I woke up the other morning and looked in the mirror... My right eyebrow had shrunk during the night. I'm sure that it was not really during the night but now, no amount of shaping will bring it back... Really, my right eyebrow? Seriously? My eyelashes have gotten thinner too. I use to have such long full eye lashes. People were jealous of them. Now, you could call them cute at best... At least my eyes are still pretty. And the clumps of hair in the shower continue. At least my family blessed me with the gene for thick hair. It will take Hashimoto's a while to affect it seriously. But my right eyebrow... Really? Hashimoto's decimated it. Awesome. Autoimmune diseases are great. Especially one that is as unique as the person who contracted it (So I am researching).
My voice is changing... More importantly, it's effecting my singing voice. I'm a little upset about this. I can still sing. I'm just noticing that the notes cannot be sustained for as long as I use to. Even still, my talking voice is raspy sometimes and my throat goes dry with little effort. Just out of no where, it will dry up and then I start coughing. I can be drinking something... Anything... And my voice will go hoarse and my throat will dry out. Wicked nice... So, I fight it with water and more fluids. Followed closely by gum and or some kind of hard candy (I feel so old). Let's not forget (how could I), the feeling like I have a sore throat all the time. Just a mild one... No biggy. Enough to be annoying. AAaaaand this feeling that there is something sitting at the base of my throat (kind of where my neck meets the shoulders). No, it's not just my neck... It just feels full. Of what, who knows.
I started taking better care of myself though. It turns out that allergy meds have cleared up my sinuses and have allowed for easier breathing. I've added calcium and magnesium to my supplement regimen and that seems to curb my involuntary movements and my tremors. *Yay* No more shaking hands! My biggest step has been going Gluten free... No more wheat for Rachel. Not even eating products that are made near wheat products. Nope, no more wheat for me. I feel so much better and I am sure that is what is making me not gain weight. Research has shown that going gluten free for Hashimoto's sufferers is the key to feeling good. And the next thing to exit the diet... High Fructose Corn Syrup. It's a little more difficult to get rid of that... The process is slow but each change, makes me feel better. I cut out half the caffeine from my morning coffee. Trust me, this was no small feet for me. A dedicated coffee and coffee mate drinker... I ran out of coffee mate this morning. Tomorrow, it's coffee and half-n-half. No sugar. Sugar is apparently bad too. I'm still thinking of that one. So, this has been quite a journey already... But I'm feeling positive.
I can still exercise (thank goodness!)... this ties into my cycling though. I go through days of being very sluggish and hypothyroid and then I go through days of being very up and hyperthyroid. Current state as a mater of fact is hyper... Trust me. When you have this, you get very much in tune with yourself. You know every change good or bad is related to something in the autoimmune condition. Where was I? dam... ADD is bad in the hyper time. Oh, yeah.... Exercising. I can so still do a lot of things. Planning a kayak day right now and I go hiking and walking when I can. People will know when I'm hypo... I won't really move too fast and I'll pretty much tell you that I'm going home to sleep. No amount of eating right will control this. I try and exercise each day. I own my own home so there is usually something physical that I need to do around here and that counts as exercise (hello, shoveling the driveway and mowing the lawn). Oh, speaking of all this exercise I added glucosamine for my aching joints. Turns out those aches I have had... Hashimoto's related. Those supplements have not done much for my muscle weakness but, I'm working on it. Research is slow these days. The main point is that I can still lead a very active life. As long as I recognize when I need to sleep. Of course, my body will just fall asleep when I need it so, there's really no arguing.
It has taken me a while to understand exactly what I have going on here. Hashimoto's while most doctors treat it as hypothyroidism, should be treated as an autoimmune disease... after all, that is what it is. I was lucky, my doctors caught mine really early... OR am I lucky? This disease can have some serious down bad awful days. The fact that it has had such an effect on my heart (speeding up to 400 bpm and then crashing in seconds to around 70) really sucks and makes me so tired. Mentally, it's kind of funny when I can't think of a word or I can't focus. I can pretty well distinguinsh between my slow, I can't think of the right word but I can see it in my mind, phase. And my 'OhmygodIcan'tfocusonanythinganditallrunstogether' hyperphase... So incredible the differences between the two distinct cycles I have the pleasure of still experiencing. Really cool when they happen days apart. Literally, I can go to bed in one phase and wake up in another. What's really interesting is that I can type and spell a word perfectly... No red squiggly line at all, my mind is telling me that it is spelled wrong.... Umm, really, I am just thinking of another word because my brain is like a toss salad at this point. Not to worry, it's not perminant. I'm perfectly fine and able to correct myself. I have a nice internal laugh at myself though. I think that's one of the most importnat things I have learned outside of really eating healthy and taking care of myself... I can laugh at myself.
