I ignored my thyroid and this happened

Where do I begin? The point where it all began… right? I've had hypothyroidism for the past six years. Ever since I was diagnosed, I've been taking thyroid supplements, and I will have to do so until I die. When I was first diagnosed, I underwent blood testing for T3, T4, and TSH every three months and stuck to meds initially but I was unable to continue the torturous process for very long, though.

I was traumatised by the thought of taking the drug every day when I woke up. I used to be so busy in the mornings that there were times when I completely forgot to take my medication. Who claimed that once hypothyroidism is discovered, it is simple to manage? How are you expected to ensure that you take your medications as prescribed and that you receive the proper dose? Well, I went from taking meds only 2 days of the week to not taking it at all. Here’s all that I went through after discontinuing my thyroid medication.

I've always been a person that moves around a lot and is constantly occupied. I became surprisingly exhausted all of a sudden. I would get my customary eight hours of sleep, wake up with the alarm, and immediately want to fall back asleep. I would drag myself to work, spend the entire day there, then come home and go to bed. I had no energy to even do things that I once loved doing.

Despite eating less, my weight continued to go up and beyond. I gained 5 kgs, then 10, then 15. I became puffy like an inflatable balloon because of my poor metabolism and bloated tummy each time I ate anything.

Feelings! I was drowning in them. They were everywhere, crying out loud. I can recall once being so enraged at being called in the morning that I threw my phone on the bed with a little too much force. The phone toppled and hit the floor only to get a shattered screen. Another time, I yelled at my mom despite the fact that I wasn't even angry! I was unable to stop talking, though. She said she understood how my mood fluctuations were getting worse.

Seriously! I lost more than half of the hair on my head and I’m not even exaggerating it. I found hair on my pillow cases, my books, my laptop, the table, basically every place screamed of my presence due to my fallen hair. Other than everything on your head, your brows and eyelashes tend to fall too. I kept blaming the new mascara I had been using.

I have always taken my skincare seriously since my teenage years. Nevertheless, my skin glowed even with a moisturiser on. I would get many compliments on it but to my dismay, it did not last long. My skin started breaking out in places where I never had any problems. I thought my skin was going through purging due to a new skincare product I was using.

By this time, I had enough and went on to consult my doctor. I underwent the normal tests that my doctor had scheduled for me the next day while fasting. The doctor's first words after seeing my shot up thyroid numbers were, “You must be feeling awful right now, I bet. I laughed out loud and acknowledged that I had indeed been experiencing it. He explained that my hypothyroidism was manageable with medicine, which is how they would start me out and check my levels for the first three months. I was advised to eat clean, exercise and be active throughout the day.