Medical History: the Vogue September Edition version (Long as all get out)

Hey Yall,

Back with more Thyroid news... a lot of interest seems to be surrounding that post, and I feel like I only gave the readers digest version. If you are already sick of the thyroid talk-- feel free to hit the road!

My story is a long one. I have been ill since I was born, literally; I was in the NICU for months. I went through life pretty easily until I had the end of the world fever, I was four and I had a fever of 104. I was in the hospital for two weeks. I was pretty healthy throughout my life, Id catch every single cold though.

In middle school I had it bad, I was in the hospital for a total of three months in eighth grade. Rumors were swirling, that I had AIDS, cancer, or that Id already died! Luckily my best friend in the whole world, who is still my best friend today, quashed them all! I came back, repeated the year at a new school and my life was amazing.

I was healthy for years! It was great! I was a normal kid, I went to the mall and I went to the movies and l went on dates, I even went to our horrible football games.

Pretty much lived the dream for the first two years of college. I loved (and still do) being a Gator. Football was my life, I was an excellent student, I had an awesome apartment. I was FEELING GOOD! I turned 20-21 and that all changed!

I became jaundiced, I couldnt keep food down... I dropped to 90 lbs (Im nearly 5'8). My father was scared to death, I missed my Spring semester of Junior year (which is really hard for a Gator, that means I missed the Spring game!). I went back home and stayed with my Dad and saw a doctor three times a week. I loved that woman despite the fact that she put me through hell, and WRONGLY diagnosed me. I went through every test possible, I had MRIs and CT Scans and I had biopsies of my lymph nodes, of my bone marrow, of my breast tissue. It was pretty terrible, but they just couldnt figure out what was wrong. I was told I probably had something undiscovered yet.

I went back to school my Senior year and lived it up, I had the best time of my life. I went to almost every Balls 6-8, I traveled, I laughed, I took my LSAT! I decided what I wanted to do with my life. I saw terrible doctor after terrible doctor, one who even lost her license for being terrible to children (for some reason I still saw a peds Dr-- second big mistake).

Finally! I thought my destiny was set, Id become an attorney, law school was starting in the Fall. For some reason I just couldn't get the hang of it, I was getting Bs and Cs but being as social as ever. Thats strange for a straight A student that could do both, go out every week and get As. I slowed down the socializing in the Spring, but things got worse. I couldn't concentrate, sometimes I couldn't read the words on the page, I got sick everyday. I slept, couldn't move (I also have RA so I thought it was just the arthritic asshole joints again). I started fainting, seizing, and then the paralysis started. I couldn't speak, I couldn't feel the right side of my body. The Dean took me to the Student Health Care Center, her best friend was the head physician.

The tests started again. Dr. W is owed my life! Her first test was my thyroid, and a lot of MRIs on my brain. She called me late at night... seven. Told me I needed to go to the pharmacy immediately and pick up a STAT prescription. I was about to go into thyroid crisis; I could have gone into a coma. My thyroid levels were about 80x what a normal woman my size should have.

Then the goiter popped up. Hockey Boy always joked that I had this great muscular neck; I obviously worked out. Im just a pilates girl, your neck stays the same size. My thyroid was so large I was rushed into a thyroid MRI. Numerous doctors and students came in to look and touch, I thought it was normal. Turns out it was the largest a lot of those students had seen. I couldn't even lower my head.

They pumped me full of meds, but I could barely eat or take them. My thyroid was preventing swallowing!

Following all the spectacle came the high pulse rate. I was in the 150s... resting! Not good! Got put on some great beta blockers and I started to even out.

Well I took a medical leave at the end of Spring, to allow me to actually get better. Well, Im still on it and wont be back in school until January. But its for the best!

This summer I learned what happens when you get stressed and dont take your medicine with my conditions-- you end up hospitalized for a long time.

If you think you could be: tired, always hot, way too energetic, too wide eyed (literally, big eyeballs), covered in a rash all of the time, pounding in your chest at all times, unable to sleep, weak in the knees, faint feeling quite often, having paralysis, having extreme migraines, having swollen lymph nodes, etc. GO GET YOUR THYROID CHECKED.  Your life could be falling apart like mine, but never let it get that far before you start taking care of yourself. Im lucky, but you can be just as lucky. Go do your research (do not WebMd because it will tell you that you have the plague), but ask your doctor what he thinks. If anything feels wrong, at all, go get your thyroid checked.

My Graves disease (which doesn't mean grave in a graveyard) caused POTS. Something super manageable if you actually manage it. If you have a thyroid condition and your pulse rate is still high and you're still experiencing pain your chest, dizziness and etc-- ask your doctor about it. I keep mine under control with sodium pills, rest, exercise, and lots of Gatorade!

I have a couple options, and they're all good options: I can have my thyroid removed surgically, I can radiate my thyroid (your thyroid is the only thing in your body that uses Iodine, they give you a pill of radioactive Iodine and it nukes your thyroid, BUT nothing else in your body is harmed, and the data shows that it doesn't cause birth defects), or what Im doing right now-- treating it with a special cocktail of medicine for 24 months and hoping for the best (the best is being one of the 7% that it works for)!

My life on medical leave is good! Im resting, Im being stress free and Im appreciating my life. Im reading books again (which is something you DO NOT do for fun in law school), I see my puppies all day everyday, and Im being adventurous. Yeah, sure, somedays I feel like Im going to die, that Im so sad Im just not normal, but life is GOOD! Life is something that I cherish, life is something that I definitely make as normal as possible.  I have fun! My thyroid is a part of me, a huge bulge in my life, but we've made it a member of the family. We even call her Bertha! Somedays she's small (on Jenny Craig), sometimes she's big and hungry, but most of the time she is seen but not heard.  

You rarely hear personal accounts about people's lives with thyroid problems, I thought it was about time!