Looking at me, you wouldn’t know the constant hell my body goes through every single day. This is another reason why I say we should be careful about what we say about others. You never know what someone is going through. Just thinking about this reminds me of reading some of the hatefulness from people concerning Chadwick Boseman before it was learned that he had cancer.

Last year I was diagnosed with spondylosis (arthritis) in the cervical (neck), thoracic (middle) and lumbar (lower) of my back along with bone spurs at multiple levels. And when I say my back hurts me every.single.day, I’m not joking. I usually just push through, and take some ibuprofen. However, sometimes I get to that point where I can’t tolerate the pain and take the prescribed medication which I hate. When I take it, I’m out (sleep) for the rest of the day.

As if that wasn’t enough, I was diagnosed with large granular lymphocytic leukemia (LGL) which I’ll discuss in another blog post

I also have hypothyroidism. There are several nodules on my thyroid that are being monitored and so far I haven’t had any difficulties with swallowing or breathing. I currently take levothyroxine every morning but even being on the medication, the chronic fatigue can be horrible at times and to a point where I’m in tears. The damn dry skin; even though I drink water like crazy and constantly using different types of lotions, even the more expensive ones, just to continue having dry ass skin.

However, not taking my medication would come with some serious complications such as: heart failure, myxedema coma, infertility (which isn’t an issue for me because I’ve had a hysterectomy), and other issues. So I have an alarm set for 5:45 a.m. so I know to take my thyroid medication every day; it has to be taken on an empty stomach.

My chronic illnesses are another reason as to why I’m doing my best to stick with managing my weight. I don’t need to add any other medical issues when I do have the ability to control it. When I gained some of the weight back earlier this year, my A1C started to go back up which put me back into the pre-diabetic range. So far my blood pressure has been kept under control. I’m so hoping that my next check in will show that my A1C is back in normal range.

Some days are better than others and I’m constantly trying to remind myself that my body is dealing with a lot and that I need to rest. That I shouldn’t feel guilty about having to do so or if I don’t feel like doing anything. Then they’re are times where I do push myself because I don’t want what I’m dealing with get the best of me because I have so much that I want to accomplish.

Since it would be a long post discussing all the symptoms, causes, what it feels like to have hypothyroidism, I’ll leave some links.

Dana from Hypothyroid Mom really gets to the meat and bones of hypothyroid.

What is Hypothyroidism? Symptoms, Causes, Treatment and Prevention