Thyoliday Blues & Truths

Intro:



Thyroid diseases and thyroid cancers are fun, right? Unfortunately not; they deeply affect us as patients and our families, indelibly leaving an imprint on our minds, bodies and souls. None of it is easy. If we’re going to bring awareness to this disease, we have to come together as a family. Our collective voices have the power to invoke change. Because the holidays are a time of celebration with the people we love and a time to reflect, what better way to ignite change, and move our stories forward, oh and have a laugh along the way, than to connect with each other?







Bio: I'm a senior in high school. The holidays have been my favorite time of year. My siblings come back into town from college. I get to eat what I want. And the best part no school.







1) Have the holidays and your experience of them changed since you've been diagnosed?



They have changed some, for one I cannot up at all hours of the night. I have to be careful about what I eat, my mood, and other things that are supposed to be all bubbles and smiles during the holiday.



2) What is your favorite holiday food/dish from childhood? What is your favorite dish now? (Did you have to change your diet at all since being diagnosed?)



Well since I'm still technically a child. My favorite is a sasage and egg cassorle we have for Chrismas breakfast.



3) Off the top of your head, is there one comment from friends or family that sticks out in your mind as a what-were-they-thinking kind of thing that brought your disease front and center for everyone at the holiday function to hear about?



Probaly, "what's a thyriod?" But most of my family get's it, I have been diagnosed for 2 years so.



4) How do you get through the stress of the holidays, paired with a disease? What are your coping strategies? Yoga, being able to get away from everyone. And I sometimes forget certain things.



5) Do you feel the need to enlighten and educate your loved ones about your disease when you get together for holidays, as people are often curious about our illnesses? If so, how do you educate them? Not really, if they ask about it I will but I don't openly go around the holiday dinner saying "I'm sick!!!"



6) Has your disease ever showed up at the wrong time on a holiday and ruined the day or moment? Yes, I hate being triend on new years it's the worse.



7) Have you thought about submitting a letter to Dear Thyroid? If so, would your letter be a love letter or a hate letter? Would it be to your thyroid or from your thyroid? I have it was a love to hate you letter.



8) If you could tell the world one thing about thyroid disease (or thyroid cancer) that you feel they don’t understand, what would it be? That it is really not me crying it's my thyriod.



9) What is the greatest misconception regarding thyroid disease and thyroid cancer? That I'm crazy. That I'm not the same person any more. That's what gets on my nerves when I see someone from middle or elementry school and say. Why have you changed?



10) What is the stupidest thing someone has said to you regarding your illness that, to this day, still makes you laugh or makes you angry? "You look great, have you loss weight?" and I would say every time, yes it has every other month my weight does go up and down, thanks for noticing beocha.







Dear Thyroid is a literary thyroid support community and blog. Thyroid patients are invited to submit Dear Thyroid letters; love letters and hate letters, among other thyroid literary things, such as Thyrants, Thygraphs, Thykus, Thyetry and Thysongs, etc. Our goals are for all of us as a community of patients to connect with each other and our diseases, and to bring awareness to thyroid diseases and thyroid cancers, we need and deserve a face and a voice. For our non-literary crew, we have monthly Flickr pools. Recently, we launched Dear Thyroid Local Meet Ups for offline support. Dear Thyroid Forums are forthcoming in December.

Pre-New Moon Movie, on Bella

So far I have only had post about Hashi's and the other part of this blog is SENIOR YR, which sadly/happily involves Stephanie Myers' Twilight Saga. Here comes the sadly, I am a devoted fan of, I am Team Jacob, (because stalkers aren't as hot as they seem), I have the first movie, and multiple posters of Taylor Launtner in my room. I read, watch, love Twilight, because who wouldn't want eternal life especially with Hasi's and it would be great if a immortal man could save me from it, but sadly I would pick living life instead of watching it. This post is my pre-movie-post. When I see the movie, after all of the tweens are done screaming at Jacob's shirtless-god-like chest, I will post a second blog.

