well, having no health insurance for 2 years kinda sucks. i'm mostly all about alternative medicine and natural healing, but since i have hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid gland) i kinda have to employ a prescription for thyroid hormone and doctor visits a few times a year to keep my thyroid levels in check. basically what happened was i moved out of my parents' house and tried full-time schoolin' for a few semesters. i had to work full time and go to school full time and i didn't like it one bit. so i started taking 6 credit hours instead of 12 so i could handle the workload. in doing this, i lost my insurance. no real doctors would see me without it, and my family doctor i'd had my whole life retired, so i had to go to a walk-in clinic, which sucked. i had one lab done on my thyroid levels a couple years ago, and they wrote me a prescription for about 2 years' worth of thyroid meds. i have been struggling with my weight since i was about 15. i was a pretty skinny kid and preteen, so when i ballooned up to 160 lbs from about 115 lbs (i'm only 5 feet tall at the time) within the span of a year, it was a shock, but i just thought it was because i was eating too much or something. and my parents thought i was just going through a chubby phase. i developed emotional issues with eating during that year due to the weight gain. i tried to lose weight, but at 15, most kids don't really know the right way to do it. my parents weren't helping at that time. they still bought a lot of junk food. my mom did make healthy MEALS, but having all those unhealthy snacks around didn't help. i developed my eating disorder during the latter years of high school: compulsive eating/starving. i didn't binge and purge, i'd binge and then starve to make up for it. well, fast forward to the end of my junior year, i was almost 180 lbs. i finally broke down and asked my parents if i could see our doctor about losing weight. the doctor ordered blood tests for various things, including the thyroid issue. little did i know he was only testing one facet of the disease. i now know there are two levels of thyroid in the body: the first one being what the gland is actually producing, and the second being the amount of thyroid actually being used by the body. he only tested what my gland was putting out. so i was put on about 70 micrograms of thyroid. i got tested a couple more times that year, and my dosage was decreased to 50 micrograms, and has been the same since. due to my ignorance of this condition and not having insurance for a couple years, i naively stayed on the same dosage and didn't have my blood tested yearly like i was supposed to. i have been struggling to drop weight the RIGHT way for almost 3 years now. i've been struggling to drop weight PERIOD since i was 15. i'm now 22. i'm mad at myself for not knowing that i may not be on the right dosage of thyroid and that could be the one last thing that needs to change before i can get down to an ideal weight for my size. for 7 years, i've been fat. for 7 years i've had to struggle to find halfway nice and decently flattering clothes that fit me well. for 7 years i've felt self-conscious about going swimming, which is one of my favorite things to do. for a fat girl, i'm a great swimmer. for 7 years, i've struggled with eating and food. for 7 years, i've felt not like a girl, but like some awkward thing, a blob with a girl's face on it. ugh. people who love me tell me that i don't look like that, but i FEEL like that. for 7 years i've worried about what my health is going to be like down the road if i continue to carry this weight. i am 5'3" now, and i weigh almost 200 lbs. i've been trying to weigh 130 since high school! weight has come on and off over the years. i'm pretty fit from all the exercise i do, and my diet is very low fat and high fiber. but i'm STILL FAT. so now i have health insurance again. i went to a new doctor who really listened to me and he ordered a lab which i went in for yesterday. i have an appointment with him on tuesday to discuss the findings from the blood test. he feels that the dosage of thyroid i'm on sounds kinda low. makes fucking sense after all the struggling i've gone through with such fruitless results. i'm mad at myself for being ignorant about this disease. if i had just done more research and taken more action and been more assertive, i might have reached my goal much sooner. now i'm on edge because i have to wait a little under a week to find out what's up. what if my thyroid is fine and it's just MY fault i haven't lost weight? what then?
Okay.. I wouldnt really be mad at yourself... At 16, 17 , 18 you dont know what to ask from a doctor... You sould be mad at your doctor and possible your parents.. But not yourself... I understand the no health insurance thing.. I put off going to the doctor.. I delt with excrusiating pain in my mouth from my wisdom teeth for over 2 years before i did something about it... It sucks.. But knowing that you are gonna have a wicked hard time finding a doctor to see you and a wicked big bill if you do find one is scary... the Important thing is that you now have insurance and have gone to the doctor and will get this under control.... Congrats!!! Im happy for you... I hope everything goes well with the blood test..
I have no idea, but I kinda went through something similar. And it did end up that my thyroid level was low, but not worth taking meds for. So it was my fault that I weighted more then 90 kg (no idea what that in Ibs is) so I did manage to lose 25 kg, by reducing the amount I ate (I really ate too much), reducing fat, increasing fiber, and barely meat. ( I am vegeterian now) But as you said, you do that already, plus you exercise! So you probably have difficulties with your thyroid gland, as they have diagnosed before.
I have the exact same problem as you. I'm not overweight from it and never was. I have a 80mg? diagnosis of thyroid pills I take. Me and my dad are smelly hippies and we are against the chemical form of thiodine... we get it straight from a cow. But yeah keep that crap in check. My body was very healthy for many years but when I was probably 6-7 I developed a goiter. That was different. Blood tests were horrible for me to handle until I grew older. Lol. Thyroid can have an effect in it but it isn't the deciding factor. If you stay healthy you are alright.
well, turns out the dose i was on is an okay dose for me to continue to be on, and i am otherwise pretty healthy and just to keep doing what i'm doing. i went in tuesday the 19th for my blood drawing and weighed in at 199. this tuesday when i went in, i weighed in at 198, so i lost a lb. in a week! wOOt! i was discouraged when i originally wrote this thread, but attitude is everything, and with a weak-ass, whiny 'tude like that, i'll never get anywhere.
