Sorry about the long(ish) silence. I’ve had quite a stressful couple of weeks. Well, more like couple of years in fact. But finally I can at least hope that it all has a logical explanation and hopefully even a cure.
I don’t want to go into any long-winded medical explanations here, but I’ll give an overview of my situation, just in case there’s someone else out there with similar symptoms who, like me still two weeks ago, has no idea what they might indicate.
So, where to begin. About two years ago I noticed I was losing more hair than normal. It freaked me out a bit, and because I was having a very erratic menstrual cycle at the time I thought these things might be related and went to see a gynecologist. She ordered a bunch of blood test and put me on some weird hormones to supposedly normalise my cycle and told me the hair loss was normal and probably stress-induced. The hormones didn’t do a whole lot other than seriously affect my moods so after eating a course of them I knocked them on the head.
Life went on and I was too busy or too tired to have the energy to concentrate on the way I was feeling. In the meanwhile my cycle got longer and longer and I lost more and more hair. I’m always tired no matter how much or little I sleep. Also, I often feel a bit angsty and sort of disconnected. But I never thought these things would be related in any way. This autumn I finally woke up to the fact that my hair is nearly half the thickness it used to be and once I started getting these awful pains in my scalp I finally booked an appointment with a dermatologist. She thought that adding my main symptoms together it sounded a lot like an under active thyroid and ordered some blood test, results of which supported the theory.
Meanwhile S had found out more about under active thyroids, and when I started reading through websites I was shocked to find that I had nearly each and every symptom related to the condition. I was so furious that no doctor had ever even suggested this might be the problem, when it seemed so very obvious! The main symptoms of Hypothyroidism are:
– tiredness (check)
– hair loss (check)
– anxiety/depression (yup)
– weight gain (yes, in spite of any healthy diets)
– abnormal menstrual cycle (ha ha)
– muscle cramps and joint pain (check)
– brain fog (it has a name!!)
– dry skin (check)
– feeling cold/cold hands & feet (anyone can testify to my freakishly cold hands/feet :D)
– etc.
So off I went to an internal medicine specialist, who ordered yet more expensive and complicated blood tests, which were taken last week. Gosh, I feel like I’ve been to the doctors practically every day these past weeks. While waiting for the test result I found out from my dad that his mother had in fact suffered from an under active thyroid and even had a goitre. Also my own mother just had her regular health check which showed that her thyroid was underperforming somewhat as well. So yay, all this time I’ve had it in my genes from both sides and yet I never even knew what a thyroid really is or what it does!
Today I finally went to see the doctor again to get my test results back. Everything was normal apart from the thyroid values and some adrenal gland thingy, for which I’m going in for a few more expensive and complicated tests tomorrow. But I finally got my diagnosis, and best of all, a prescription for thyroxine. It feels wonderful knowing that there’s a possibility that I will feel better and that I’m not just nuts or lazy or a hypochondriac or whatever. So yeah, tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life as a healthier person. Hopefully.
Resources:
Bupa
NHS direct
Patient.co.uk