I remember I never use to mention not remembering how to spell a simple word or spelling it back wards. When I did mention it others mentioned they also had the same problem. Another irritating thing we have to live with. But the thing is they all add up to a very miserable life for many of us.
The latest topics have been strange symptoms. May or may not be related to Thyroid Disease. But it sure looks like it since so many have the same symptoms. It can't just be by chance. Since I mentioned a feeling of wetness but I am dry, I have been getting messages and emails plus people talking about it on both my Face Book page's Graves"Disease Coffee Break. Check them out . Just look for the little Chili Pepper with a coffee Cup. Any way we are calling it the "Phantom Dampness". It is a feeling of dampness or being wet . It can be your hands, arms, legs ans many have told me it is their back. The thing is we are not sweating. When we check we are dry. I catch myself going to dry my hands or arms thinking I am wet. Some times I think I have spilled some thing on my self. It is the strangest feeling. So hard to explain. But those that have it know what I am talking about. A few have mentioned it to the doctors and they do not have a clue. So what the..... is this. What can it mean. Just another symptom to drive us crazy or make us think we are crazy. no wonder people like us were committed at one time. No wonder many of us do not mention this or other symptoms. It does sound crazy. What other little irritating things are we having and not mentioning. I will try to think of any thing that just does not seem right to me. In the mean time if you have a symptom no matter how mild it may seem let's hear it. More of us may be experiencing this little irritating things.
I remember I never use to mention not remembering how to spell a simple word or spelling it back wards. When I did mention it others mentioned they also had the same problem. Another irritating thing we have to live with. But the thing is they all add up to a very miserable life for many of us.
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Am I cold or Hot????
One of the strangest symptoms I have is the hot and cold. It is very hard to explain to somebody that has never experienced it. Some times the upper half of my body is like a furnace, while my legs and feet are frozen. This can happen in the Summer as well as in the Winter. Some times my feet and hands are like ice and my arms. Head and upper body is sweating and others tell me I am red and feel like I have a fever. Than there are times I am freezing all over or roasting all over. I live in Colorado and I am use to the temperature changing from hot to cold all in one day or a few hours. So I always have a coat or sweater handy and dress in layers in the Winter. But, this is so much different. Some compare it to menopause. In a way it is like that with the hot flash’s. Yet it changes so much. It is hard to keep up with sometimes. No wonder we think we are going crazy. No wonder people watching us put on and take off extra clothing so much or wearing a tank top with heavy sox and sweat pants and maybe gloves think we are weird. I have been known to walk out barefooted in the snow because I am so hot. And I don’t just mean that in a sexy way. I have also been known to wear a tank top in the Winter along with the heavy sweat pants and heavy sox or two and a blanket wrapped around my legs. I have been known to wear gloves while watching TV Winter and Summer. No it does not happen all the time . It happens enough to be noticeable though. My hands have been so cold I have a rice bag handy to heat up to warm my hands and feet. I have now made hand warmers just for these occasions. This can be so irritati9ng when it happens. Not just for me but for those close to me. Imagine sleeping next to somebody that has so much body heat yet if they touch you with their hands or feet is like ice on you. Well that is what my husband tells me it is like. So that is the hot and cold story. Now for something even stranger that has been happening to me lately. A strange sensation that my arm or leg or back is wet. Just a sensation of wetness. I am dry. A few times I thought maybe I had spilled water or somebody else did. But, no…nothing . I do not know what it is or why I get this sensation. It is just strange. Any more with my Thyroid Disease nothing surprises me any more. My skin being dry in patches once in awhile and in different places. My hair falling out by the handful or just breaking off and not growing like it should and just being so thin. I use to get hives when nervous now I get red blotches…no bumps or hives. My nails are brittle and peel. The skin around my nails sometimes just peel , no matter how much moisturizer or lotion I use. This can not all be from getting older. These crazy symptoms come and go. I try to keep track of what is going on in my life like stress but there is no pattern that I can see. It is just random. Just another thing to drive me crazy or make me look crazy. So this is what I have been thinking about today. All the little irritating things my Thyroid Disease puts on my door step Please go to the site and read the petition and sign it. Tell your friends and family. This is your health care they are talking about. Together we can do this. It only takes a few minutes of your time and who knows your signature may be the turning point for all of us.
