My Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis Story- Part Two: Diagnosis to Healing

(Continued from Part One, which can be found here.)

At the time, my test results seemed damning.

Not only had they come back with thyroid hormone levels indicating Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, the proof was in the pudding that I was severely anemic, despite the fact that we had ruled that out long ago due to excessive testing of the same thing with no significant result. Though my hemoglobin-red blood cell count- was normal, my ferritin- the blood cell protein that stores iron- was a jaw-dropping 14 out of a normal 50- dangerously close to the point where I’d need to be in the hospital getting an iron infusion. Basically, my body couldn’t store the iron it needed, which is a common side effect of untreated Hashimoto’s. I can only imagine how much worse the situation would’ve been if we had waited any longer to get tests done.

My appointment with the endocrinologist couldn’t be scheduled until a month later, so we couldn’t do a lot with my Hashimoto’s at that point, though we dove deep into our research and quickly altered our diet to a strict Paleo-autoimmune protocol. The first order of business, of course, was the most pressing issue- my anemia. Right after Mom told me my test results, we drove to a Whole Foods and pulled up an article on iron rich foods in the parking lot. We went inside and bought nearly everything on it, including heaps of dark chocolate and Cheerios as a Hail Mary effort.

Because my iron levels were nearing a dangerous range, I took a few days off of school, as heavy exertion only made matters worse. Little did I know that it would be the first of many chunks of missed classes. Throughout the entire year I would go through periods of only attending half-days, unexpectedly missing a day here and there, and taking days off at a time, my longest rest period tallying in at around two weeks. 

I remember coming out of a Sunday afternoon rehearsal for Youth America Grand Prix around three weeks before the competition- absolute crunch time- in tears because I was simply too fatigued to go on. I hung my head in shame as I left the rehearsal much earlier than I anticipated, my body’s protests making it impossible to accomplish all that I wanted to that day. I had to take a about week off that time, which was absolute torture considering how close it was to an important event that I had to be absolutely ready for, though that was only one stressful incident out of many. That whole year I battled those symptoms, but sadly that’s a normal process with ferritin, seeing as levels can take six months to a year to restore completely, a process that was only exacerbated and slowed down by my Hashimoto’s.

In the October after my September diagnosis it came time to see the endocrinologist, who was a wonderful doctor as far as listening to me and encouraging food for healing. But in truth, he didn’t do much but say “Yup, you’ve got Hashimoto’s,” and put me on a starting dose of standard thyroid medication. At the same time I began work with a holistic integrative physician that counseled me on the AIP (autoimmune-Paleo) diet and prescribed the best supplements, which was truly the turning point in the process of healing my anemia.

As with most people, I experienced an initial improvement on the thyroid medication, only to bottom back out to my starting point (or even worse) soon after, causing my dose to have to be adjusted a couple of times, and my medication eventually changed. Throughout the entire school year my Hashimoto’s symptoms surfaced with a vengeance, almost as if knowing for sure that I had the illness drew them out from their hiding places within my body. 

Along with experiencing the entirety of WebMD’s list of anemic symptoms on a dramatic scale, my muscles began to literally disintegrate and refused to build back up again, resulting in a loss of strength and shape. Teachers insisted that I wasn’t working hard enough, even though I put all of my intention into strengthening and toning my fading muscles. I worked with a private trainer, attended the gym nearly every day I wasn’t sick, and worked myself to tears in class. It was misplaced effort. With what was going on in my body, there was simply nothing to be done until I could heal, and no one, including myself, seemed to understand that. 

In addition to that, I was highly susceptible to any strain of sickness that came along and every cut, hangnail, and ingrown toenail became nastily infected. The function of my hormones seemed to come almost to a screeching halt. My hair was falling out at an alarming rate and I grew sickly pale, my lips going white and the dark circles under my eyes turning as bright as bruises. Any minor injury I received simply refused to heal. I could never get enough sleep, and my anxiety sank to its worst point, giving me my first panic attacks, along with moderate depression- all heightened by the fact that everyone around me seemed annoyed by my sickness. I felt as if people thought I was faking it and making excuses for myself, and I often got the sense that I was being punished for having a horrible ailment beyond my control. People seemed as sick of me as I was of myself, so I spun into a dark hole of tragically low self-esteem, which was poison to my healing process.

