Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Witnessing Thyroid Dysfunction in my Children

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"To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power." ~ Maya Angelou

I write today from a mother's perspective. As I feel I'm twirling into an angry hurricane with a calm as blue blazes center...as I go to battle for my children's educational welfare, I hope one day my children think of me in this light, that I was a perfectly powerful hurricane working on their behalf. They are my babies and no matter how old they get, I will fight until my dying breath for their well-being.

Within all three of my children, I see the emotional backlash from the consumption of certain foods. If anyone tries telling you that food sensitivities had no effect on thyroid health, I hope you laugh in their face. Nutrition most certainly does affect thyroid well-being. As of yesterday, I requested that spaghetti-o's no longer show up in our household. While my family unit adjusts to my new work schedule, one where I am not available to cook meals, we all recognize that speedy food choices produce negative effects on our emotional well-being. They are banned.

Case in point: after collecting my children from my mother's yesterday, we got home and I started giving directions about household chores. As I am cooking dinner, I needed someone to work on dishes...and my eldest practically imploded. She was rubbing at her hair and face and was quite overwhelmed. That's one of those fascinating attributes of anxiety...there is nothing going on in the environment to cause you to be that overwhelmed. The dishes weren't in excess of numbers. I wasn't yelling or mad about it. I had agreed that she could plug herself into headphones because music always calms her, but to no avail. She abandoned her post several times where I had to coax her back out. She didn't really feel like eating dinner, either. It took her some hours before she was herself. She has been testing for thyroid health and her numbers are "good" but I witness that food affects her all the same.

When I questioned my little bird on what she ate for lunch, she explained the usual, a sandwich. That didn't add up because I hadn't hit the store for bread yet and we were out of bread the day before. So, she was a tad disoriented and I questioned again a little later and she stood there puzzling before answering spaghetti-o's. Ok, no more. I had a Big Red zero the other day that someone had bought me and I was a crying mess...there IS something in the red food dye that the body cannot deal with, even in one meal.

I witness thyroid health issues with my middle child as well. Her condition is more severe and it took me awhile to even locate a pediatrician who would run the gamut of tests to honestly verify the root issue. While my mother's instinct screamed thyroid, the first pediatrician told me she just needed a psychiatrist. Oh, gloves on. I've been told that and I knew my symptoms weren't all in my head.

I got a letter from the school yesterday saying that my daughter's eyesight is 100/100. I had a similar letter the previous year with 100/40. In second grade, at the school's behest, I took my daughter to an ophthalmologist and she was tested with the results of 20/20 vision. Same conversation occurred with the third grade teacher and the same results were produced at the doctor's office. Another letter came in fourth, which I ignored because I'm spending almost $90 to run these tests that go nowhere and have no credence. I got another now that she's in 5th and I've scheduled yet another appointment (first available is December, of course). 

My message isn't that I don't believe the school. My message is that I know how my thyroid loves to toy with my vision. If my thyroid isn't properly taken care of, I have night-blindness and driving at night is a nightmare...but then at other times, I see perfectly at night. It comes and goes depending on certain factors. During this transitional time where I'm embarking on a new career, I have learned (after the fact) that my daughter hasn't always taken her thyroid vitamins and I learned from a teacher she ate a full-sugar cupcake at a party. 

She is of an age to make decisions on her own and I'm not around as much to nag her into submission. She has to made choices on her own, and since she has the power to do so, she will give into temptation like any of us would, like not taking her vitamins because there's an aftertaste. She hasn't learned that vital lesson yet that your mother will eventually find out...and when I get home, I can tell she did not take her vitamins because she's a raging emotional mess that is difficult to communicate with. The more important I lesson I want for my daughter is that your body is with you all of your days; you must take care of it so that you can make sure you have a life you can enjoy. Was the taste of that cupcake worth the hours you cried the rest of the day?

Apparently the school doesn't have to share the letter I gave both the principal and the special ed department (before school began) with the teachers (her homeroom teacher was unaware of the no-sugar dietary needs), nor does anyone besides the cafeteria have to read the documents I filled out at the beginning of the year detailing food sensitivities. Why did I write those things out? Why did I get a letter from the doctor with the new diagnosis to provide the school and my daughter's therapist? For fun? Here's where the perfect storm of a hurricane mother comes in. 

