There's a Frog in my Throat

A while back I mentioned getting my thyroid back in order. I've now taken the first step to do so. I've made an appointment for Monday to get some bloodwork done (yuck) and to see if that will help my moods and such.

I'd like to take a minute to share with you how it was ever out of order now. I find it interesting that SO many people now are coming up with adult-set thyroid disorders and now Oprah is talking all about thyroid problems so it's oh so fresh on everyone's tongues. Well, when I was ten years old before I'd ever even heard of what a thyroid was, I was experiencing problems with mine.

A bit of hereditary history though. My grandfather had extreme mood swings and anger issues they later discovered were due to his thyroid not producing thyroxine (I think that's what it is called) like it should have been. He had more than half of the gland removed and now is a teddy bear and a half. His mother also had issues as does my mother, although hers have struck her later in life. I knew none of this at 10 years old. All I knew is that when I took my 5th grade school picture for the first time, there was a mighty large lump in my throat in the photo and was forced to retake it and go to the doctor. I didn't know that my mood swings, my anger and my incessant sleeping were because of that lump as well. I thought I was just a normal child. What followed next was traumatizing for little ol me.

After the initial discovery of my lump, my goiter (which has now made a reappearance - slight but it is definitely there), I spent a few days in and out of the oncology department of the hospital. I was injected with some weird dyes, held under some large and scary machines which were to read how much of the weird dye went to my thyroid and how much went to my knee??? There was lots of bloodwork done and lots of really scary and really overwhelming moments for m that I didn't understand. New outfits were bought for each of the little 'procedures' I had to endure and Goldie's meals were had before each of them but all of that wasn't enough to make it ok for a 10 year old to go through. After the hospital work, they determined that I had an enlarged and overactive thyroid which explained my waif-like frame, my anger problems, and my sleeping issues. I was put on meds and seemed to even out quite quickly. Even I, as a child, noticed a difference. Every six months I had to go to the doctor and have more blood work done to check that the levels were still balanced and if not, my prescription would change. I was told I would have to do this for the rest of my life. Not too exciting for a child to hear.

In eighth grade, I went in for another one of my appointments where my endocrinologist would feel my neck, have my put out my hands to see if was shaky and would ask me various questions followed by more bloodwork. That particular appointment he felt something odd with the actual gland and worried that the strange shape that he felt might be a tumor. Great, fourteen years old and I was given a cancer scare (one of four I've had in my young life). I went back to the hospital and had MORE bloodwork done and an ultrasound done to tell me that my thyroid was just strange shaped, not cancerous, just weird; like me.

Years passed and many pills were swallowed. In college my thyroid levels were so good my doctor told me that if I wanted to, I could be weened off of my pills and with blood tests every once in a while, I could live without a pill every morning. This was SO appealing but scary at the same time because I could barely remember NOT having to take these pills that helped regulate me for most of my life. I rejected the idea at that point but a year or so later on my own accord, I stopped taking my pills and haven't taken them since.

Now, six or seven years later, I find myself having mood swings again, battling anxiety and depression, not sleeping like I used to and losing lots of weight. Oh, for those of you who keep asking me what my weight loss secret is, I believe it's having a thyroid disorder. I wouldn't subscribe to it if I were you. As you remember, I'm taking this year to give myself priority again and to become 'normal' again and step one of this in my personal book is to check my thyroid back out again as much as I don't want to.

So there's the story of the bump in my throat. Hopefully I'm just a little off and all will be regulated well again soon. Keep your fingers crossed for me and I'll let you know what becomes of the bump.