My Story

Here is my story:
Back in November I went to see a doctor of mine for some other reasons which I won't share but while I was there I mentioned to him how I had been feeling and what I had been going through for the last few months (depression, anxiety, having a series of days of being extremely tired where I just wanted to sleep all day followed by a series of days where I would have insomnia, having no energy whatsoever to do anything, stupid weight gain without being able to lose any of it, and ridiculously amounts of hair falling out). He suggested that I get my thyroid looked at more in depth. He suggested a few doctors to go to but after a little research I just didn't feel good about any of them. I found an office here locally that specialized in thyroids. Luckily they got me in right away.

A week later I was in seeing someone who was really nice, examined my neck, and took blood to run some tests. He made me feel comfortable and not stupid like other doctors have in the past. He reassured me that what I was going was not all that normal and if my thyroid test came back "normal" he would send me to see an endocrinologist to further investigate my symptoms. Guess what???.......The test he took came back normal, it was NO surprise to me because that's what always seems to happen to me. That kind doctor got me an appointment to see the endocrinologist.

A few weeks later I went to see that doctor. I almost wasn't going to go because I was once again worried that he would tell me that there is nothing wrong. My visiting teacher encouraged me to go just to see if maybe he could help and if he couldn't maybe he could steer me in the right direction of someone who could. I am soooo glad I did because this doctor decided to do an ultrasound on my neck and found a small mass on my left thyroid. Now the mass was pretty small (only about 2.25 cm) and had only a 5-12% chance of being cancerous. The only was to know for sure was to have a little biopsy (fine needle aspiration) done. A week later I was in the hospital having a biopsy. They numbed my neck and had to go in about 6 or 7 times to get what they needed. And if you were wondering yes it was painful even though the skin was numb. It was all worth it in the end because now I know that the mass is benign..... THANK GOODNESS!!!!!! I just need to have regular ultrasounds done about twice a year to make sure it's not growing.

With all of this the endocrinologist also had a massive amounts of blood taken from me to be tested. I think there were about 10 or 12 vials that they took. Through those tests I did find out that I am insulin resistant and I need to get that under control. So I guess now I need to start a pretty strict diet and exercise. BOO......but I know it needs to be done. I will get the rest of my results from other blood tests when I go back for a follow-up appointment in a month.

Well there you have it. Lesson learned from all this: if you think something is off with you go get it checked out because even if you think all the doctors will tell you is that it's all in your head it probably isn't.