3000 signatures~ 65 countries! We are the international thyroid community uniting for a a better future. Each of us doing our part to make huge differences. The Butterfly Effect. KEEP SHARING! http://tinyurl.com/7argkvvEndocrinologists: Patients with Thyroid Dysfunction Demand Better Caretinyurl.comThyroid patients are increasingly aware that there is a deficiency in thyroid know Depression
Depression is a subject we do not want to talk about. Here in Elaine’s Coffee Break we do talk about things like depression and much more. We hit on subjects you may not want to talk about with family and friends much less a doctor. Depression is something real and it is a serious condition with serious consequences if you do not pay attention and do something about it. I am not a doctor and I am not here to diagnose anybody. I do have resources and information you may not come by every day. You never know what you will learn in Elaine’s Coffee Break. I will be talking about some things to look out for and pay attention to. Low energy, this can include slow thinking or even your motions being slowed down. Some say it is like living in slow motion. You have a hard time focusing on what you are doing . Simple task may be difficult and frustrating for you to do or want to do. Trouble concentrating and being indecisive can also be signs. Letting things go that you use to enjoy doing and even fun doing. Belonging to a club or going out for dinner may no longer appeal to you. Feeling down and not feeling like going out and doing something once in a while is normal. If you do this constantly ..pay attention. Are you detaching yourself from friends and family? Are you detaching yourself from activities? With drawing from toxic friends and family is one thing. It is quite another to detach yourself from those that care about you. Wanting to sleep all the time is a form of detaching yourself also. Being irritable and agitated for no apparent reason can be signs. A sadness you can not explain, prolong crying spells, crying for no reason, a feeling of worthlessness , feeling of helplessness, losing hope and feeling not good enough to deserve anything. Sometimes just feeling an unjustifiable guilt over issues you have no control over. This can be anything from war’s to poverty to issues that have nothing to do with you. Surprising that there are many people out there that feel this helplessness to control the world around them. Some people get reckless in things they do. Doing dangerous stunts reckless driving drinking while driving or driving drunk. I am not saying all drunk drivers are depressed. Some people just do things like drive drunk. Even alcohol abuse can be due to depression. Feeling down and needing that “Pick me Up”. Or maybe a person have little or no sex drive any longer. They have completely lost interest in even a hug or a kiss. They lose interest in any kind of general contact. Having frequent headaches or body pain. Headaches being the most common, but back pains, muscle pains, joint pains and even stomach pains or digestive problems. They may not all be related to depression. Maybe they cause the depression. Then there is the problem of prescription drug abuse. People with depression are often prescribed justifiable drugs for pain or sleep. Some of these drugs have side effects of depression. You hear them talk about that on the television commercials every day. Sometimes just having these drugs around are a temptation to abuse. I urge you to call your doctor if you think for a moment that the drugs you are taking are effecting you and your moods in any way. The sooner you get it looked into the better. The very worse thing about a serious case of depression is suicidal thoughts., A tendency of suicidal thoughts may or may not be noticed by friends and family. If you have these feelings or notice somebody that does or if you just suspect somebody is suicidal there is help. You can call the National Suicidal Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK . Or call your doctor or 911 if it is real bad. Talk to someone about it. The best thing you can do is seek out medical help if you suspect any of the things mentioned here might be a case of depression. Just accepting you may have a problem is the first step in the right direction that may correct it. That first step maybe the hardest for you to take. Knowing and understanding can help a person deal with depression. Knowing that if you try to control your stress and anxiety in your life is also a big step to feeling better. Keeping strong relationships with friends and family that really care and keeping away from people that tend to encourage your depression also helps. Stay positive and build a support system of people. Exercise, eating a well balanced diet, getting enough sleep and finding healthy ways to deal with stress helps. Being very involved in the Thyroid Disease issue I must mention that Some believe being Hyperthyroid is misdiagnosed as just depression. While Hypothyroid Disease can cause depression. Hyperthyroid is getting to much hormone to your thyroid and Hypothyroid is not getting enough. Depression is a major symptom in a Thyroid Disease. All the things mentioned here are felt by many Thyroid patients. Many of the things mentioned here is not just the depression but just a few of many symptoms of Thyroid Disease. Another good reason to go see your doctor and get tested. It does not take any more time or effort to test for Thyroid Disease. Elaine’s Coffee Break
