http://dearthyroid.org/thyroid-poetr-by-sarah-downing/
You crept up on me you SOB
Destroyed my life as it used to be
Accused of laziness because I’m tired
A symptom that this illness has sired
Accused of greed because I’m overweight
But I’m hardly ever hungry; I just caught you too late!
Thanks to you, thyroid, I have Epstein-Barr
With you, Hashimoto’s, I will go far
My adrenals conked out a long time ago
My cortisol’s sky-high; my metabolism’s low
Well, it seems I’ve been struck by the family curse
And my health is going from bad to worse
It’s not my way to give up and put up
Although some doctors would rather I shut up!
So I found a new doctor
Dr N is his name
Treating thyroids is his game
And that last line is really lame!;-)
Now I have to be patient till he finds the right pill
But that’s bloody hard as I’m feeling quite ill
My whole body aches
The insurance won’t pay
For the necessary chiropractic
Because they say I’m okay
Apparently their doctor knows better than mine
Although he’s never seen me and never touched my spine!
Don’t you think that’s really out of line?
My whole family’s ill – my fiancé, my mother, my sister-in-law and my fiancé’s brother.
It seems this disease is more common than we thought
So why on earth is it so rarely caught?
Is it because the doctors aren’t taught
That TSH alone is just not enough
In fact, diagnosis is really quite tough
My fiancé was a prime example
Our old doctor took a blood sample
And said that his thyroid’s functioning was ample
The new doctor took one look at him
Knew something was amiss
Did sonogram and scintigram
And he could tell from this
That my fiancé was suffering from thyroiditis
It seems this disease is awfully vicious
And its effects are oh so pernicious.
I wish that the world would become more aware
Because non-diagnosis just isn’t fair
And it sucks even more when doctors don’t care
So I read and I read and I learn and I learn
To help myself and others this disease to spurn
I liked your poem. So very true that it robs you of your life. I noticed that you sighted the word ‘pernicious.” My grandmother died from pernicious anemia. Is there a corelation between pernicious anemia and thyroid disease, Fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome? If you can reply back by email, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.
Thank you very much, M Keele. I’m so sorry to hear about the passing of your grandmother. There does indeed seem to be a link between fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and thyroid disease and many doctors like to try their patients with these illnesses on a trial of thyroid hormone to see whether it helps them, notably docs such as Dr Teitelbaum (a specialist in CFS) and Dr Lowe (a specialist in fibromyalgia). As for pernicious, I used it in the sense of “injurious or destructive”, but I just looked this one up and there doese indeed seem to be some correlation between thyroid/autoimmune disease and pernicious anemia (http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/204930-overview). I will also send you an email.
Love,
Sarah
Great poem…and oh so true:)
Thank you very much, Terri. This poem was easy to write. I just put pen to paper and it flowed because it is something so close to my heart. As with everyone, my thyroid journey was a real struggle at times, but since then I’ve made a lot of progress.
Love,
Sarah