The Thyroid “stare”….

Marisa brought up a very good point yesterday: those of us with Thyroid Eye Disease have “the stare” It is easily recognizable to those of us who have it: bulging eyes, fatty eyelids, and dark circles. In addition, many of us have our entire iris visible, instead of having them framed top and bottom by the eyelid. Here is an extreme example:

 

 Later on I will post a photo of what my eyes look like….my camera battery is dead! But, you get the idea. Once you are diagnosed and understand the symptoms of thyroid eye disease, you can’t help but look at every pair of eyes you come across and compare…..

Barbara Bush….definately has the TED stare

Joe Piscapo….same thing

But every day I see people at the grocery store or the gym and think to myself “I wonder if they’ve had their thyroid checked?” Once you know what to look for, you can see examples all around…..it’s a childhood game we used to play, slug-bug….where you look for VW bugs and slug the person next to you every time you see one!

So, my eye surgeon wants some “before thyroid eye disease” photos of me so that he knows what he’s going for in the way of fixing my eyes. I plan to submit a few befores. but I’m also going to insert some photos of Michelle Pfieffer and Diane Lane in their 30’s and tell him…..this is what I’m going after!!

Grave’s Disease, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly Part 2

So, I finally get a diagnosis that explains my heart murmurs, my hand tremors, and my sleepless nights….Now it was a matter of what to do next. I was refered to an endocrinologist who was incredibly knowlegable and really took his time explaining the disease and overall thyroid function to me. He suggested RAI right away, and I didn’t know enough then to doubt him, but I asked about alternatives anyway. He mentioned an anti thyroid medication that we could try on a await and see basis, but he had no hopes that it would actually work in the long run “You’re going to end up with RAI anyway, so I just don’t know why you’d want to wait”….why didn’t I leave his office forever right then? The answer is simple: because the best endocrinologist in Portland had just retired a month before, and scattered his hundresds of patients to the four winds of the city…..the waiting list for a decent endo was 6-9 months, and I just didn’t want to wait that long.

So, I looked into some alternative therapies, and talked to some holistic doctors, as well as some naturopaths. I finally settled on acupuncture as a compliment to my western medicine. As soon as my endo got wind of the fact that I was eating crucifurous vegetable and getting acupuncture, he scoffed, rolled his eyes, and that’s when I knew I needed to find another endo.

I did my research, and found a highly recommended endocrinologist, and was told that there was a 9 month waiting period. This came as no shock to me, and I decided to go ahead and schedule an appointment with her and maintain my medications on my own. I thought “What’s the harm in having my primary physician monitor my TSH levels until January? I’s only the summer and fall…..I can do this!

I was performing in another Mt. Hood Repertory production, this time playing Chelsea in “On Golden Pond”…..my eyes were getting worse, and I knew it! Look how puffy the area is where the brow bone used to be:

As a former Miss America contestant, it must be acknowledged that people always refer to me as a “former beauty queen”….now I could quote book chapter and verse about the scholastic side of the Miss America Program, and how it’s not a beauty pageant, but that’s a whole other blog…The truth is that people have come to perceive me in a way, and I, in turn have accepted their perceptions and even bought into them a bit. So, to be turning 36 and having my eyes look like those of a 60 year old made me face my inner vanity….a vanity I never knew existed until I looked in the mirror and didn’t like what I saw….maybe that’s too strong….I just didn’t recognize the person on the other side of the mirror! Here’s a photo from the cast party:

Start the Spark, People!!

Those of us who have crossed over to Hypothyroidism from the Hyper side know how hard it can be to keep from gaining weight. Some days it seems like an insurmountable task, but it all boils down to calories taken in vs. calories burned.

It’s especially hard for those of use who got used to eating fried chicken and biscuits without it going directly to our thighs!! I find myself counting every calorie and trying to work out on a regular basis. But, it’s hard to hold yourself accountable everyday when there are so many excuses out there….between volunteering at the school and serving on local comittees and the daily grind of being a stay at home mom and keeping my sanity…..it seems a daunting task to jump in my car and take an hour out to excercise.

