fuckmythyroid-blog

[fuckmythyroid-blog]

the six pages of Graves, a teeny infocomic i did about my personal experience with graves disease for my physical/mental illnesses in comics class. !!

[fuckmythyroid-blog]

Medical Haiku Monday!!!

[fuckmythyroid-blog]

"You don't look sick"

Nothing irritates me more than hearing this. And this is also why I talk about my autoimmune disease so much, it’s to educate people. I feel as if people don’t understand that you’re sick because you don’t look it. With autoimmune diseases there are days where you look completely fine but on the inside you just feel defeated. Sometimes it gets to the point where I can hardly go through a day, my body just is so tired and weak all of the time. And if you’re not showing all of those symptoms, people don’t believe that you are sick and think you’re completely fine or just making it up. No, we are not making it up. There are days where we can feel pretty good and other days not so much. 🦋✨

[fuckmythyroid-blog]

Doctors are fucking stupid

“You’re sick but not sick enough”

So basically there’s a leak in the faucet but he wants to wait til there’s a fucking flood in the basement.

[fuckmythyroid-blog]

I had my second thyroid cancer surgery yesterday and it went very well. The first picture is me before surgery and the others are from after. As an autistic person, surgery leaves me feeling extremely sensorily overwhelmed. I have so few spoons so if anyone has anything nice to say, I’m definitely open to asks or messages with encouraging words.

[fuckmythyroid-blog]

@anybody who has a goiter/thyroid swelling 

it will get better

you’re not alone in this

it’s not as noticeable as you think it is

you’re gonna be okay

[fuckmythyroid-blog]

Thyroid function tests

Standard Tests

TSH levels

Free T4 (fT4) levels

Measurements of total T4 + T3 used to be common however detects both bound and free T3 + T4

Elevated total T4 may occur in healthy individuals if there is an increase in binding protein concentrations

Reliable tests now exist for free T4 + T3

T3 = 3.9-6.7 pmol/L

T4 = 12-22 pmol/L

Thyroid-stimulating hormone

Produced by the pituitary gland, not the thyroid, however:

TSH levels are controlled by negative feedback – can be indication of thyroid function (changes in T3+T4 will result in changes in TSH to try compesate)

TSH levels greatly elevated in hypothyroidism – >10 fold increase over reference values

More sensitive marker than decreased fT4 - increased TSH occurs before fT4 decreases

TSH levels greatly supressed in hyperthyroidism

Low concentrations can also occur in non-thyroidal illness

TSH measurement is the first-line test of thyroid function.

Free T4 + T3 Measurements

Desirable as free hormone is clinically relevant

Total levels can change under conditions that alter thyroxine-binding globulin (TBG) levels e.g. pregnancy

Large changes in TBG may still affect fT4 + fT3 levels

fT3 levels often normal in hypothyroidism

fT3 levels usually raised more than fT4 levels in hyperthyroidism

Unless complicated by an illness effecting conversion of T4 to T3

Therefore: – fT4 levels are a better indication of hypothyroidism

fT3 levels are a better indication of hyperthyroidism

[fuckmythyroid-blog]

Thyroid PSA of the day:

The thyroid hormone helps a lot of important parts of your body work properly. When it is not working properly it can mess with your:

Metabolism

Temperature control

Skin/Hair/Nails

Energy

Cholesterol

Heartbeat

Menstrual cycles

Muscles

Breathing

Nervous system

Digestion

If you have symptoms in these areas it’s worth having these simple blood tests to find out if your thyroid is to blame. Ask your doctor to test your TSH, Free T3, Free T4 and thyroid antibodies.

Then, don’t stop there. Look at your test results. If your Free T3 and T4 are in the lower half of the reference range and you have symptoms then you are hypothyroid (although most doctors will not treat you until they fall below the “normal” reference range). If your Frees are above the reference range you are hyperthyroid. Presence of thyroid antibodies will let you know if you have Graves Disease or Hashimotos.

[fuckmythyroid-blog]

This sketch is freaking awesome!

Thyroid basics!

[fuckmythyroid-blog]

[fuckmythyroid-blog]

An autoimmune response in diseases like SLE, Rheumatic fever, Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis and many more

[fuckmythyroid-blog]

Whats Wrong ?

So I have hyperthyroidism.

I’ll try my best explaining what Hyperthyroidism is, but you should probably google it to get the full picture. So your thyroid is located in your neck. It basically affects your entire fucking body, which kind of sucks because, that means if it’s not working, neither is my body. So basically what my thyroid does, is it creats to much of the hormone thyroxine (honestly google it, I dont really understand how it works either).

This resultes in my thyroid swelling. It affects my heart and motabolism causing a rapid heartbeat and weightloss (or in my case no weight gain).

So I guess I’ll start at the beginning. I had a lot of the symptoms that come with hyperthyroidism.  Some symtomps were:

I was hyperactive (constantly chewing my nails, tapping my knees and just generally very hyper)

I had bulging eyes

I had an extremly rapid heartbeat and would get dizzy a lot

I ate A LOT, but didnt gain any weight

I looked very pale

When people lay on my stomach they always mentioned how loud my heart was

I was unable to focus (some of my friends mentioned i had the attention span of a 5 year old)

I had a lot of anxiety

I didnt sleep, unless I tired myself out to the point, where my body was extremly exhausted (staying up very late)

I had really shaky hands ( I had issues with drawing and writing)

These are the symptoms I currently remeber (there are definatly more), but I’m going to stop now since this post ended up being quite long and I still need to finish an essay. I’ll continue tomorrow. Have a nice day, bye! 

[fuckmythyroid-blog]

Intro

Before I tell you about my thyroid I should probably introduce myself. I am currently 16 and I still go to school. I enjoy drawing (even though it can be very frustrating) and I really want to study art.