Thyroid Health

A couple of weeks ago my little one and I had the flu. Before I started coming down with it she wanted me to take my temperature just like I did hers. So I did and then I took it again because what I saw couldn't possibly be right. The thermometer read 97.4, both times. I was curious but a little busy with a sick child so I determined to address this later. Later in the day when I had another moment with the thermometer my temp once again read 97.4. So I got on the internet and discovered a whole lot of things that I wish I had known years ago. 8 years ago I had 1/2 my thyroid removed due to some benign cysts. Prior to removal I was classic hypothyroid. You could have knitted a sweater with the amount of hair that was falling out of my head and I slept every single moment that I could. At the time I was working and when I headed into the office to do the paperwork at the end of the day I would fall asleep sitting at the desk. The doctors told me it would get better after surgery....it didn't really. It did get slightly better as my hair wasn't falling out so much and I could stay awake a little more. However, I still had that overwhelming deep to the bone fatigue. I still gained weight just by thinking about food. I asked my doctor to check my thyroid levels. He did and said they were fine. Over and over again over the next several years I asked for my levels to be checked and each time they told me I was fine and that it wasn't my thyroid. Three doctors later I finally get the exasperated diagnosis that I have chronic fatigue and there is simply not much that they can do...but it definitely is not your thyroid. Well, here I am 8 years later and I am still convinced that my health issues are strongly related to my thyroid and I don't care anymore what the doctors tell me. By this point I am also hovering between stage 3 and 4 adrenal fatigue also. A person's body can only take the stress of not feeling well so long. For days I have taken my body temperature and it stays a pretty constant 97.4. I can raise it to 98.2 or so by taking a hot shower, but within a couple hours it has dropped back down. I have less and less tolerance to heat and cold, so thank goodness it hasn't been that cold this winter for us. I used to love 60 degree weather and now I find it intolerable as I just can't get warm, no matter how many clothes I put on. So, I have been reading and reading and I have found that there are loads of folks just like me. People who present classic symptoms of being hypothyroid yet their doctors tell them they are fine. So I am going to take the matter into my own hands first addressing my adrenal fatigue. The nutritional information at the Weston Price foundation has helped and will continue to help because much of what I have discovered is that many of the things I have learned about nutrition there goes hand in hand with having a healthy thyroid and healthy thyroid levels. So here is hoping that I will soon be able to find out what normal is. I don't think that I really know anymore. I just want to feel what other people feel when they have the energy to get through their days without breaking down in tears because they simply don't know how they are going to be able to put one foot in front of the other. I would like to go to sleep and stay there instead of sitting on the computer and updating my blog at 3:30 in the morning. Wow! A full 8 hours of sleep all in one stretch....what a delight that must be. For anyone interested check out these websites: Stop the Thyroid Madness, Wilsons Temperature Syndrome, and the Cold Body Page. Blessings, Kat