My Thyroid Health Story - How my thyroid was removed and grew back

Thyroid Health Expert

Excerpt From

 Balance My Thyroid

Amelia Jones, MS Johns Hopkins

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It has taken me thirty years to tell my personal thyroid story of how I had a thyroid imbalance, had my thyroid surgically removed, and how my thyroid grew back and I am no longer on any thyroid medications.

Thyroid health has become the focus of my professional life, and I am only now sharing my story in the hopes of helping others. Looking back, thyroid imbalance was a part of my family. There is a fine line between genetic predisposition and inherited behavior. Like me, my grandmother had a goiter, and several cousins have had thyroid imbalances. We each have four or more children, head committees, start schools, got degrees, own businesses, operate restaurants, run churches, and manage large households. Perhaps it is not a genetic predisposition in the sense but a learned behavior of strength, service, sacrifice, and duty. I cannot help but speculate my grandmother’s thyroid condition participated in her death, although it is listed she died because of heart complications. Her death happened when I was a young child, and I grew up without my grandmother. I still remember my father receiving the phone call and talking to him when he explained how she died. When I developed my thyroid imbalance, it was revealed to me by her daughter that my grandmother, too, had a goiter.

During my first year at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, I began experiencing symptoms of an overactive thyroid. Almost every night, I would wake up around 2 am in a sweat with a panic attack and my heart pounding. At first, I felt the extra energy, but as my condition continued, I began to feel exhausted and drained so much that I had difficulty walking up more than just a few stairs. You would think I would have quickly diagnosed myself with a thyroid condition, but it took me two years to figure out I had a thyroid imbalance!

At this point, exhaustion had become a part of my day. I was in my second year, finishing my Master's in Health Science, and I needed to function and perform. I had lost all faith in the medical profession, as I had been to numerous doctors with my exhaustion complaints, and was not feeling any better. I showed up to every class even though I was struggling to function with extreme levels of exhaustion.

There were times I felt lost and confused, which was a severe burden as I was not well and trying to complete my rigorous school work. It was during this time I confided to my mother that I felt completely exhausted. I joined my parents on a weekend vacation in North Carolina at her insistence. After one day together, with her keen mother’s eye, she took me to the emergency room, where I was diagnosed with Graves Disease (autoimmune hyperthyroidism). The endocrinologist diagnosed me with Graves Disease and recommended two remedies: RAI Therapy (Radioactive Iodine Therapy) and pharmaceutical hormonal replacement medicine. Because I hoped to have children, the medicine I was prescribed was propylthiouracil (PTU).I never accepted or understood the possibility that these two health recommendations were my only solution. I knew that RAI therapy was not healthy, and to say that it was “heavily pushed” by each endocrinologist I visited is a gross understatement. I had studied the health horrors of human contact and interaction with radioactive material and knew it was the polar opposite of a healing path. The second choice of taking replacement medicine was a little dicey in itself. The two medicines of choice were methimazole and PTU. Both had significant side effects. I was not willing to accept the side effects of methimazole, but after my research and understanding, I accepted the side effects of PTU with the understanding I would not be on it long. PTU was a bandaid for me for some time. I knew it would not heal me and that I would need to get off of the medicine as quickly as possible to ensure my long-term kidney, liver, and bone health. I continued the difficult process of changing endocrinologists every few months, looking for someone who had a healing plan that made sense. Eventually, I met with a total of 6 endocrinologists! They each met with me for less than 20 minutes, and each offered the same two options: medicine and RAI therapy. I knew there had to be a better way. After I graduated with my Master’s in Health Science and received my degree, I refused any further involvement with the medical profession and instead began to pursue more studies in the field of holistic healing. I began to learn how to manage my health by thinking “outside the box” and continuously investigated and experimented with natural healing. It was at this point I began my health habits of shopping at health food stores and reading every book, scientific paper, and article I could. My natural healing home library grew, and I learned different mechanisms for naturally healing imbalances and diseases. I experimented with different remedies and learned to test my urine, saliva, and hair. I learned which tests were beneficial, how to read the results, and how to implement change from the results. For example, the Reams urine and saliva tests expose liver, colon, and kidney health. “This hair analysis showed that I had adrenal burnout. I embraced a natural healing program of supplements and colon cleansing that addressed all of the root causes of my health problems - all of which resulted in a gradual but steady improvement in my health. My life continued and my health greatly improved. I met my husband, married, and home-birthed four beautiful and healthy children. I continued to see a Family Practitioner and Functional Medicine Doctor, who helped me monitor my bloodwork and bodily tests, but as of 2012, I no longer saw an Endocrinologist. In 2014, at the age of 41, I home birthed my 4th child. This pregnancy and birth taxed my endocrine system to the max, and I developed an extremely enlarged thyroid, or goiter. Looking back, I did not give this pregnancy the required attention and distance from stress.