Small But Mighty: A Thyroid Life

Of note: This one is two different notes combined and I'm not entirely sure when either were written...
Same as before, this is I guess a random entry, so please excuse it if you are looking for factual information...but here is something about a thyroid life:

Tiredness kicks, like a rather angry horse. I fall, my head on the pillow, my eyes closed. I wake, and turn a page, only to fall once again...
Tiredness seems to slip and slither in his welcoming way, right off my head and onto the ground. I watch him fall flat on his back, now no more than an ant, crying and wailing and helpless all the while, kicking a tantrum though there is no one nearby to offer a hand. Until I see my own. My own hand, retracting from my arm, reaching out to his - he grips it - and my arm tugs. My own arm - me - I helped him up. I could see myself watching him there, struggling, but O! Not for long! Like any creature, I thought, any creature in need of help, 'help him' and the thought squealed deep inside me, echoed in my head. I helped him up, an enemy, if you will, though one that I've never nor hope to ever call such a name...but I helped him up.

Of note: written I think shortly after being diagnosed with hypothyroidism.
This is I guess a random entry, so please excuse it if you are looking for factual information...but here is something about a thyroid life:

Time passes by, though I seem hardly aware. My head is flooded with a herd of images. Leaves sweep amongst them, and each one seems able to speak. I seem unable to drag myself away. I look at my watch, and find it is gone eleven o'clock. A full thirty minutes I've been sitting right here, trapped in the dull dreams and entering sleep before sleep is required. A full thirty minutes I've been sitting right here: Yesterday and Tomorrow, I can recall the past; I can predict the future. A full thirty minutes, though not exact, I've been sitting right here. A tortoise on ten legs came and shook at my hand. Behind it there followed a cheetah, and behind him some others of the jungle. Time is so twisted. A full thirty minutes I've been sitting right here. Dreaming. Never by choice, but never without a love of some sort. In school. With friends. In talks. After and before. During and in gaps. A full thirty minutes I've been sitting right here. A dreamer, I am. A dreamer, that's me.

Hi,

Welcome to my thyroid blog. Here I hope to post entries about the symptoms, causes, treatment, and generally the way of life with hypothyroidism. I will do this by explaining everything that I have learnt about the disease since I was diagnosed last year, including some of the things to expect during treatment; by suggesting useful websites and blogs different to my own which can provide you with useful and in some cases official, information; I will also include any creative writing entries which I have found having written them in the midst of a half-awake-half-asleep stage from before and during treatment.

This blog is aimed not only for hypothyroid sufferers, hyperthyroid suffers, or any related diseases including thyroid cancer - it is aimed for people who are interested, just passing by and want to learn something, or, and importantly, people who think they may have a thyroid disease or some kind of problem.

With any thyroid disease it seems to me that you need to know about it in order to find out about it. Of course this means that you may have been living with symptoms for years, and your thyroid may only be getting worse; there may be things about yourself that you have noticed, even that others have noticed - yet no one ever suggests that you have a simple blood test to check your thyroid.


And that is all it is to check: one simple blood test in which the 'thyroid function tests' are done. This will measure the hormones related to the thyroid:
T3 and T4 - hormones produced by the thyroid
TSH - Thyroid Stimulating Hormone; produced by the Pituary Gland in the brain to stimulate the thyroid - quite simply, to tell it to get up and start working!

If you are hypothyroid you will probably have a high TSH (which means that the brain is trying hard to tell the thyroid to work, most likely unsuccessfully) and you will have a low or normal FT4.

If you are hyperthyroid you will probably have a low TSH and a high FT4 and FT3.

• Thyroid Newbie - For those only recently diagnosed with thyroid disease. 
• Current Sufferer - For those diagnosed a while ago. 
• Any One - For anyone else: the general public; people who know nothing about thyroid disease; people who know a lot; for doctors, teachers or any one else. 

• Thyroid Newbie - Remains the same. May also be useful for people who were diagnosed a while ago but who are currently in a hypothyroid state. 
• Current Sufferer - Remains the same.
• Thyroid Oblivious - For people who know absolutely nothing about thyroid disease and may not of even heard of the thyroid. 
• General - For a general audience which may include all of the above and more.  

• Hypothyroidism - Specifically about the underactive thyroid. 
• Hyperthyroidism - Specifically about the overactive thyroid

Some people like to write facts about their thyroid and some people like to read those facts.
Some people like to write a daily entry about how they feel, and some people like to read that.
Others like to dress their thyroid in hilarious or frightening images; with strong words or brilliant movie clips, and some people like to read or watch those too.

These links are the places where you can find these creative, colourful entries: things that make you laugh and things which make you cry; things which make you happy and things which make you sad. These are the brilliant places on the net which you can never read or watch enough times, and here they are:

• Dear Thyroid - A website encouraging people of all ages to write letters to either their own thyroid; their friends' thyroids or their family's thyroids. The letters are often outspoken or brilliantly imaginative and for those who want to write a letter on the site, the subject and content is completely open so long as it is not offensive. See if you can find my letters on here too!
• Celebrities with thyroid disease; Examples of Thyroid Comics and photographs; Thyroid Jokes - click here
• Thyroid Cartoons
• Quiz about Thyroid Disease
• A Thyroid Theme Park

• British Thyroid Foundation
• NHS Hypothyroidism Information
• Patient UK Hypothyroidism Information
• Patient UK Hyperthyroidism Information

Here is a collection of fantastic links

Click each submenu item to navigate through them

1 in 5 have thyroid disease.

Over half of the 13 million cases of thyroid disease in the US are undiagnosed - that's 1 in 20.


Thyroid disorders are misdiagnosed as everything from depression to Alzheimers to obesity or anorexia. 


They can cause infertility, weight gain or loss, depression, extreme fatigue, tremors, palpitations, blurred vision....the list goes on and on.

Many people go years before they are finally diagnosed, but detecting thyroid disease is usually by a simple blood test, and treated with medication.

In May 2009 the world saw the first ever international thyroid awareness week. So far as I could tell, the media didn't even refer to it. Thyroid disease, like I guess any disease, can run a life. And it may well be the cause of some of the world's greatest challenges - obesity; infertility; depression...




This blog is aimed to raise awareness of thyroid disease - to teach those who have never heard of it, or who know only one or two things about what the thyroid can do. It is aimed to lower those figures of misdiagnosis and the undiagnosed above, and to reduce the amount of years which people are hypothyroid or hyperthyroid simply because no one knew how to spot their symptoms.

In addition, this blog offers advice to people who are 'Thyroid Newbies' or 'Current Sufferers' - to find posts which might help you, search for the tags by those names.

In order to raise awareness without claiming things with no meaning, I have taken a knowledge-full approach to finding out what the current state of awareness is - and that means looking at the media and at what people actually know. And what I have found shows that:

 you have to know about this disease to find out about it

 - so how are people supposed to be diagnosed?




The thyroid is a small but mighty gland in your neck.