Ode to my Thyroid

I never really knew you were there
just humming away.
Except when I gained weight
and cursed you.
Or when I ate early in the morning
just to get you going.
Then I knew you were there.
I lost forty pounds,
it was hard
Two years, working together,
at least I thought we were.
Then I knew you were there.
My voice was going in and out,
I didn’t know you weren’t alone.
She felt a lump in you,
he saw it on the screen.
Cancer on one side,
Hashimoto’s disease on the other.
Who is Hashimoto, he can have
his disease back.
I knew you weren’t there,
awakening, groggy, in unbearable
pain, you hurt so much, even though
you were gone.
Good-bye my thyroid,
take that tumor with you.
I’m so fucking tired, I wish
you were still here,
alone...

Scar

This is the scar a week and half after surgery. The little drain was already closed. *After surgery he left a drain for any fluids and had the stitch placed in it, when he felt the drain was no longer needed he just tighted the stitches to close the drain. Pain free.

Things I Have Learned:

When they say wait an hour to eat – wait an hour and a half.

Don’t take your multivitamin until and hour and a half after you have taken your synthroid or the absorption of your meds will be blocked.

Just say no – to soy! Strange but true, soy also blocks absorption.

Don’t take any antacids for four hours after taking your synthroid.

If you take 5-HTP or other vitamin supplements wait the hour and a half on those as well.

The doctor didn’t want to give me any more than 200 mcg. or there would be no wiggle room for them if I ever needed more, like for pregnancy or something. I was taking the max and my levels were not dropping anymore. I had to keep taking the 200 mcg. and finding other ways to make sure my body absorbed it.

The best way to assure that you take your meds and hour and a half before eating in the morning I found is the set your alarm an hour and a half before you awaken. Keep a glass of water and the pills on your bedside table. Only wake up long enough to swallow the pill and crash right back out. Don’t get up for anything, I find I can’t get back to sleep if I do. Sometimes I am so sleepy when I take it when I actually wake up for the day I forget if I did or not, so I just check the water. If there is no water, I took my pill. This system has worked great for me. Let me know what works for you!

Part Two

Well, here I am starting part two, so I thought I’d start a blog and share with you. I hope that there are other people without a thyroid out there too, who will be able to add comments and offer help. There is a lot of information on the net for people with thyroid disease but not much information I could find for living well without your thyroid, beyond the usual take your medicine...

I am on synthroid 200 mcg a day.

Life without a thyroid.

Part One: Sucked. Medicine regulation is taking 8 months and I am almost there. TSH Level 10.

Part Two: Losing the thirty pounds I gained when I lost my thyroid.

Part Three: Happily Ever After