It’s funny how life goes by day after day and we get so caught up in our busy routines that we don’t pay attention to the warning signs. Warning signs in our relationships, warning signs with our finances and most importantly, warning signs about our health. We can so easily miss the little taps. We miss the taps that our body is giving us. We miss the “feedback.” that our body is giving us. And our body does gives us feedback all the time but this is irrelevant if we don’t pay attention to it. So after years of never feeling quite on top of my health and especially feeling so dreadfully awful these past 10 months, I decided I would pay attention to it, especially when I got a lump under my armpit. I thought, “Wow, what is that?” At first I thought it was an ingrown hair and I didn’t think much more of it, but it concerned me a little bit. Well, the one little lump turns into three lumps, so I end up with a triangular shape of three lumps. Of course I Google it and discover they’re my glands. So I continue on my self diagnosis (very dangerous with an overly creative mind like mine!) and type in all the symptoms; aching joints, anxiety and short tempered, extreme tiredness to the point where I would stay in bed all day, feeling cold even though it was summer, weight gain around my middle that I couldn't shake, a sense of loathing/depression, dry hair, brittle nails, sleepless nights, extreme lethargy in the morning and a second wind from 9pm – 2am etc etc. And, of course, I discover I have some incurable disease and I’m going to be dead in 48 hours!! You have got to love an extrovert, don’t you? We have to exaggerate everything, but joking aside, it still did shake me.
So for the next few days I just contemplated. I really sat and thought a lot about what this meant for me and, yes, I was concerned.
Then I recalled watching an Oprah show many years before, on hormones. I remember the women on the show saying how tired they were and they were just rattling off these symptoms that had come back to my conscious awareness. Now, if you happen to be younger or you’re sitting there in the arrogance of youth going, “This doesn’t apply to me because I’m so youthful and I’m so young”, I’d really like you to stop for a moment and think about that. If you’re in your 30’s, then this is when it can start and you can be peri-menopausal anywhere in your 30’s, getting to menopause, and then post-menopausal. It can happen at any age and to both men and women. One of the things that I’ve realized as I’ve gotten older is that we can flick off the future, especially when we’re young. We can dismiss invaluable education because it may not apply to us at this time. We need to support each other as a sisterhood (or brotherhood) regardless of the stage we are at.
As for the men, please keep reading. It applies to you too. Male hormones go through havoc as well and we just put it down to aging! This if for you too.
Back to the show! God love Oprah for putting on shows like this that just create some awareness. I had been to a few General Practitioners and a couple of naturopaths in the past, with these same symptoms, who all told me that I was fine. Two of them had tried to put me on anti depressants. I remembered a discussion around bio-identicals on this particular Oprah show and I thought, “Right, I’m going to do something about this.” To cut a long story short, I find myself a Bioidenticals MD, Dr Deuson in Encino CA. I undergo a saliva and blood test and discover that I have Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis and profound adrenal exhaustion. The other term for it is chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis. It is an autoimmune disease in which the thyroid gland is gradually destroyed by a variety of cells and antibody mediated immune processes. It was first described by a Japanese specialist who was Hashimoto Hakaru – Hakaru – in Germany in 1912. Well, I could have jumped in the air when he told me. When he started to rattle off the symptoms, I swear I felt like I was at a clairvoyant. I can honestly say this discovery has changed my life. After doing a 10-day thyroid detox and starting my bioidentical (natural) medication, my life has been reignited. I am now on a completely different eating plan. I have lost 7 pounds, have more energy than I have had in years and my naturally optimistic self is back! Wooo Hoooo!!!!
I wrote this article for you – if you have been feeling flat, overwhelmed or even just out of sorts, PLEASE seek out a bioidenticals MD and have some tests done. You might just get your life back and feel the sunshine once again! With much love, Terry xx
