Hypothyroid

Hypothyroidism means your thyroid is not making enough thyroid hormone. The thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland in the front of your neck. It makes hormones that control the way your body uses energy.

Hypothyroidism can cause many different symptoms, such as:

• Feeling tired, weak, or depressed.
• Dry skin and brittle nails.
• Not being able to stand the cold.
• Constipation.
• Memory problems or having trouble thinking clearly.
• Heavy or irregular menstrual periods.

I found out about my thyroid when my second child was 4 months old.  I had just found out we (my ex husband and I) were shockingly pregnant again with our son.  I went to the office to confirm my pregnancy and lo and behold I gained about 35-40lbs (I can’t remember the exact amount now but know it was in that area).  I knew this was NOT accurate because I had lost ALL my baby weight PLUS some by my 6 week check up.  I knew that I wasn’t eat any more than I normally did so it just didn’t make any sense!

Months prior my OB said that I had a goiter til this day I still don’t get why he didn’t test me then like my mother told me I should have him do!  But he didn’t, so this time “I” requested the test.  I still won’t forget the look on his face like okay, yeah I will entertain your idea of a wacked out thyroid but really I think you just eat too much look!  Believe me, this is a look!  Not even 48 hrs later I get a frantic call back from the nurse telling me that I need to be on medication ASAP because my levels were 3 times what they should be and I risked miscarriage!  HA! see I told ya so….

After that I only gained 18lbs in the whole pregnancy!  This is really when I started to learn just how easy you are judged just because you are overweight!  It has now been 9 years I have dealt with hypothyroidism.  It’s been a long journey because one of the things that sucks about hypothyroidism is when you levels go wonky and you gain a ton of weight by doing NOTHING at all to gain it, once you get your levels back to normal YOU get the joys of losing all that weight yourself!  And BELIEVE me it doesn’t come off as quickly as it came on!  This has been a huge cause to my increased weight over the years because doctors are having a hard time keeping my numbers normal!  I have went to .5 mg’s to taking 200 mg’s over the years.

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