I had brunch with an ex-employee that I hadn’t seen in several years. While trying to downplay my thycan, my partner was like ‘honey, it hasn’t exactly been nothing!”.
So it’s been about 1.5 years since my thyroidectomy.
Quick recap: Had complete thyroidectomy due to cancerous tumor. Did NOT do radioactive iodine and the surgery went smoothly/easily. Even managed to lose 20lbs a year after by changing my eating habits.
What HAS been an issue for me are mood swings, especially around ‘that time of the month’. My period is a nightmare. It wasn’t like this at all before the thyroidectomy.
I went back on cytomel a few days ago and am hoping it helps stabilize things. My endo also is having me change the type of birth control I’m on and says I should use brand name, not generic, just to rule out any additional issues.
Late last year after I lost the weight, my body went wacky and I saw a Thyroid doctor who reduced my meds and took me off cytomel. This actually had a very adverse reaction and I became not only lethargic but had horrible short term memory loss. I couldn’t remember what I told people or what was told to me, which considering I am a program manager for a living (a job that entails lots of talking to lots of people), became very problematic.
Tip: Get a small laptop or iPad to take notes and document everything. This saved me at my job, I logged EVERY THING.
My endo upped my prescription and the brain fog lifted and I became human again. But even with a higher dosage I was still so sad, which made no sense considering my life is pretty fly.
So now back on cytomel (which is a T3 fast acting thyroid hormone) and feeling positive.
I know this is a fairly boring post but I get a lot of people reaching out to me about thyroid cancer. The biggest thing, honestly, is you have to pay attention to your body and emotional being. In some ways, you almost have to re-learn yourself and what certain physical or emotional signals really mean and stay on top of your medical care.
You can’t just get that original prescription and hold steady to that for years. Get your thyroid levels tested minimum once a year, more so if you are tired, gaining weight, lethargic, depressed, cloudy minded, or anything that doesn’t “make sense”. DO NOT let it ‘creep up’ into your life and then just ‘deal with it’. Go to the doctor, get it sorted out. Life is too short to live an inferior life when something as easy as an dosage change can brighten your life!!!