Due to the anemia and my body’s unsteady ability to absorb nutrients, my weight fluctuated for a period. After fully integrating my AIP diet, I lost what I had gained and sank back down almost to what I weighed when I lived in D.C. However, once my anemia was largely healed (which happened around March/April of 2018), I started to gain it back again- and simply couldn’t stop gaining, no matter what I did. My primary goal for healing became weight loss, which was unfortunate, because for a normal person I looked absolutely fine. But the problem was that I was a ballet dancer and held to certain standards, and I and everyone else knew that the way I looked wasn’t the way I was supposed to look.

I tried my best to follow my diet religiously, eating so little that it might’ve been borderline unhealthy, changing up protocols here and there as we discovered new information. I began exercising at an intensive rate once my anemia was squared away. My parents and I knew that with the way I was eating, exercising, and living, I should’ve looked like a stick figure, but I just kept gaining more and more and more, with nothing seeming to help or make a difference. I was constantly crying in frustration, I hated looking in the mirror, panicked about my weight and “problem spots” if I missed any sort of workout or dance opportunity, and turned to questionable weight loss methods such as putting ice packs on spots I wanted smaller and drinking so much detox tea that it threatened to send my anemia back over the edge. But to my despair, nothing worked, and I went off to my last summer intensive a bloated, puffy mess.

I returned home from my summer intensive feeling miserable, wanting to crawl under my covers and hide there forever. I had a traineeship starting in the fall, and I knew that something simply had to be changed in my healing process before the decisive start of my career. Shortly after I arrived back home, on a fluke I discovered an ad for Anthony William’s- “Medical Medium” – book on thyroid healing, with a giant artichoke on the cover. I was desperate and felt highly drawn to the book, so I sent the ad to my mother and we immediately ordered a copy, even purchasing a digital version because we simply couldn’t wait to get some new information that could make a difference. That book and the Medical Medium philosophy turned out to be the absolute best discovery I made in my crazy healing journey.

I want to talk about the lifestyle and diet I’ve applied due to Medical Medium and my own findings in a different post, so I don’t want to go into too much detail in this one. To make a long story short, I committed to the ninety day healing protocol he mapped out in his book and followed it religiously. At his advice, I went off of my thyroid medication, which was still doing nothing but causing more harm. I haven’t taken a thyroid pill since, and I don’t think I ever will again.

To my recollection, I started to feel better very quickly on the Medical Medium protocol, though my weight loss and muscle gain was still a very slow-going process. (Though towards the end of the protocol, I did start to see definite and encouraging signs of progress.) While I was doing my traineeship, I felt much better, but still not normal yet. However, after I unexpectedly left my position a couple of months in (again, another story for another post), I had quite an extended period of mainly rest and gentle exercise, which was the final and sealing turning point in my healing. 

Trying to heal whilst maintaining a consistent schedule of eight or more hours of intense physical activity a day wasn’t helping me take any steps forward- it was just maintaining my current state and preventing me from getting worse. However, having a few months where rest hours outnumbered work hours was exactly what my body needed to complete its deep healing. Within a very short amount of time, everything seemed to fall back into place. I don’t think I would be as healed as I am today without that long period of down time.

Today, my body is in the same shape- if not better- than it was before I got sick. I can work out and do long hours of dance and exercise with the ease that a nineteen-year-old athlete should have. While I’ve maintained an extremely healthy diet, I veer far off the path of my protocols more often than I probably should, yet can still easily maintain my health. I’ve healed so much that there are some days where I forget I even have an autoimmune illness. 

Of course, I still have some symptoms, and probably will for my entire life. But the ones that I’m left with are very minor, and don’t have that big of an effect on my life and functionality. I still get infections easily. I’m still laughably sensitive to the cold. I still require hibernation-quality sleep, and experience days where I’m annoyingly tired with no reason to be. I still have my bouts of anxiety and depression and panic attacks. However, those are nothing compared to the absolute hell I was in for those years in the thick of my sickness. I’ll take the little dregs over that any day.The unavoidable truth is that I’ll have to follow certain dietary guidelines and have certain health practices my entire life. But those are all small prices to pay for my health and invaluable security in it. The moral of it all is that healing is entirely possible. I’m living, thriving proof.

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