weeks I did feel much better. It was like a miracle. I no longer wanted to kill myself and my emotions were back under control. I wrote a letter to my former doctor to let him know that I would not have wasted that year of my life if he would have done a thyroid panel on me and maybe he should keep it in mind for other patients. He wrote back and said he was glad I felt better but he would not place that into his regime.
I kept waiting for the weight to come off and it never did. For the next 3 years, I struggled with diets and, although I felt better, I was still a depressed person.
When I turned 33, I decided I was ready to have a baby. I have been very fertile in my youth and did not believe I would have any trouble getting pregnant. Being single, I went to a Reproductive Endocrinologist to be artificially inseminated. I was inseminated 3 times and did not get pregnant. This is when I learned that Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis could cause infertility. My Endocrinologist started treating me for the problem, as far as Western Medicine was concerned. One year later, I have been pregnant once and have had one miscarriage.
I started seeing another Naturopathic Physician who helped me immensely. Within two months, I felt happy and energetic. My TSH levels started going up. After maintaining them between 1 & 2 on .05mg, it was now .7 and .6. My hair started falling out and I was growing hair on my face. My doctor believes that I was still in the normal range of TSH and was not interested in lowering my dosage. I could see that the Naturopathy was changing my levels and continuing the current Synthroid dosage was making me hyperthyroid, so I cut my dosage of Synthroid in half and after 2 months, my hair stopped falling out. I am now completely off Synthroid, but continue to monitor my TSH levels. I became pregnant 4 months after beginning the naturopathic regime and continue to believe that I will have a healthy baby in 9 months.
During this struggle to find information about what was wrong with me, I came across Mary Shomon’s book and web site. The information and wisdom she gives is necessary for anyone diagnosed with a thyroid problem. Western Doctors just don’t have the kind of help we need to support our immune systems. I hope to help as many people as I can who have a thyroid disease or other immune related problem so it does not take them 5 years to get some relief and take control again.
Susan
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