The Pushy Patient - Thyroid

Initially, the evidence pointed to a thyroid problem. That much was clear. It runs in my family and I had every symptom on the WebMD thyroid list (slam dunk). But the doctors assured me I was fine. The T3, T4 and TSH tests all came back normal. I was told the extra fifteen pounds were probably due to a slowing thirty-something metabolism (in the last six months?) and that the rest was related to stress.

Stress? That one was particularly hysterical. I used to be a lawyer. We invented stress. I didn’t recently stumble upon this phenomenon. I’ve been de-stressing and re-stressing for a decade. I know when something is stress, and this wasn’t it.

So, naturally, I made them test me again.

Normal.

Again.

Shit.

Now on top of being clinically fine (which for some reason upset me), I was also Public Enemy #1 at Kaiser for all the tests I was demanding ordering. I sensed this wouldn’t help my plight in the future. On top of that, I was starting to get stressed.