Now, if only I could just figure out why my right eyebrow? Why is one of the markers of this disease the fact that the person loose the majority of their eyebrows?...
My voice is changing... More importantly, it's effecting my singing voice. I'm a little upset about this. I can still sing. I'm just noticing that the notes cannot be sustained for as long as I use to. Even still, my talking voice is raspy sometimes and my throat goes dry with little effort. Just out of no where, it will dry up and then I start coughing. I can be drinking something... Anything... And my voice will go hoarse and my throat will dry out. Wicked nice... So, I fight it with water and more fluids. Followed closely by gum and or some kind of hard candy (I feel so old). Let's not forget (how could I), the feeling like I have a sore throat all the time. Just a mild one... No biggy. Enough to be annoying. AAaaaand this feeling that there is something sitting at the base of my throat (kind of where my neck meets the shoulders). No, it's not just my neck... It just feels full. Of what, who knows.
I started taking better care of myself though. It turns out that allergy meds have cleared up my sinuses and have allowed for easier breathing. I've added calcium and magnesium to my supplement regimen and that seems to curb my involuntary movements and my tremors. *Yay* No more shaking hands! My biggest step has been going Gluten free... No more wheat for Rachel. Not even eating products that are made near wheat products. Nope, no more wheat for me. I feel so much better and I am sure that is what is making me not gain weight. Research has shown that going gluten free for Hashimoto's sufferers is the key to feeling good. And the next thing to exit the diet... High Fructose Corn Syrup. It's a little more difficult to get rid of that... The process is slow but each change, makes me feel better. I cut out half the caffeine from my morning coffee. Trust me, this was no small feet for me. A dedicated coffee and coffee mate drinker... I ran out of coffee mate this morning. Tomorrow, it's coffee and half-n-half. No sugar. Sugar is apparently bad too. I'm still thinking of that one. So, this has been quite a journey already... But I'm feeling positive.
I can still exercise (thank goodness!)... this ties into my cycling though. I go through days of being very sluggish and hypothyroid and then I go through days of being very up and hyperthyroid. Current state as a mater of fact is hyper... Trust me. When you have this, you get very much in tune with yourself. You know every change good or bad is related to something in the autoimmune condition. Where was I? dam... ADD is bad in the hyper time. Oh, yeah.... Exercising. I can so still do a lot of things. Planning a kayak day right now and I go hiking and walking when I can. People will know when I'm hypo... I won't really move too fast and I'll pretty much tell you that I'm going home to sleep. No amount of eating right will control this. I try and exercise each day. I own my own home so there is usually something physical that I need to do around here and that counts as exercise (hello, shoveling the driveway and mowing the lawn). Oh, speaking of all this exercise I added glucosamine for my aching joints. Turns out those aches I have had... Hashimoto's related. Those supplements have not done much for my muscle weakness but, I'm working on it. Research is slow these days. The main point is that I can still lead a very active life. As long as I recognize when I need to sleep. Of course, my body will just fall asleep when I need it so, there's really no arguing.
It has taken me a while to understand exactly what I have going on here. Hashimoto's while most doctors treat it as hypothyroidism, should be treated as an autoimmune disease... after all, that is what it is. I was lucky, my doctors caught mine really early... OR am I lucky? This disease can have some serious down bad awful days. The fact that it has had such an effect on my heart (speeding up to 400 bpm and then crashing in seconds to around 70) really sucks and makes me so tired. Mentally, it's kind of funny when I can't think of a word or I can't focus. I can pretty well distinguinsh between my slow, I can't think of the right word but I can see it in my mind, phase. And my 'OhmygodIcan'tfocusonanythinganditallrunstogether' hyperphase... So incredible the differences between the two distinct cycles I have the pleasure of still experiencing. Really cool when they happen days apart. Literally, I can go to bed in one phase and wake up in another. What's really interesting is that I can type and spell a word perfectly... No red squiggly line at all, my mind is telling me that it is spelled wrong.... Umm, really, I am just thinking of another word because my brain is like a toss salad at this point. Not to worry, it's not perminant. I'm perfectly fine and able to correct myself. I have a nice internal laugh at myself though. I think that's one of the most importnat things I have learned outside of really eating healthy and taking care of myself... I can laugh at myself.
Now, if only I could just figure out why my right eyebrow? Why is one of the markers of this disease the fact that the person loose the majority of their eyebrows?...
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