Not Feeling Yourself

This isn’t my usual post but I felt like God was tugging at my hear to share. When you become a mother so many people tell you that you will never be the same. You will be tired, stressed, anxious and so on. I bought into this so deeply. I would write off all the things I was feeling physically and emotionally because it was just how it was when you have a kid. Well, DON’T do that!

I was recently diagnosed with hashimoto’s disease which is an autoimmune disorder that affects your thyroid. If you know me then you will know that my mom was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer this past May. It took this life altering event for me to finally go to a doctor and say I’m not sure if something is wrong with me but can we check…

After I had Quinn 4 years ago I felt very tired and couldn’t sleep through the night but I wrote it off as being a side affect of having kids. I had digestive issues, and it became difficult for me to get back into a normal workout routine due to muscle weakness and exhaustion. Again, I wrote it off and kept going. Even at the doctor I couldn’t express the way I was feeling well enough and usually they would say yeah being a parent is hard. When Quinn was a year and a half I was able to start running again but after most runs my muscles would be so exhausted and I sometime ended up with a headache. I ran beach to bay, it took me 2 days to recover, was but outside of my husband people didn’t know because I hid it well.

When Quinn turned 2 we decided we wanted to have another baby. We were blessed with Reese and the pregnancy was harder this go round but she came ,happy and healthy, and I thought all was well. I recovered quicker and she was an easy baby so in my mind things were better. Once I went back to work, when she was around 4 months, it went downhill from there.

I was getting 4 hours or so of sleep due to waking up so frequently (my kids sleep through the night), by the time I got home from work I couldn’t do anything else. I had muscle weakness, joint pain, headaches, digestive issues, my hair never stopped falling out, brain fog and anxiety. I felt deep down this was not me, I would have moments of clarity and think why is it like this? How do women function? How do people have so many kids and still have energy? BUT again I tried to tell my doctor but didnt know how to express myself without sounding crazy. I did not want to be labeled.

I have always been one to make mostly healthy choices when it came to food because I had stomach ulcers when I was 20 but after my mom was diagnosed we decided that it was time to get serious. We got on the Keto diet and after a couple months I was feeling better but I knew I needed to go to my doctor because of my family history. My brother and mom had been diagnosed with hashimotos so I knew I should atleast get checked.

GUESS WHAT…..I had it, all of the symptoms I have talked about were from this!I had just been to my OBGYN the week before and when I told her about being checked her response was, we would have seen it when your were pregnant. WRONG…I was not CRAZY and they had only looked at my regular thyroid panel which did not catch it. If you have not felt like yourself tell your doctor. I also had low vitamin D which they checked only because I asked. Low vitamin D has tons of side effects, look it up.

I started my research and now I take magnesium, iodine, vitamin D, tumeric, and a probiotic as well as a thyroid medication. With autoimmune diseases you body is attacking itself based on what your eating. I’ve felt a million times better on keto because I stopped eating food that cause inflammation in the body. I now eat anti inflammatory foods and stay away from grains, processed sugar, and vegetable oils. I am not cured and am still working through everything but I’ve had so many people tell me “Wow, you look great.” I just finished my first week of school and worked out 4 out of the 5 days after school.

I read that thyroid conditions are very under diagnosed. If you do not feel yourself do not write it off! I hope this helps someone and if you need someone to talk to, I am here!