Hashimoto's

[Guest guest]

Hi beth. Thanks for your query about Hashimoto's. Some people

have it on our list, but not enough people to make me think it is

connected to thyroid cancer.

Hashimoto's is a self-allergy. Every time my thyroid worked to

dispense thyroid hormone, my body turned around and tried to turn off

my thyroid. So as you can see, there was nothing wrong with my

thyroid. It is just that my body kept turning it off. The thyroid

produces only a thimble-full of hormone every year, but if you don't

get that thimble-full, you are big-time outta luck.

Hashimoto's has numerous symptoms. These symptoms, with age, can

stay the same, decrease, get worse, or get more numerous. Having

Hashimoto's can put you at risk to get other diseases, too.

The thyroid regulates how fast the body runs (its metabolism). When

the thyroid functions poorly, the body can either slow too much down

or too fast up.

In my case, it was too slow. My normal temperature was lower than

everyone else's. I got dry skin, hair loss, and ovulated only 3

times per year. Around ovulation, I slowed even further down,

because thyroid disease is also influenced by sex hormones. I got

tired, noticeably pale to others, not hungry, gained weight, and even

breathed more shallow. At night in my sleep I scratched myself until

I bled, which sometimes happens with Hashimoto's patients; it is a

reaction when you are sleeping to your body getting colder.

Some of these symptoms are similar to going hypo.

After pregnancy, my symptoms became a lot worse. It is not uncommon

for the sex hormones of pregnancy to permanently worsen Hashimoto's.

I became so low (at ovulation) as to be suicidal. My blood thyroid

levels at that time dropped considerably.

Synthroid helps some, but it is just a method of coping, not a cure.

Hashimoto's can put you at risk for other stuff. So much other stuff

that you don't really even want to think about it, because you would

drive yourself crazy if you did, and who wants to spend that much

time worrying? Some of the stuff you may get, some you might not

get. No one knows what will happen to you and no one can prevent it

from happening.

Some of the stuff you can get is a minor chronic irritation. Some of

the stuff is a major problem.

I'll give some examples of problems. Here's just one of the minor

irritations: it made me prone to fungus infections on my scalp. I

have to use stuff on it once a week or it creeps from my scalp to all

over my forehead, ears, and eyes.

I'd say that one of the worst of the major problems I ended up with

is that it limited my ovulation cycle, which then led to uterine

build-up, which then led to precancerous uterine tissue that I have

to have biopsied and ultrasounded every year.

Hashimoto's is hereditary in my family. My mother has it, her two

sisters, my mother's mom, and my mother's mom's mom.

I will say this other weird thing, which you can believe or not. But

several of the women in my family who have had Hashimoto's also have

second sight (they occasionally know something is going to happen

before it does). If second sight is a truly real ability, and I now

believe it is, somehow perhaps the ability is carried on the same

gene strand as Hashimoto's. At least this theory, that there is some

benefit to having Hashimoto's, beats all heck out of the idea that

Hashimoto's is all bad!

---Jan

> Jan,

>

> Lots of people on this site have Hashimoto's. I don't even know

what it is? Do you mind a short explanation? What are the

symptoms? How did you find out you had it? And does all it effect

is your tg antibodies? Now . . . tg antibodies . . . just means your

tg tests are inaccurate, right? So you rely more on your scan?

>

> Interesting that I have never been tested for them. But then I

haven't had any bloodwork post-RAI.

>

> beth

> Re: Tg antibodies

>

>

> Hi beth. I have tg antibodies. Mine read off the map; last

time

> tested, at higher than 90. Prior to getting thyca at 48, I had

> Hashimoto's thyroiditis since I was a teenager. Hashimoto's runs

in

> my family. So I have had a long time, almost my whole life so

far,

> to generate antibodies. said something about antibodies

> disappearing maybe over time. Ha ha, in my case that should be

in

> maybe thirty years I suspect!!!

>

> ---Jan

>

>

>