Am I dying? No, it's my thyroid!

OK so I've decided to tell my story as I am shaking my head in frustration. This little butterfly shaped thyroid is absolutely no joke and I am angry at her right now for putting my body through so many changes!

She sneaks up on you when you least expect it kind of like a cold does, with a few symptoms at first then you're down for the count. For me, it started three years ago. I remember the first time I really noticed that something was wrong with me; I was at work, and I had to climb a flight of stairs to get to my classroom which was on the second floor at the time. Usually I caught the elevator as it was easier with my bags but this day the elevator was out of service. I got to stair number three and had to stop and hold on. I couldn't breathe and I was so exhausted! After three stairs? What was wrong with me I thought, I'm not this out of shape! So I  completed the next four steps of the first landing and it was a huge chore. By the time I got to the second floor I was out of breath and my heart was pounding in my chest. I sat on a stair and thought, I must be sick?

As the next few weeks unfolded I struggled with walking any distance without having to stop and catch my breath. Then a new symptom arose, I began getting really hot and then really cold so I assumed it was menopause. I was 44 so sure, I was going through the change of life. I scheduled an appointment with my doctor and he tested me for menopause and said I was just fine, my hormone levels were ok and I wasn't in menopause. I asked, well what is it? He said I was just going through stress.

So, I went with it and tried to lower my stress levels. Yet, I still noticed so many more symptoms creeping up! My heart rate was high, I was sweating a lot, I had hot and cold chills, and now I was feeling nauseated and extremely hungry! I mean so hungry that I felt like I had a hole in the bottom of my stomach. Was I pregnant? How could I be; I had undergone a hysterectomy at 40, so it couldn't be pregnancy but the symptoms pointed in that direction, so I discreetly purchased an over the counter pregnancy test. I took the test and waited, thinking I'm going to be on the news as the first 44 year old woman with no uterus to become pregnant! A few minutes later a negative result dismissed that thought.

I remember telling my mother that something was definitely wrong with me but I couldn't pin point it! My next few symptoms came subtly and then grew in intensity in the next few weeks.  The nerves in my legs began to hurt, it was like my bones were sore inside my legs. They hurt when I walked and when I sat, I explained to my doctor that it wasn't my veins, but my bones. He suggested that I start taking calcium pills to help my bones gain some strength and he said I was probably in need of more circulation, so he suggested walking as well and he sent me to an orthopedic doctor who told me I had arthritis. I went to one physical therapy session and I was not convinced!  WHY DIDN'T HE CHECK MY THYROID?

The next symptom made me wonder if it was the big C, as my blood levels came back elevated so my doctor sent me to an oncologist. An oncologist! I sat in the doctors office and thought, I knew it! I ignored the symptoms but it fit. I met with the doctor who test my levels in the office and said she wanted to watch them to see if they went up anymore in the next few weeks so I rescheduled and of course nothing, I was fine!

Finally, I was done with my primary care doctor so I walked right into the emergency room of my local hospital, they would definitely check everything! So I told them my symptoms and the doctor had a very concerned look on his face and I was immediately tested for pregnancy, then I was sent for an ultrasound and more blood tests. Now, this is an emergency room and they told me it was stress related and that my body was reacting to stress. Because my tests were all normal I was to them, A HYPOCHONDRIAC, therefore I was discharged. When I started rapidly losing weight, that was it! I had to find some help. I must have lost 40 pounds in two months and if I walked to the mailbox, I'd lose two pounds! I wasn't happy because something was wrong!

I was not a hypochondriac! But I was starting to wonder if I was a little bit off my rocker for feeling all these symptoms yet finding nothing wrong with my blood and other tests. So I spoke with a friend who told me about a place that did full body scans at $450 each. They were done by doctors who evaluated your scan immediately while you waited in the other room. I didn't tell anyone because they already thought I sounded like a broken record! Alone and afraid of what they'd find, I went. They did the scan and called me back a few minutes later where the doctor went through the scan with me and the first thing he said was, "Your thyroid has an enlarged nodule on it, you should have blood work done." Then he went on to tell me other things that were minor. I was like, "AAAAHHHHHH HAAA! I knew it! I'm not crazy!" I yelled in my head.

Wait, what is the thyroid? I had heard of it before but never really paid attention to issues with it because I never had anyone close to me with thyroid issues. I immediately looked it up on google and Yes! It was me! All of it! 

I took my results back to the emergency room and spoke with the doctor. I asked them why they didn't test my thyroid? Their response was, when you came for a follow-up we would have checked. Lies. Then, my next stop was my primary care doctor who also stated that thyroid was not something that they automatically checked for. WHAT?

Needless to say, my levels were sky high! My doctor was intrigued when he listened to my thyroid because he said there was so much blood pumping through it  you could hear it flowing (brewing?) then he let me listen to my stomach and it was loud as well, I could hear the flow of blood as it passed through. On the first check my TSH Levels were off the charts. My T3 was at 18.9 and my T4 13.2. Now the normal level should have been between 0.4 to 4.2 and mine was sky high and I was losing my mind! I was finally diagnosed with Graves Disease or Hyperthyroidism. No wonder I felt like I was dying... my husband was tired of me, I was tired of me and the doctors were tired of me so they put me on methimazole 10 mg. After a few weeks my heart rate was still at a dangerous 198 for several hours throughout the day. I couldn't do any extra walking or strenuous activities or my heart rate would climb, so I did everything slow. Eventually my doctor had me take a take a higher dose of 40 mg a day and it helped a little but my heart still wouldn't cooperate. He put me on Atenolol as well.

A few weeks later, I ended up in the emergency room again and in the beginning stages of a thyroid storm and on another occasion I suffered from an ischemic attack. I begged my doctor to remove my thyroid but he still refused!

Why? I wanted the operation to get rid of it, but he said I would have to take medication for the rest of my life if he removed it, so I endured for a few months more and finally he scheduled me for radioactive iodine! That's another story, I'll write about that fiasco and where I am today in my next blog post. Be sure to sign up so that you don't miss it!

Next Post... Radioactive Iodine Therapy and NOW I'm diagnosed with Hypothyroidism? What?