I look back on the experience as I try to help other through their illness with disbelief in how difficult it was to get my diagnosis. I knew something was wrong, yet no one believed me. 12 different doctors in less than a year and not one of them could tell me that I had subacute thyroiditis. Having thyroid disease is difficult enough to diagnose. Being a male makes it even harder. Add in the fact that mine was not the garden variety of the disease made it all the harder.
I know i have written many things about my illness and the onset, but in hindsight, my Aug 19, 2010 morning was normal. By 2 pm that day, I knew something terribly wrong was going on. No one believed me. All the doctors told me I needed a psychiatrist. My labs were normal because It takes just as long as blood levels to go bad as they do good. So when they were running my tests, It wasn't 5 weeks with the disease. It was one day, or 2 weeks.
It wasn't until my ears started ringing did a general doctor think harder about my thyroid. And it wasn't until i spoke to the medical director of Erfa in Canada did I have some insight into what I had. He knew exactly what was going on, why didnt my doctors?
Now I'm able to spot thyroid disease. I can pick it out of the crowd. From goiters so slow metabolisms, I have helped 13 people get better and counting. So even though I was the unlikely guy to get this plague, I am happy to say as a result of this I have been able to help many others. I wish I would of had this in 2013 or 2014 instead of just 3 years ago. With all the new resources popping up such as thyroidchange.org it looks like things are starting to finally change.
As Albert Einstein once said, "Im glad no one helped me, because everything I have learned I have learned myself."
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