My message is that I'm questioning whether not my daughter's nutrition was where it was supposed to be the day of that eye test. With last year's test, I took that information as a sign that more was amiss. I added it to my arsenal to push for a new diagnosis, that my daughter is not ADHD but rather fighting thyroid dysfunction. Since the first pediatrician did not see symptoms of a thyroid storm, we were basically sent on our way with no help. I've spent way too many years of my life in thyroid hell to allow my child to continue walking through it herself. So what if it's not a thyroid storm...if it were, it would mean we missed the boat and didn't do something before the thyroid started dying. That's what a thyroid storm is, the thyroid giving its last stand before dying.

I spent too much time and energy locating a diagnosis to not have the school do their part for her. I will fight for my little girl's well-being. I do not care if others understand thyroid health. What matters is that I do. It's not a well-known health condition. Most doctors haven't the foggiest clue about thyroid dysfunction and refer to antiquated and limited requirements. Thank heavens my thyroid doctor does not follow the traditional medical community's approach to thyroid health. Thank heavens I located a pediatrician who keeps himself well informed with up-to-date thyroid research.

Easily, thyroid dysfunction in it's myriad of forms can produce over 300 symptoms, which means no two thyroid patients are going to be identical. That is quite apparent within my family. We have similar thyroid symptoms, but in other areas, we don't. I've had doctors inform me, "Thyroid problems don't cause hypoglycemia or vertigo." Bet you they do. They're some my symptoms, but no one else but me experiences vertigo. I just need one more physician to tell me my thyroid symptoms are not my symptoms. All they do is show me that I'm firing them as my physician or my child's physician and I will locate a professional who is knowledgeable in thyroid health. 

It's disheartening knowing that I have to maintain this hurricane within. It can be exhausting. Just when you think you can rest, the storm must rise again. You have to fight for yourself or for your family member's health. It is NOT okay to suffer or to allow another to suffer. It does not matter who understands. The fact remains that if YOU understand why these problems occur, you know what to do to help remedy the situation. I am quite thankful to have the support team I have for myself and for my daughter. There are doctors out there who are knowledgeable about thyroid health. Be okay with firing a doctor who isn't helping you. There are so many books and websites with quality information on thyroid health. Inform yourself and therefore empower yourself.

I hope that whoever is reading this, you are able to harness that perfect hurricane inside and fight for your health and the health of those you love.

Sunday, July 10, 2016

The Comeback Kid ~ Childhood Thyroid

It has been a ridiculously long time since I last posted anything on this blog. Of course, I automatically extend my apologies. Life happens.

That being said, my lack of new posts isn't due to the fact that I don't care about thyroid health anymore. On the contrary, I've been fighting a completely different thyroid battle than you'd normally expect.

I was battling for my child's thyroid health. 

If I were to go back and pinpoint the date in which this story begins with my child...well, it'd be her entire life story. I can see back, now, certain events and reactions that make complete sense now. I realized what the problem was because of a certain series of events that I will now share.

Once a month, I visit my thyroid doctor. It's been an overly stressful school year, so I know I was addressing that at each appointment. He's a wonderful doctor with excellent bedside manner. Anyone with a malfunctioning thyroid knows full-well that the thyroid gland does not handle stress well. Shoot, running is considered stress. A wonky thyroid's reaction is to stress are troubles like gain weight, ravenous hungry from running a block or two (no joke) or ridiculously exhausted (or all three). I digress, but those are some issues we discuss, naturally.

Apparently, I was bringing up my 10 year old quite often during our monthly rendezvous. I share how the meals I mass-produced each weekend had to be tripled because two of my children gladly took the meals as their school lunches. I could tell it helped curb some of the emotional outbursts I saw with this one child of mine. It was this past March's appointment when his bald head went from writing in my medical folder to looking at me with his gentle eyes as if he had a sudden epiphany.

"She has the same food sensitivities as you do? Wheat? Sugar?" he asked. I reiterated that the diet I follow has improved her anxiety and behavioral outbursts - the very behaviors the school psychologist diagnosed as ADHD. My doctor continued, asking, "Is she prepubescent?" Yes, she shows those signs as well (how cruel our world of hormone additives are on our children's bodies! She's 10!).

His reply was, "Any child you have has a 90% change of dealing with a thyroid issue at some point in their life. It sounds as if your daughter may be having some trouble with her thyroid."

That did it. I was properly schooled. I had the answer I've been needing to a question I didn't know I needed to ask: Does my child have a thyroid problem?

Does my child have a thyroid problem?

