Goodbye Thyroid

After many years of getting ultrasounds, and bloodwork and increasing dosages of levothyroixine ... I had to say goodbye to my Thyroid.  On August 30, of 2010 I went to my endocrinologist and he informed me that because my nodules had continued to grow and because my thyroid continued to grow I would need to have it removed.    Oh no.!!!!!!  This is not what I wanted to hear, I had been praying for years and years that I would not get to that point; after all my thyroid had become someting I thought about on a daily basis. Every morning after taking my medicine I would think about it..  I had a very difficult time with the idea of losing my thyroid.   But off I went to the ENT and after her feeling my neck and telling me that I had a large goiter and that she too felt was best I get it removed, I knew it was time to say goodbye.    I didn't want to say goodbye and I had lots of questions (Was I going to gain weight?,  Was I going to have the energy to run?, Would my voice be the same?, What about the scar on my neck?) but of course everyone had different answers to my questions.  Some where good and some where not so good.    

It was time to weigh my options do I keep this gland that may continue to grow and eventually cause problems with eating and breathing, or do I remove it.   Of course everyone had their opinions and I just kept hoping that I would wake up and my thyroid would have miraculously shrunk but it didn't so off I went to surgery.  

I had to say goodbye to the butterfly in my neck, the thing that had become my friend, the friend that I would think about every morning. The tiny little gland;well except in my case the big overgrown gland that was allowing me to get up and run in the morning and would work as hard as it could so I could run and go to work, even though it was hanging by a thread.. I knew in someway I was going to miss it.

On September 30, 2010 I had my thyroid removed and the road to recovery began.

I have what??? Hashimotos .. sounds like a sushi!

Spring of 2005
Going to graduate school, working full time and being tired is normal right???   Well, I thought it was until I went to my doctor due to a cold.     Lucky me, I go to my doctor but she is out, so I get to see the quack doctor that is filling in for her.    I say quack doctor because she reminded me of a gypsy from her manerisims to her clothing.   So this is where my story begins:
The doctor feels around my neck and says "You have nodules and a goiter" you need to go to an endocrinologist and get your thyroid checked.        My response "Huh, what's a thyroid and what's a goiter and what nodules???   This lady is a quack I am going to someone else.   So off I go to another doctor who happens to be a family friend ( he has to know what he is talking about because he is a family friend).  He feels my neck and says, "Yes you do have a goiter/enlarged thyroid" I am not sure about the nodules because I can't feel them but it's possible., I am going to have you get some blood work done to test your TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) and an ultrasound.      So off I go, and sure enough my blood work comes back okay but the ultrasound shows an enlarged thyroid and nodules.     Thanks to my strange results, the doctor sends me to an Endocrinologist.  He does further test and I am told.......

You have hypothyroidism, actually you have Hashimotos. You also have nodules and we need to check for cancer.  SAY WHAT!!!!!!!  Cancer???     Hashimotos what in the world is that???       Hashimotos is an autoimmune disorder, for some unknown reason you body decides to attack your thyroid cells.    So off I go to have a biopsy of the nodules.  Results come back as non-cancerous, but I still have to deal with this Hashimotos thing that sounds like some sort of Sushi.     So I am given the infamous levothyroxine at a low dose, along with a trip back to the endocrinologist and ultrasound to re-check and the adventure begins