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About Rachel
Start Here!
- How I Can Help You
- Take Back Control: Order Your Own Thyroid Tests
All Articles
Newsletter
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Browsing Tag

Open Letter

An Open Letter to Those Who Know Someone with Hypothyroidism

An Open Letter to Those Who Know Someone with Hypothyroidism

Originally published on 6th April 2016 Last updated on 23rd July 2019 Hello friend, family member,…

A Letter to You: The Girl Fighting a Chronic Illness

A Letter to You: The Girl Fighting a Chronic Illness

Victoria from The Butterfly Effect Blog wrote an open letter on my website last year which many of…

An Open Letter: To Family and Friends About My Autoimmune Disease

An Open Letter: To Family and Friends About My Autoimmune Disease

I’m really pleased to share with you another post from Victoria at The Butterfly Effect. I…

An Open Letter to Every Hypothyroid Patient

An Open Letter: “Dear Hypothyroid Patient”

TW: Mental Health, Depression Dear hypothyroid patient, Through having an underactive thyroid/hypothyroidism, you may feel lost,…

An Open Letter From a Hypothyroid Patient: "To My Amazing Other Half"

An Open Letter From a Hypothyroid Patient: “To My Amazing Other Half”

To my amazing other half, I know I perhaps don’t say it often enough, lost in…

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theinvisiblehypothyroidism

🤯 Knowing where to begin with a Hashimoto’s d

🤯 Knowing where to begin with a Hashimoto’s diagnosis can feel so overwhelming. Especially when mainstream medicine has no recognised treatment for it.

•••

🦋 My journey with Hashimoto’s has been very up and down, as many of you already know.

🧩 I always describe living with Hashimoto’s (and hypothyroidism) as piecing together a big jigsaw puzzle. There can be many more pieces than just taking thyroid medication alone, which can help, but doesn’t always fully return us back to great health.

💙 I found figuring out all of these puzzle pieces on my own to be a lot of work back in 2015 when I was first diagnosed. The weight of fine tuning your health on your own is a lot to carry.

✊ But there now exists a service by @joinwelltheory, consisting of practitioners and RDs, who are well-versed in autoimmune disease and ready to help you feel better through tackling the key lifestyle areas we often benefit from with Hashimoto’s.

🫶 I wish this service was around when I was first diagnosed. I really feel it could have taken away the overwhelm and burden I felt of piecing together my thyroid puzzle alone.

•••

🗣️ Fed up with feeling unheard after visiting your doctor? Go to my sponsor https://trywelltheory.com/rachelhill (link also in bio) to get $50 off your first month and start your journey towards personalised care. #ad

👇 Let me know below: which lifestyle changes are you finding it hardest to implement? Exercise, diet, sleep, stress management?

- Rachel 🦋💙

Did you know that some people on thyroid medicatio

Did you know that some people on thyroid medication need MORE when the weather gets colder? 🥶 🧊

•••

💙 The main purpose of thyroid hormone, produced by the thyroid gland (or put in manually via thyroid medication), is to ensure that the metabolism is running properly.

💙 People with an underactive thyroid or hypothyroidism may have symptoms associated with a slow metabolism, such as feeling cold a lot of the time. Though these tend to go with optimal treatment.

💙 We need the correct amount of thyroid hormone in our bodies to burn calories in order to create heat and fuel, which is important, in particular for your body temperature and energy levels.

💙 In the colder months, due to the body often needing to work a bit harder to keep us warm and energised, we may need a little more thyroid hormone, and it is for this reason, that some thyroid patients find they actually need to increase their thyroid medication slightly in the autumn / winter or when they go on holiday to a cold country, with the guidance of a doctor of course. I definitely do not suggest you do this on your own!

💙 It’s definitely worth talking to your doctor about this if you notice that you feel particularly worse at a certain time of year, and think you could do with a slight medication dosage adjustment. You may also feel hypothyroid symptoms returning if you require a slight increase of thyroid medication in colder months.

‼️ You should aim to have your thyroid levels (the full panel) tested twice a year if possible; once in the warmer months and once in the cooler months, so your doctor can adjust your dose as soon as possible. You don’t want to be over or under medicated.

•••

❓Did you know this piece of information and has your doctor ever adjusted your dose when the seasons change?

❗️As always, you can get all this need-to-know info in my book “Be Your Own Thyroid Advocate”!
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- Rachel 🦋💙

🥱 Mornings can be hard for those with hypothyro

🥱 Mornings can be hard for those with hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s.

😔 In my worst days, I would wake up feeling very fatigued, achey and brain fogged. I would feel nauseous and sweaty. Like I had the flu or a bug.

•••

❤️‍🩹 Getting ready for work (showered, dressed) was hard but walking to work was even harder.

❤️‍🩹 Even sitting at a desk in an office job was difficult some days, so I applaud anyone who works a more manual and active job with a thyroid condition.

❤️‍🩹 But many of us wade through the fog and do the best we can without other people knowing the struggle.

❤️‍🩹 If you’re battling your hypo symptoms this Thursday morning, feel free to share and vent below. Others may not, but I and our thyroid family here believe and understand you.

•••

🦋You can find so much support on this on the resources linked in my bio as well as the highlights at the top of my page. I haven’t experienced this in years, after implementing the things I mention in my posts.

- Rachel 🦋💙

❓I’ve been asked many times “Why do you refe

❓I’ve been asked many times “Why do you refer to your hypothyroidism / Hashimoto’s as a chronic illness? It’s not!”

Errr, it is. 🥴

•••

❗️“Chronic illness” can sound dramatic to those who don’t understand its meaning.

It refers to a health condition that:

💙 Is ‘persistent’ or in other words long lasting E.g. a health condition you’ll have for life.

💙 Cannot be cured (or usually cannot) which is why you’re expected to have it for life.

❗️Hypothyroidism in most cases is not curable, so we’re given thyroid hormone replacement medication for life. Blood tests are then required to keep on top of managing it.

❓Whether YOU do or do not like to use the term ‘chronic illness’ is a personal choice and preference! But it is technically correct.

❗️I find it an easier term to use than explaining my thyroid condition every time, which can be met with confused faces and people who switch off. Emphasising that it is something that’s lifelong and requires monitoring helps to get across its importance and what it means to me and my life.

❗️However, I certainly don’t feel limited by having a chronic illness. I live symptom-free day to day and my thyroid condition is under control. It doesn’t run my life and I hardly even think about the fact I have it. It’s not a label to me.

•••

❓How do you feel about this term? Let me know below 👇

- Rachel 🦋💙

© Rachel Gask and The Invisible Hypothyroidism, 2015-2023. All Rights Reserved.

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