What everybody should know about Graves’ Disease Graves’ Disease first off is treatable but not curable. I think that is very important to know from the start. You will probably notice small things about yourself that just do not seem right in the beginning. Your hands starting to tremble a bit or your heart racing like you just ran a mile. Maybe you notice a restlessness you never had before. You maybe quick tempered and jumpy. You just know something is wrong but just can not put your finger on it. Maybe you are feeling depressed and you tell your doctor …and the doctor prescribes anti depression pills. These pills may not be what you need at all. But it is often the first thing a doctor recommends even before they do a Thyroid blood test. Graves’ Disease is when your brain tells your thyroid you need more hormone in your body. The thyroid gland is a butterfly shape organ on the front base of your neck. The thyroid controls just about every part of your body. From your hair and skin to your body functions and sex drive. If you are getting to much hormone your body is going way to fast. You are tired all the time yet not resting. You are burning up. Some compare it as to a very bad case of menopause. A person is so hot they turn red and will walk out in the snow barefooted. The heat can feel like you are standing in a fire. It takes a simple blood test to find out if you have a thyroid disease. But, that will not be the end of it. You will have the disease the rest of your life. The best thing you can do is learn to live with it . Some but not everybody will go into remission. Remission can be a few days a few weeks or months. It may end up being the rest of your life. You will still have to take blood test the rest of your life and any stressful situation can bring out the worse symptoms. There are some people that will tell you they are in remission yet turn around and tell you they are loosing too much hair, they are always nervous or just feel tired all the time. I don’t call that remission. It would be nice if a person could count on getting the medication just right and going into remission. The thing is the medication never seems to be just right. Even if your lab numbers say you are at the right level , you may still terrible symptoms. FOR YOUR INFORMATION Just a few of many sites that give you information about Thyroid Disease Just launched in May 2012 Thyroid Cancer Coffee Break. A talk radio show like no other around. Wilma “Calamity Sunshine” is your host and Elaine is your Co-Host. The show airs every Monday-Wednesday and Friday from 8:30Am to 9:00 Am MST. Interviews will be on Saturdays from 8:30Am to 9:00Am. You can go to this site and listen to any old shows if you miss one. If you want to call in with a question call 619-638-8444 and press 1. Or just listen in with your phone http://www.bogtalk.com/thyroid-cancer-coffee-break Graves’ Disease Coffee Break Support [email protected] or [email protected] http://gdcoffeebreak.weebly.com Stevie JoEllie Cancer Care fund [email protected] Eye surgery http://www.thedoctorstv.com/main/procedure_list1813 Thyroid eye disease group featuring Elaine’s video TED surgery http://thyroideyedisease.weebly.com/ Dear Thyroid is a thyroid literary group http://dearthyroid.org I AM TED Great site for TED info http://www.IAMTED.com www.stopthethyroidmadness.com www.thyroid.org allthyroid.org http://www.thyroidawareness.com Fee Medicine as seen on the Montel Williams show http://freemedicine.com/ Denise Rodriguez Any takers for translating into other languages? So far, we have: Spanish, German, and Swedish. French is on the way (needs final proofing). We *may* receive Danish, Dutch, and Polish soon. Ideally, we would love to have a "representative" from each language to post on various thyroid forums in that language, too. :D
http://sarahjdowning.com/2012/06/05/interview-with-the-initiators-of-the-petition-patients-with-thyroid-dysfunction-demand-better-care/Interview with the Initiators of the Petition “Patients with Thyroid Dysfunction Demand Better Care” sarahjdowning.com https://www.change.org/petitions/endocrinologists-patients-with-thyroid-dysfunction-demand-better-care?=1Endocrinologists: Patients with Thyroid Dysfunction Demand Better Care www.change.orgThyroid patients are increasingly aware that there is a deficiency in thyroid knowledge among endocrinologists. As specialists of the endocrine... Please help if you can . This is important to all of us. Let me know if you are able or need more information. or s Elaine’s Coffee Break
What Is Graves’ Disease Like? Elaine Martinez Not a day goes by that I am not asked “Just what is it like having Graves’ Disease?” I have tried so many ways to answer that questions. I have found that the best thing to do is trying to explain the Thyroid Disease in a way that relates to the person I am talking to. So many people that I talk to that do not have a Thyroid Disease have a real hard time understanding that this is a very hard disease to live with. Not only for the person that has a thyroid disease but the family with a family member with the disease. One thing I always tell people is that my best day may look like your worse day. Mind you first off we do not all have the same symptoms or at the same degree. So some of you that have a Thyroid Disease may disagree with my symptoms. Also the symptoms may change day to day. Just as an example imagine having flu like symptoms everyday. Yet you still have things that you need to take care of. You may have a family to care for or a job to go to. You feel so drained and so tired you can barely make yourself get up out of bed and get dressed for the day. You get up get dressed and go to make coffee. You want that coffee so bad and think it may help wake you up as your eyelids are so heavy. Some days that coffee just makes you feel worse. Your spouse comes in for breakfast and looks at you funny. You know you do not look your best by the look in their eye. You are loosing so much hair when you take a shower and when you comb your hair. Your hair is unmanageable and breaks. It is sometimes called “Glass” hair because of that. Your skin is so dry even moisturizer does not help much. Your make up does not look right and your eyes always feel gritty and water al the time. You