Beyond being the most significant epiphany I could have regarding my child, my doctor wasn't done with his lesson yet. He wrote down on a prescription slip - with his name on it, mind you - the very formula that figures out reverse T3. He says, "Take this to her pediatrician. I wrote down the formula and make sure it's that test."

I recognize that formula because that's how you locate my thyroid malfunction. My liver over-produces reverse T3. Whatever little guys in thyroid headquarters send out jobs to the rest of my body, they send the wrong job orders to my liver. My liver thinks my blood has pooling amount of T3, so it's doing what it should in that situation by sending out reverse T3 to counter-act it. It debilitates me, gives me daily pain, ridiculous fatigue, vertigo, weight gain (no matter how much I diet), passing out after aerobic exercise like zumba (every time), and hypoglycemia (to name a few).

My body does not produce excessive amounts of T3, so if a doctor runs traditional thyroid tests, my T3 levels are always in range. However, my liver and thyroid are playing this lovely game and I don't appreciate it. My doctor and I have this fantastic formula for my health and we're keeping it that way. In fact, this spring I did blood work to see if my reverse T3 levels were alright. When the nurse called with the results (it was a recording), the stated, "It's in range, but it's on the low side. It's okay unless you're feeling fatigued." Funny, in the week or so prior, I had been getting more and more exhausted and I was just thinking I needed a day off to sleep and recuperate. No, it was my thyroid putting me in shut-down mode like it likes to do.

So, I take this prescription slip to the pediatrician. An intern walks in and I can see I have this poor guy quite flummoxed, but he's listening to me. He says, "It sounds like anxiety." I explain that when my thyroid was misbehaving and I had no meds and no diagnosis, I had anxiety so badly that I was on prescription meds to control it. I didn't stop flummoxing the poor young man. When I explained that my untreated thyroid gives me hypoglycemia, vertigo, depression, and anxiety, he would say "Hypoglycemia isn't a thyroid symptom," or "Vertigo isn't a thyroid symptom." In all honesty, he wasn't saying it as if he was discrediting me. He was incredulously believing every word, but he was there to give me a solution and he was lost.

I still feel sorry for the intern because he was barely learning the fine art of dealing with patients, and here I am...playing hard ball. I countered every remark he made. I was quoting books - books written by reputable doctors on the subject. Bet me that hypoglycemia and vertigo aren't symptoms. They're some of mine. I have a ridiculously long list of symptoms.

The intern didn't discredit me, but he did what he should do. He went for the general practitioner whose name is on the sign outside the office. This is where things went left. The following happened:

  • That doctor said she does not have thyroid symptoms to indicate thyroid issue.
  • She does not have anxiety. She has ADHD (and he started to hangle with me about not increasing her dose. I explained I didn't want an increase in ADHD prescription dosage; there is something else affecting my child).
  • He strongly suggested that what she really needed was to see a psychiatrist on a regular basis.
  • He agreed to run the thyroid test and he wrote down the blood work from the prescription slip my thyroid doctor gave me to hand him. My daughter had the blood work done that day.
  • When the nurse called about the results, I was told, "She has no thyroid issue. We ruled out one thing!"
  • I asked my husband to pick up the lab results so I could see them myself. The reverse T3 lab work I requested? It wasn't on there, just the traditional TSH and T3, and T4. 

I felt lost. I had researched childhood thyroid issues and she exhibited countless symptoms! I shared this information with her teachers and they agreed. One told me, "I'm so glad she's your child. If she were mind, I'd have no clue to look at thyroid. You found it. You'll be able to help her, girl!"

But, that doctor's appointment was a bust. I didn't get help for my daughter. I heard several statements I had heard over the course of my own Alice in Wonderland search before finding a doctor who'd diagnose my health issues and save my life. The one statement by a medical professional (in this case, I use that term lightly) that sent me over edge (and into researching for my own well-being) was, "You just need to see a psychiatrist for depression." It was the catalyst I had needed to be the hero to my own story. Hearing it again with regards to my child? I'm not that kind of mom who'll say, "Oh, you just have to deal with the cards life dealt you, my child." Oh, no, I strapped some gloves on. I wasn't done with this fight.

I took the lab results to my thyroid doc during my April appointment. When I broached the topic of the unsuccessful and thoroughly depressing manner in which my child wasn't properly tested and, therefore, helped, that doctor of mine took the lab results I had brought with me. He looked at my daughter's lab results and he saw something in there. He didn't have to. She's not his patient. He's an OBGYN and she's too young to see him...but he looked at her blood work results anyway. There he goes again, healing another soul (I admire this doctor so much; he is my hero).

