Thanks so much for everyone's nice words when my doggie passed last year. It hit me very hard but I'm now finally seeing the light of day again. :) (Spring is here!)
I feel so bad about not being on LJ much the last couple of years. I have an FB page, because it's a good way to be found if someone wants to find you, but I avoid it as much as possible because I loath Facebook. It *has* made me realize how much I love LJ (and my friends here.)
Anyway, a short bit about where I've been - turns out I have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. I've probably had it since I was about 10 but never got diagnosed until last year. It's frequently mistaken for Manic/Depression. The last few years I've mostly dealt with the depression side. I'm finally on thyroid replacement and feeling much better!
If you have a bunch of small things wrong with you: depression, insomnia, slowed thinking, thinning hair, skin problems, feeling cold or running a below-normal temp, easy weight gain (and you may find the weight hard to lose), joint and muscle pain, arrhythmia, high cholesterol, etc etc, it could be your thyroid,
even if all your doctors insist your thyroid tests are normal. (I recommend you search for a doctor who's open to alternative medicine for help.)
Because Hashimotos can make your thyroid overactive at times, you may briefly have the opposite of many thyroid symptoms, may even be thin without dieting, run a low fever while feeling well, and might even be manic at times and feel better than great.
Thyroid problems frequently occur in women during and after pregnancy and might be the cause of both pre-eclampsia and postpartum depression. (Pregnancy's tough on thyroids.)
Every organ and system in your body relies on thyroid hormones, especially your brain. In days past, women afflicted with hypothyroidism were often times institutionalized as "mad." One doctor finally identified thyroid as the cause, calling it myxdemia (hypothryoidism) madness. It was easily cured by taking thyroid hormones.
Men and women can have it at any age (even babies and little kids can have it.) Most people in the US probably have it to a certain degree by middle age. Alternative doctors think it's far more common than supposed and massively undiagnosed. (The pharmaceutical companies make fortunes with expensive drugs that just treat the many symptoms and so have little interest in research or cure.)
It's speculated that it's caused by the bromine in our bread, the fluoride and chlorine in our water, the lack of iodine in our food (dairies used to use iodine to disinfect their milking sheds so milk used to be a dietary source of iodine, but now dairies use chlorine.) And how many of us are cutting down on our (iodized) salt? Increased soy in our diets may be another cause. Possibly EMF waves and x-rays too. That's speculation. I don't know.
I think I had it following a bout of strep throat when I was 10, but my mother had it, so it may be inherited. (It tends to runs in families, although not always.) It got worse the last few years as I switched to sea salt, swam more in a pool, and replaced meat and milk with soy in my diet, until I ached all the time, constantly fought foggy thinking, and wondered why I always felt choked, cold, tired but unable to sleep, and heard a new scratchiness in my voice and figured it meant I was just getting old. My psoriasis got worse and my hair thinned and lost its curl. I began to live in slow motion. (Most of those symptoms have improved on thyroid replacement.)
Do you have it...? Look at your eyebrows. Are the outer ends thinning? That's one of the most common symptoms. Vertical ridges on your fingernails are said to be another. A lump in your throat near your windpipe is an enlarged thyroid and a sure symptom of an advanced condition. You can see it if you tip your head back in front of a mirror while you swallow a sip of water.
An untreated thyroid condition is extremely dangerous. It can lead to suicide in cases of severe depression, heart disease, morbid obesity and many other serious complications.
Anyway, I'm back as much as I can be. I'm even sewing again! In fact I've opened a commission shop on Den of Angels and Resinality. (Not a plug, just a sign of life! :D ) I really do hope to be more active here soon. <3 Thanks to everyone who stuck with me through quiet years. I really appreciate all of you!
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