Even though I prefer much more interesting vampire/werewolf stories like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Patricia Brigg's Mercy Thompson series I still put Twilight on my list of favorites. Yes it is a story for squealing tweens who don't know that vampires can't go into your room without you letting them. Or the fact that werewolves are 'moon called' and the shape shifters that Myers created shouldn't have been called werewolves in the first place.
I hope that this movie gives me what I want, an hour and thirty minutes away from tests, sonograms, soy-free, and gluten-low life. I wish the Bella was more of a well - feminist, because at 18 you should be attached to one guy no-matter how broody or sparkly. I wish that Bella could save herself like so many of us thyroid patients already do. Even Buffy manages to kill her vampire (yes Spike this one counts for you) and saves the world doing it.

I have problems with the books because the changed the meaning of sexy vampire to abstinence-only vampire. Because werewolves howl at the moon. Because vampires sizzle in the sun. Because stalkers are creepy. Because werewolves are HOT-not literally. And because every girl needs to learn to save themselves.

Homecoming-Last 6 weeks- Am I forgeting something?

So just as any other teenager, in the public or maybe (i'm not sure about this) private schools I've been waiting for Homecoming Week, were you paint your face and try to scream as much as posible. Sprit week is not for the faint of heart, it is for those who have engough courage to dye their hair blue and be covered head to toe in a mum- that they will wear all of one day, maybe at the football game. but they are sure pretty. Hoping for engouh energy to get thought next weeks fun filled activies like, Pajama day and Hero day, not only becuase of how much school sprit seeps thought the pors of the underclassmen, while you can almost see the waves of radiation off of the senior class, because -tear- "it's our last homecoming!" tear.

Not to mention the bad timing of this, the last week of the grading marked, I'm already sturgling to keep a float of my everyday classes now i have to finish this marking period, with a good avearge, a awesome dress and date, all while trying to keep my levels from sky-rocketing or falling into the deepths of hell, in other words my room, which has yet to have been cleaned up. Yeah!! I really am exicted!

What makes me different?

I live with my mom and step-dad and brother
I have two step siblings who I am close to
My family is more than who I live with
I am living with disease
I have overcome loneliness
I have weakness
I have strength
I don’t know if I want to go to college
I don’t know why I became diseased
I don’t know what happens next
I feel like I’m holding on to a piece of fishing wire
I feel nothing
I feel everything
I want to make a difference
I want to help others like me
I want more than what my body will give me
I want peace
I want time
I want to feel
I want to live
I want to be free
I want more
I can breathe
I can write
I can read
I can love
I can hope
I can be free of this disease
I am more than a disease
I am more than a teenager
I am more than my life I have started
I deserve respect
I deserve to be healthy
I deserve to know what is going on
I deserve to know what is life going to be like
I deserve love

The Maddi and THY show!

Hello ALL!!!! This one I don't know what to right about, I'm in a fog at this point. SOOO, This week on the Maddi and Thy Show, Maddi try's to trick thyriod but fails again and again. But may be next week she will think more about not eating candy...I said maybe don't get your panties in a twist. So thoughts for the road, do people act mean even when you don't have a illness? And can your thyriod levels effect your dreams?

I've learned that good friends keep me calm and I am very thankful to those friends who can handle thyriod me. And that is what is important to find those friends who understand or try to at least. I'm glad to have met all of them, and hope they can handle me the rest of the year cuz it's going to be a hard one.

Lots of Love,
Maddi

75%

Have you ever felt like everyone around you is trying to help you, or figure you out like they are going to be the one to save you. That they out of all of the others are going to finally help you. Or like your sitting down on the middle of a floor with thousands of people around you but you are all alone in your room.
Have you ever had your body go from frezzing to Death Valley in 10 seconds flat? Like you can't stop from crying, or yelling, or just plain mean? Cuz I was just wondering how many of you out there are feeling 75% everyday.

First Day of School!

Why am I reminded of Finding Nemo's ever so encoraging excitment about the frist day of school? Am I just as excited? Or am I more scared that ever? I think it's because we both have non changing aliments, which are parnets never seem to get that doesn't mean we are done living! And this year is my journey to Sydney, away to prove, that I'll be okay, that I can make it even though I'm not 100 percent.
I bought Living well with autoimmune disease by Mary J. Shomon, I started it a couple days ago, haven't made my mind about it yet.
Tomorrow I start Senior Year, and we really get to the juciy blogg stuff about thyirods.

see ya there!

Taking away my sight too.