"In my history as a medical doctor, women who are having miscarriages have a TSH level between 2.4 and 2.9," and he's pointing to my daughter's TSH levels. It was 2.4. "Her levels are within this range and I've never seen that have good results in my patience. That illustrious healer suggested, "You could give her a thyroid supplement. Do a trial run for 2 to 3 months and see how it goes. It won't hurt her if it doesn't help."

What's the supplement he suggested? The one I take. The one I already had stored in my home. The secret was in my home the entire time and I didn't know it?

What's that supplement? ThyroCare

At that moment, I decided that old pediatrician was FIRED. I refuse to take any of my children to see him. I immediately threw away my child's ADHD medication. I vowed she'd never take them again. She was going to take two ThyroCare tablets each day instead. We started the very next morning (and I started keeping an eye out for a new pediatrician).

The results? Well, let's start with how my daughter suddenly didn't complain about concentration problems anymore. Mind you, I was one of the teachers she rotated through, so I witnessed her behavior every day. She'd shush the other students and I'd witness that they weren't being disruptive or noisy in the slightest, and yet she was highly frustrated with concentrating on her work. She was being disruptive with her complaints and demands for everyone to be quiet, if anything. Suddenly, she was calmly getting her work done and not upset about concentration troubles.

Let's talk about grades because within the first five school days of taking ThyroCare instead of ADHD medicine, she had made two 100s on two Reading tests. In fact, she made a 100 on a novel test (The Boundless) that none of the GT students made a 100 on. My child - in a day or two after taking this supplement - was performing academically better? No, not just better, in a superior fashion compared to other students.

Her behavior was remarkably better. Those moments where her anxiety was off the charts and she couldn't hear you (or your solution) through the scene she was making...she was pausing, listening, and calmly responding to the situation. Her emotions no longer control her. She controlled them.

We still control her diet because it has an affect on her behaviors and emotional well-being. Her reactions to every situation have calmed down significantly. Family members who haven't seen us in awhile will sit back and quietly tell me, "I've noticed your daughter is so much more calmer than before." I'll look at them and they'll smile, knowing how much of a trial it's been all these years. They genuinely love seeing this situation so incredibly improved. With one supplement.

Before, there were so many emotional outbursts that she had begun to say horrible things like, "I wish I was a better daughter," and, "I wish I were dead." She'd be crying and inconsolable in these moments....and they are now a chapter in our life we have closed. We're in a new chapter, one of thyroid balance, emotional balance, and...simply, healthier in every way.

The Fairy Tale Ending

Now, the story isn't quite over yet. I have a fairy tale ending for you, though it's non-fiction. I happened upon a pediatrician who knows about thyroid health in children. He's new to the area and, in the very first appointment, I trepidatiously told him my thyroid theory for my child, my conversation with my thyroid doctor, the debacle with the former pediatrician, and our family history. This doctor's first response was, "Whenever I hear a child has been diagnosed ADHD/ADD, the first thing I do is run blood work because something else often triggers the behaviors. I already run three thyroid tests in the blood work I request in this situations, but because of your family history, I will add two more."

He included the reverse T3 test. 

When we saw him at the follow-up appointment this summer, he shared with me that my daughter's TSH was spiking and her reverse T3 was low. In the most recent thyroid research that he's been reading, TSH spikes before hypothyroidism sets in. His diagnosis is that she will one day be hypothyroid and it'd be best if we run these thyroid tests annually if not biannually. He handed me a copy of the blood work knowing I keep documents like that in a folder.

My response was, "Where have you been?" This man just barely started his practice and his front lobby was empty the entire time I filled out my children's documents. He even thanked me for choosing his services, quite grateful for the clients - his practice is that new. I continued on, "How do you know these things? Yes, I know them because I read about thyroid health, but it's so rare to find a doctor who knows it. How do you know these things?"

His response was beautiful, "I believe that no matter what station you are at in life, you must always be the very best version of it."

Thus, my fairy tale ends with an actual solution for my child who has been struggling for years. Life has recently calmed down and the daily emotional outbursts and meltdowns (and my skyrocketing stress levels dealing with them) have disappeared altogether. It's why you are seeing a new post written as of today. I have some of my life happily returned to me. I hope someone out there in this world, someone who needs this, will get this information and not give up hope for themselves or their child. I hope they have the strength to fire a doctor, or a few doctors, until they find one who is a gifted healer (not just a person who completed the required degrees and tests). May you find the help you seek.

~Rebecca