I used to use Fitday, an online source to log in your food and track calories burned. I learned about it when I was putting my son on a 5,000 calorie a day diet (you heard, me 5,000 calories a DAY) he’s now up to 6,000 cal/day but that’s a whole other blog…..

So, I just learned about a great program to keep all of your health needs in one place. Its has a great calorie counter and excercise log, and lots of other bells and whistles. It will even help you keep track of your medical appointments, if you want it to. It can be used alone, or you can expand it into a social networking system, with groups and message boards  like “35-40 with 10-20 pounds to loose” and “working out with Monavie”….they even have a reward system with points and “virtual gifts” for those of us who are hooked on facebook.

I used to use the Southbeach Diet’s website, and I paid $10 a month for the service….Oprah is charging $15 for her “Better LIfe Now” website, with similar bells and whistles. I can’t believe that sparkpeople offers all of this at no cost to the user. Except I can.

See, Sparkpeople was founded by a man by the name of Chris Downie. Chris was the co-founder of a little auction website that was bought out by Ebay. He received a windfall of tens of millions of dollars, and he could’ve retired that day and never worked again. Instead, he set out to revolutionize the online health community. He’s even invented his own word to describe it: healthtainment.

“Healthtainment is a term we came up with that describes our program and philosophy. We try to make it fun and entertaining for people to reach their health goals instead of a negative experience. I believe it will be a uniquely American solution for a media-related company like SparkPeople to play a significant role in solving America’s obesity and health crisis.”

I know that he stands to make even more tens of millions of dollars for this, but I personally think he deserves to.

Oprah should take a page out of his book and make her “Best Life” website free…..we know SHE doesn’t need the money, and the ads generated more than pay for the overhead….but that’s whole other blog, too!

Get a Free Online Diet

The Top 10 benefits of Grave’s disease.

Feel free to add your own!

10) Having Grave’s means never having to say you’re sorry……blame it on the hormones!

9) The name itself is scary enough that you get upgrades on the family Christmas lists.

8 ) Being Hyper means all you can eat!

7) Becoming Hypo give you a great excuse to store up some fat for the winter.

6) Grave’s is a great excuse to sleep all day.

5) Who doesn’t love cystic acne?

4)When you’re Hyper, you don’t need to bother with any clothes besides a tank top and shorts.

3) When you’re Hypo, you don’t have to bother with air conditioning.

2) If you are lucky enough to get the Thyroid Eye Disease, your “mom stare” is that much more effective.

And the number one benefit of Grave’s disease is:

1) Radioactive Iodine Treatment means a week without kids or kitchen duty!!

If nothing ever changed, there’d be no butterflies….seize the day!!

Grave’s Disease….the good, the bad and the ugly part 1

It was two summers ago when my husband looked at me and said;

“Baby, your left eye looks a little droopy.”

Being a pageant girl, I ran to the nearest mirror and surveyed the results: He was right, my left eyelid was definately droopy…..”Great!” I thought, “This must be what 35 looks like”

I was in a production of Lend Me a Tenor at the Mt. Hood Repertory at the time, playing Diana, the femme fatale soprano. I lost 25 pounds to fit into the now infamous red silk gown, and I paraded around the stage in my skivvies…..I couldn’t believe how easy it was for me to loose those 25 pounds. Everyone wanted to know my secret…..only even I didn’t know what forces were at work inside my body.

Now, I am a busy stay at home mom who rarely does more than walk past a mirror anymore. Most days I’m lucky to get a shower in, and makeup sends my kids into fits, because they know I only put it on when I’m about to go out with Daddy and leave them with a sitter.

So, in the dressing room applying makeup nightly led me to really assess the damage that the years have brought….where in the world did my puffy eyes come from? At first I thought it was just the camera angle of the publicity shots:

Okay, not the clearest of photos, but you get the idea……I’m the one in the red dress….

By the end of the summer, I was having difficulty sleeping and heart palpitations. When I went in to see my internist, I was diagnosed as having “stress-related anxiety”….thank goodness an intern was standing next to him, and suggested a thyroid test.

“Very well, I think it’s a waste of time and money, but if you want to order the test, order it” was his reply…..the tests came back positive for Hyperthyroid, and I’ll never see that internist again!!