How to deal with hypothyroidism?
I am 21 and just found out that I have hypothyroidism. I have been going to several doctors over the years because of severe joint and overall body pain, mood swings, depression, anxiety, fatigue, and of course not being able to sleep. For years no one knew what was wrong until a simple blood test revealed hypothyroidism. I am currently waiting to see a endocrinologist later this month, but my regular doctor has put me on cytomel. I feel horrible... I can barely move my body because of the pain and I do have a lot of the fibromyalgia symptoms, so I plan on asking about that. I'm just wondering if anyone has any words of wisdom because this is starting to ruin my life and Im so young. It's frustrating to feel like this everyday and even though my loved ones are supportive they don't get how agonizing this is. My pain is invisible and sometimes I feel like they think Im crazy. The pain is definitely making me more depressed. Any advice would be great!
Public Comments
1. You have been given a drug to replace the thyroid hormone that your body is not producing. You may have to be on the drug for a while before you achieve good results. You may have to adjust the dose or try another drug to achieve good results. Or you could have hypothyroidism and another disease. When your thyroid level is within normal, you need to evaluate your symptoms and take it from there.2. There is a very informative book that was just released. It's called Stop The Thyroid Madness. It was written by a patient/ thyroid advocate Janie Bowthorpe. Go to www. laughinggrapepublishing.com to order the book. It tells you everything you need to know, medications, lab tests to ask for etc.
3. I agree with Tammyj4 about checking out the book she recommended. Please read as much as you can on the internet about hypothyroidism, particulary about the need for T3 in additon to the usually-prescribed T4-only meds. It is critical that you are a well-informed patient. I learned a lot from stopthethyroidmadness.com, which is a patient-to-patient resource for people with hypo.
Take care,
:) Judy
