A few years ago, I began having what seem to be an all-systems breakdown of my body. My body temperature seemed all over the place. I was having allergic reactions to all sorts of food. I was sleeping too much and then too little; always exhausted. My hair was falling out. My skin was really dry. The list went on and on. I began describing the litany of symptoms to my doctors. As I was going through a particularly stressful time in my life, each doctor said these symptoms were due to stress or being a new mother. After insisting something wasn't right, the doctors ran some standard blood tests. NORMAL. Then, I wound up in the hospital after a 24 hour digestive attack, not once but twice! More blood tests ensued. Nothing, blood work was NORMAL. Ultrasounds were performed. NORMAL. But I didn't feel normal and I'm not one for spending my days in doctors' offices and hospitals. I didn't even birth my child in a hospital. I had a natural home birth and now I'm begging my husband to call an ambulance during each of these digestive attacks. I was scared. I didn't know what to do. I hoped that this all was due to stress knowing that this stressful period in our lives was about to end. So I waited and worked on managing stress. Nothing. No change. I still felt terrible. "Oh well," I thought. This must be what motherhood feels like.
Then a miracle happened. We were visiting a new integrative doctor for my son and he took one look at me and said, "What's going on with you?" I had never met him before but he saw right away my suffering. I broke down in tears and described my symptoms to him and he said," I know what this is but let's give you a blood test to prove it". Sure enough, he knew what it was. I had Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. What a relief - we finally knew what was going on and it had a name! Now, what were we going to do about it?
I learned very quickly that the standard medical community believes there is no cure for Hashimoto's. The belief is that one will be on medication for life or have to have the thyroid removed. This is the reason most doctors don't perform the full thyroid panel in the blood test. Regardless of the outcome, the treatment method is the same. Life-long medication.
Luckily, my new doctor, Dr. Sadeghi, had a different take. There was hope. My body could heal itself and he would help guide me on this path. I wasn't alone. I wasn't crazy. I WAS going to get better.
This blog is about my journey to healing myself of Hashimoto's in a gentle, natural way. It is a forum for the exchange of helpful ideas for those dealing with Hashimoto's. It is not only my story. I want to hear from you and what you've had success with and what your challenges have been.
We are not alone. We are not crazy. And, we now have a support group for additional methods of healing ourselves from Hashimoto's. Thank you for being a part of my healing!