snap at your husband and even at your children. When they question you about it you get irritated with them. You may not even realize how you sound to them. To you it seems like they just do not understand you. You are right they do not. You are having so many mood swings they can not keep up. Also your joints are hurting and you just hurt all over your body. Some days it just maybe your knees, some days you knees and elbows and then some days just all over . Damp weather can really hurt you. If you have Thyroid Eye Disease your head hurts from behind your eyes most of the time. There are times just your heels hurt. Even with out the pain you are still feeling tired. You can sleep for up to 18 hours a day yet it is not a restful sleep. You might be up and down all night long. Sleeping so many hours a day makes you look lazy to other people. If you have ever stayed awake all night and tried to go to work the next day you might know how this feels a little bit. Or if you have ever had a very bad hang over and had to go to work you may get a hint as how this feels every day. Everything irritates you. You are grouchy and snap at everybody and well everything just gets you mad. But no matter what you do …you can not feel better. All you can do is learn to live with it. You may think well it is not that bad. Yes it is that bad. We have not even started on all the symptoms there are. I have not even mentioned the anxiety, depression, decreased concentration, decreased memory, confusion tearfulness not to mention forgetting words and how to spell them. Not just words. Some of us with a Thyroid Disease do not just forget words but names of people and places. It might come and go from one hour to the next from one day to the next. The thing is it does happen. More than we would like to think about. Is there more? Yes there is. Some people with Thyroid Disease have been thought to be drunk or on drugs. We are known to have tremors in our hands, to fall for no reason, and to be off balance. These might all seem like little irritating things to some people. The thing is when it is happening to you it is not such a little thing. All of it adds up to one big thing. Is there medicine to help us? Yes and no. There are a few different ones for us to take. The thing is what works for one of us does not work for all of us. Get 10 of us together and we all are taking a different medicine and a different dose. Some of us have a blood test every other month some every 3-6 months . A few once a year. A lot depends on the doctor we have and how they read our blood work. So now we have Another problem. Not all doctors understand our Thyroid Disease even though it has been around for years. Years ago people with a Thyroid Disease were put in mental hospitals. Yes, we were locked up. Why because the doctors thought we were crazy. We often think we are going crazy. It is hard for those of us that have a Thyroid Disease to understand what is happening to us. So you can understand how hard it is to try to explain it to somebody that does not have it. My job is to do constant research and spread the awareness of this disease to the public and to people that have Thyroid Disease. Some of you may already know you have it and are glad to know there are others out there that know exactly what you are going through. There are many of you that do not know you have a Thyroid Disease but are feeling the symptoms and do not know why you feel the way you do. Many of us tried to hide it as much as we could and so turned into hermits of a sort. Our appearance and personality may have changed so much that old friends do not even know us any more. If you suspect that you or somebody you know may have a Thyroid disorder I urge you to ask your doctor to have thyroid testing done when they take blood for blood test. It does not cost any more just another thing to check for. These test are the T3 , T4 and TSH http://sarahjdowning.com/2012/06/05/interview-with-the-initiators-of-the-petition-patients-with-thyroid-dysfunction-demand-better-care/Interview with the Initiators of the Petition “Patients with Thyroid Dysfunction Demand Better Care” sarahjdowning.com https://www.change.org/petitions/endocrinologists-patients-with-thyroid-dysfunction-demand-better-care?=1Endocrinologists: Patients with Thyroid Dysfunction Demand Better Care www.change.orgThyroid patients are increasingly aware that there is a deficiency in thyroid knowledge among endocrinologists. As specialists of the endocrine... *Listing the Petition on Various Websites*** Would anyone be interested in posting the petition on your website or blog? In return, we will cross-reference your website/blog in a list similar to this: So far, we have sites such as www.well-women.com and http://sarahjdowning.com/ . Thanks, Mazzy and Sarah!Noteworthy Individuals Supporting Our PTD Petition This petition is representative of an international effort by patients with thyroid disorders/dysfunction (PTD) for better standards of care from endocrinologists
*Listing the Petition on Various Websites*** Would anyone be interested in posting the petition on your website or blog? In return, we will cross-reference your website/blog in a list similar to this: So far, we have sites such as www.well-women.com and http://sarahjdowning.com/ . Thanks, Mazzy and Sarah!Noteworthy Individuals Supporting Our PTD Petition This petition is representative of an international effort by patients with thyroid disorders/dysfunction (PTD) for better standards of care from endocrinologists
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ElaineI am the person that started the first coffee break. I Have had Graves' Disease for at least 10 years. I also have Thyroid Eye Disease. I give Thyroid Disease Support . My goal in life is to inform the public about Thyroid Disease. Archives
March 2018
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