I've noticed a change in my weight and an increased sense of fatigue over the past few months that I have been struggling to resolve.  After a few months I realized my thyroid could be to blame and I simply needed to change the dosage of my thyroid medication.  Well an ultrasound, some blood work, and a lot of waiting later I found myself seeing an Endocrinologist this morning.

Here is what I learned.  Although I've suffered from hypothyroidism since the third grade, some where along the way I developed another disease, Hashimoto's Thyroiditis.  Yes, it is named after a cool Japanese scientist.  Basically, there is a hormone in your brain that is supposed to coexist with your hormones from your thyroid, but the hormones from my brain are attacking my thyroid.  The normal level for these hormones are 35 or less.  I have 544.  Cool.

The disease has a lot of side effects and I have a history with seven of the sixteen symptoms.  One of the few I don't have is hair loss.  However, now my dad is convinced he has this too.  Doubtful, because it is 5 times more likely to occur in women.

The super cool thing though?  These awesome ladies also have it:

• Kim Cattrall
• Jillian Michaels
• Oprah Winfrey

There's nothing I can really do about all of this but stay positive.  It's not life threatening and I've already been living with the worst of these side effects.  The only scary one left on the list is infertility, but my family has absolutely no history of this so I'll just continue to pray that when the time comes I won't have to worry about this.

The more you know.

Labels: Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, hypothyroidism, thyroid