#hypothyroid problems

[imafraidoftomorrow]

It was 6 years ago today that my life changed.

6 years ago today that I touched my neck and felt a huge, hard lump. 6 years ago that I looked in the mirror and could see it clearly.

I went to the ER and, after waiting for hours, was told that I was the perfect demographic for thyroid cancer. I was 20 years old. I was told that I needed surgery because the tumor was at risk of suffocating me. Suffocating. The pain became so unbearable that I was on opioids for 2 months. For 25 days I had to wait to find out whether the mass was benign or malignant. Whether or not I had cancer.

It was bigger than the surgeon expected. She had to cut deeper into the muscle; had to take more of the gland along with several of my lymph nodes. It hurt. I woke up with a blood-filled bag hanging from a tube laced through my throat. The first time I saw myself after surgery, I cried. I felt, and looked, like Frankenstein's monster.

I've been sick ever since. A body can't function properly with only half a thyroid. I'm tired all the time, yet I can't ever sleep. I have brain fog and joint pain and heart palpitations. The medication that I need to live costs $350 out of my pocket.

You might think this post will end heroically - that it will read, "but despite all of that, I'm still alive and I'm grateful!" And I wish that it did. But the truth is, I grieve this day every single year. I wish it had never happened to me. I hate being sick, and I hate looking in the mirror and seeing my scar. When I notice it in photos, like in the last picture, I sometimes still want to throw up.

I guess what I want to say is, sometimes hardships just fucking suck. A tragedy is just that - a tragedy - and what doesn't kill you can, in fact, leave you frail and broken. And it's okay to mourn for your old self, because I certainly do. I mourn for her every single day. And I mourn for my present self, too, for all that she has had to endure.

[genderqueerpositivity]

What I've been told several times in the past nine months: my thyroid condition won't have any effect on my testosterone therapy.

The actual science: hypothyroidism has been known to cause low testosterone in cis men (and hyperthyroidism can cause high testosterone levels). Thyroid hormones influence our sex hormone binding globulin levels, which in turn directly affects the amount of free testosterone in the blood.

Every bit of research I've found was done on cis men or mice, but why would this not also be relevant to...everyone else with a thyroid condition?? Including transmasculine people?

[mandana-the-service-pup]

Testing out my theory that Mandana is developing a natural hypoglycemia alert & response.

I don’t have diabetes but low blood sugar is something I’ve always struggled with and I’m sure my thyroid problems right now aren’t helping.

Mandana was acting funky while we were playing. She usually only does that when there’s something wrong with me. I asked if it was an alert so she went and got the medical alert badge we use for HR alerts but then refused to bring it to me. Then I asked her to bring my blood pressure cuff which is what she does to alert to blood pressure problems. She ran off again but instead of bringing the cuff she brought me a nutritional shake. I took it from her and asked her to bring the cuff again but she just kept bringing me nutritional shakes.

She does this sometimes and I’ve been suspecting that she might have caught on to the pattern and developed a natural blood sugar alert/response. I didn’t want to believe it because it’s too good to be true. Heart Rate (Hi/Low) Blood Pressure (Hi/Low) AND low blood sugar?! All from one dog and with different alerts, high accuracy rate and minimal training…I mean, come on 🙄

But she DID develop a natural blood pressure alert. She realized that I only ask her to “bring cuff” when my blood pressure is really bad. She started bringing me the cuff without being asked but when I started checking my blood pressure afterwards she was always right. So it’s possible that she picked up on the pattern that I only ask her to bring me my “drink” when my blood sugar is low as well. The problem is that I’m so jaded to chronic illness that I’m usually pretty unaware of my symptoms and not thinking clearly when my blood sugar is low, so I never think to check it when she brings me a drink. I just take the drink and thank her.

But ignoring a well-known command and bringing me a plethora of nutritional shakes was a good reminder to check and sure enough it was a bit low. I’m not claiming that she is a super accurate, double-blind tested medical alert dog, but hey…if it helps mitigate my disability 🤗🥰😎

[financially-crippled]

Please do not chastise me like a child for having hair all over my clothes. I litterally cannot keep in on my head and I already lint-rolled myself head to toe already. Just stop commenting on it, I'm not oblivious. And for the love of all things gay, stop asking if I've had my thyroid checked before.

[runs-4-pinkcupcakes]

Ive been losing my hair. Hair loss is distressing. So I did a head to head comparison using a picture from a year ago. (Luckily, I could find one without tons of filtering the shape). I can definitely see the difference in hair volume but, that after a year, my face is thinner. You win some and you lose some. No pun intended. 🤣

💋

[wanderlust-and-poetry]

Im so tired of constantly being invalidated. My body is literally fighting against itself everyday. I’m in pain everyday, I’m exhausted everyday even if I spend the entire day resting or I got a good nights sleep. My body reacts horribly if I eat certain foods and it changes everyday. I can hardly use my hands without having to put my wrist braces on and with those on I’m even more restricted. I may be young but that doesn’t mean I can’t struggle. I’m tired of constantly being put down, belittled and pushed aside because I’m young and “can’t possibly be sick”.

[pierrespandas]

im having a flare up so i apologise if I'm not around much

[thyroid-fog]

I can’t remember being healthy since I’ve have this illness from elementary school, I wonder how it feels to play with other children. Since I was fatigued all the time and depressed.

Yeah I wasn’t allowed to play because I was “too slow” for the other children