I Came, I Saw, I Want To Go Home Now

[ID: Excerpt from Man Without Fear by Frank Miller. A series of panels showing teenage Matt Murdock and Stick leaping across the rooftops of the city under a starry sky.]

Caption: “The nights are the best. When Matt wakes before dawn– and, as always, Stick is there– and they dance, unseen…”

“When you skip the tutorial” 

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TheNib.com

I don’t think I’ve talked about it directly here, but I have the opposite illness- I have hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s disease. Basically, my thyroid doesn’t produce much hormone, and if it does, the Hashimoto’s assumes it’s bad and kills the hormone.

My second year of college I got two major illnesses and never seemed to recover. My weight steadily climbed, my hair was falling out in handfuls, and my anxiety and depression were through the roof, on top of pervasive chronic fatigue. My primary care doctor gave me leaflets on weight loss, and I was sent to a psychiatrist who started treating me for bipolar II.

I ended up getting the correct diagnosis because of a YouTuber. I’m obsessed with ballet and while watching Kathryn Morgan’s channel, came across her illness story video. (She had to stop her entire ballet career because of Hashimotos). Everything she was describing matched what I was going through.

I am INCREDIBLY lucky that when I asked my current doctor to test my thyroid, she not only agreed immediately, but promised that if it wasn’t my thyroid, she would keep testing until we found the source.

I got the call a few days later with my results, and was told to immediately pick up my new medication because my thyroid levels were so dangerously low. I get my blood tested every couple of weeks, and I’m currently on a very high dose of hormone replacement, and while the weight hasn’t fallen off, I feel so much better.

Turns out Hashimoto’s causes sudden unexplained weight gain, hair loss, chronic fatigue, and anxiety and depression so severe that it’s often misdiagnosed as bipolar disorder. Who knew??