Get a Buddy!

Hi friends,

I have an idea to share. I think it’s big.

Here is what I’ve noticed… all this hypothyroid stuff is overwhelming! There is so much to learn. We have low energy, difficulty coping with everyday tasks and have foggy thinking. So simple things for other people, like calling a doctor, ordering labs, learning about medicine, etc… is totally overwhelming for us hypothyroid peeps. How can we possibly find our way to treatment alone?

That’s when I realized: We need to Get a Buddy to help us through! It’s one small thing that will hopefully change everything.

Here’s what to do. Find someone you trust (who won’t nag or judge) and ask them to be your support buddy. You might fear it’s an imposition but it’s really not. Helping you on the road to good health helps everyone in your world. So a good friend, mom, sister or coworker may be happy to step up.

Ask your buddy to read about hypothyroidism (like my worksheet and symptoms list, or Stop the Thyroid Madness). Send them this blog post. They can do the simple tasks that may be overwhelming for you like:

 

 

Do you like this idea? Are you feeling a huge sigh of relief? I hope so! So find a buddy today and be okay with asking for help. Trust me, we all need it! And when you feel better you can help someone else.

xxxo

Lizzy

 

Miss LizzyGet a Buddy!

Hypothyroid Symptom: Inability to Stand for Long Periods of Time

There are so many random symptoms with hypothyroidism, like the inability to stand for long periods of time, I often thought these things were unrelated. At times doctors even told me they were unrelated. So I wanted to describe the symptoms to help you know to look out for with tired legs.

The inability to stand for long periods of time made activities like food shopping, cooking, cleaning, going to the mall, mowing the lawn really exhausting for me.  I didn’t have leg endurance. You may be thinking: “Don’t most people find shopping exhausting?”  To some extent I think yes.  However for me this was a unique kind of tiredness in the legs. An achy kind of feeling in the muscles, hips and joints, rather than muscle soreness, which I realize now is totally different. Forget going to Disney World or the zoo.

Walking for hours like this would be exhausting. I would have to take breaks and sit on a bench (mind you at 30 years old, I ought to be able to walk more than 30 minutes without fatigue!). Naturally, I didn’t have a basis for comparison, so I didn’t realize how tired my legs were all the time.  After getting on the right hypothyroid and adrenal treatment, I am now able to stand or walk for hours without tiring. And no more of that achy leg feeling.

Shockingly, now that I am getting the right thyroid treatment, I never get tired when food shopping and I can do it wearing high heels (crazy, I know!).  Equally shocking, I can go shopping and still have energy to run three miles, mow the lawn, and clean the house. All in the same day…

Before getting treatment just one of these activities would exhaust me for days. Of course, my treatment may not work for everyone. But if you have find it difficult to stand for long periods of time its worth learning more about hypothyroidism as possible cause. xxoo Lizzy

Miss LizzyHypothyroid Symptom: Inability to Stand for Long Periods of Time

Fear of Failing My Lab Work

Ever since my first lab work for Hypothyroid testing came back “normal,” I have a terrible fear of failing my labs. I always knew my body wasn’t working right, but year after year the lab work claimed otherwise. Frustrating! And the doctors only believed the numbers, they didn’t believe me. It was a dreadful feeling. In my heart I knew something was wrong.  But somehow I felt like a liar, because see there, the numbers don’t lie so it must be me. But how does one actually fail at lab work?

Its easy to feel judged and criticized if doctors only look at labs. Therein lies the problem.  It wasn’t my lab work that was failing, I hadn’t found the right kind of doctor, someone who looked at the lab work but also listened to how I felt.

When I finally found the doctor who treated me (let’s call him Dr. B) he explained that lab work has ranges of normal, but “normal” is different for everyone. In addition to lab work, he said we needed to look at symptoms, as well as a my “sense of self” (meaning, trust my own instinct about my health). Hallelujah!  This philosophy about medicine was totally different from my past experiences.

Here is a great example of where symptoms and labs didn’t line up, where my lab work failed me.  In my situation, my TSH was low before getting treatment. Currently with treatment my TSH is .01.  By the standards of many doctors and Endocrinologists this TSH level is considered suppressed, which means they would take me off thyroid medicine immediately (horrifying). Yet with suppressed TSH, I feel better now than I ever felt in my life.  My Hypothyroid symptoms are almost all gone. Its confusing when the labs say one thing but your body says something else. Luckily my doctor looks beyond labs.

Still many doctors and Endocrinolgists are using the unreliable TSH test results to diagnose Hypothyroidism. According to my experience and patients on Stop the Thyroid Madness TSH is not a reliable marker for Thyroid function. If treatment is based entirely on the TSH test, how many people out there are “failing at lab work” and not getting treated?

So beware any doctor who makes you feel like a Hypothyroid failure!  It may not be the lab work after all.

xxoo

Lizzy

 

Miss LizzyFear of Failing My Lab Work