Most women who have thyroid disease are misdiagnosed multiple times. I on the other hand had only one symptom a goiter until my doctor found it in a routine physical. Soon after that I noticed in my old middle school photo's my throat was enlarged, the nasty thing had been with me for years. I had always been the over dramatic one, the sentimental one, I was always too up or too down. That's what I feel like now that I have two gears fast and stopped never in the middle nor a nice jogging pace one or the other (not to mention but right now I'm crashing).
I love to sing, to sing at the top of my lungs and dance around my room, now sometimes my voice is so horse I can barley talk and my body so tired I can't lift my head up. But some how all of these terrific women on Dear Thyroid get though it. So why can't I seem to be as strong as them. I haven't really gain weight, my hair is still as thick as can be, and until recently I could read size 50 font from across a room.
One thing that we learn as thyroid victims is to be strong, because most of us are just waiting and looking. I have learned so much from these women and I would like to thank them. For bringing my sight back, my eyes maybe losing focus, but I can see everything as clear as day. And I don't have it as bad as most, but I have it and I will never forget that.
Thank you again Dear Thyroid writers, I'm listening.

Where are my results?

It's one thing to know that by body is attaching it's self but another to not know how. On Monday I go to the doctor and see how the levels have changed. I try so hard to think maybe just maybe my thyriod gave up, and I can finally have a normal life, that I won't be sick anymore, that I can do whatever I want, and not have to stop every few minutes because, poor thyroid is lazy.
I want to travel the world. I want to see more that the inside of a doctor's office. I want to run. I want to fall in love. I want to join drama again. I want to LIVE. And, that's where everyone gets lost, "well, Madison you could be worse". "Well Madison, you have so much more." "Well Madison, you do to much anyway." "Madison you have a fever." "Madison, why are you crying?" "Madison, what did I do?" "Madison why are you being so bitchy?" Madison! Madison! Madison!
You know your answer, I don't know, and I'm trying my best to be a seventeen year old girl but I can't with a disease that makes me act like a two year old on caffeine. Did anyone ever think about that? That I know, what's wrong, and to stop trying to fix it, it can't be fixed or changed or anything other than, my immune system working it's but off to kill my thyroid. Which, BTW. doesn't help, it makes it worse. And the only thing that I can do know is Wait....Wait.
Like in "All the Places You Go", I'm in the waiting place, I hate the waiting place.

July-07-09

Latest news from thyroid land...nothing....at all. My levels were tested about two weeks ago so I should be getting results soon. Sometimes I feel like now one can hear me and sometimes that no one believes me. The thing that would help me the most right now, would be to find someone else my age with Hashi's.
I have stopped eating caffeine and soy products for about a year now, some nights I sleep like a log others I can watch the sun rise. I never really understood that I had a disease, I use to always call it Hashimoto's disorder. It changed, I have changed. My disease is a part of me, I want to be able to not worry that I could pass out, or be able to sing and not be afraid my voice will go horse. I want to be able to pull and "all-nighter" with friends.
I decided to write this blog to find others like me, but who all I have found are between 30-50 years old, they have helped but, I really want to find someone who knows what it's like to cancel a big date, or not finish your final English paper because you slept the day away.
The summer seems to be the worst with Hashi's because of the El Paso heat, but this blog is more about me getting out of this cycle of never ending discomfort. I have already started changing my life in many ways to help my family and I get though this. I have changed my eating habits to completely taking out soy and caffeine, at my next doctors visit I will bring up a gluten-free diet.
The most important thing I'm doing is keeping my sprit high and staying optimistic, by still going on with my normal teenage life I can see how strong I really am, and so can everyone else.

So Far....

I though I was just stressed. Couldn't wait for my sophomore year of high school, the last thing I had to do was get my physical for swimming. My doctor said it was probably nothing just low iodine. Next thing I knew I was going for sonograms of my thyroid and blood tests to test my thyroid levels. These past two years living with Hashi's has be a nighmare, from sleeping though Saturdays, to missing babysitting jobs. My life has been moslty about my thyroid so far... no one really ask me to go anywhere because I might have to cancel. I fell uncomfortable telling pepole I'm sick because they look at me like a am, and I hate it. I even stopped acting in school plays because of it. But, now i'm done, done feeling sorry for myself, done being tired. This year is going to change, because it is my last year in high school and going to be the best!