21 Nov

I Have Thyroid Resistance or Meet Maria

Posted by Ashley in Doctors, Hypothyroidism, I have Thyroid Resistance, Illness, Thyroid Resistance.

6e50658108059e18426dbf0ed31316f2 235x300 I Have Thyroid Resistance or Meet MariaI’m Mike Oliver, and my wife Maria suffers from a rare and severe form of Peripheral Resistance to Thyroid Hormone and lives in constant hypothyroid state. She has no medical care. Ashley was very kind to let us post some information on her blog about Maria’s condition and our family’s struggle to cure her disease.

My wife was a wonderful artist and a successful designer but now this disease has stripped her of the ability to do all the things she loved. Her illness affects peripheral tissues, which are resistant to Thyroid Hormone, a hormone we need to live; without it, our body functions slow down and organs malfunction; if left untreated, hypothyroidism can cause a slew of diseases like diabetes, cancer and others; it can even kill. Maria has been battling it for the last 6 years, and although she is taking medication, her illness is getting progressively worse day after day. Continue reading

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10 Nov

Dreams Come True

Posted by Ashley in Family, Life, Love, Pregnancy, Thankful, Thyroid Resistance, What's New.

Picture 275 300x225 Dreams Come True

This little miracle is the reason I’ve been absent. Please welcome my son, Jasper.

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5 Dec

If Only Storks Brought Babies

Posted by Ashley in Doctors, Health, Illness, Pregnancy, Thyroid Resistance.

Alright, so it’s been a while, I’m working more than I thought I would. With Christmas around the corner, countless doctor’s appointments, and life in general my writing has taken a hit.www.storks.com .au 300x225 If Only Storks Brought Babies

The good news is, I’ve been healthy, really healthy. I added a small bit of  Synthroid (T4) to my ginormous Cytomel (T3) dose and (fingers crossed) it seems to be working.

I haven’t felt this good, during the fall months, in years.

That’s all I’m going to say for now— I don’t want to jinx it!

What else can I tell you? Well…the whole baby-making adventure has been a gong show. We finally have my primary doctor on board, but when we went for our initial consult with the OBGYN it didn’t go as planned. She told us getting pregnant would be extremely dangerous and that we needed to hold off  trying to conceive.

She didn’t know enough about my illness to let us move forward. Ugh!! Continue reading

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5 Oct

A Case of the Sick Face

Posted by Ashley in Acceptance, Body.

It is one thing to feel sick, it is another to look sick. I’ve written before on how hard it is for me to look at photos of myself from times when I’ve been ill and I wish I could tell you I’m too zen now to let it bother me…I’m not. you are beautiful 300x199 A Case of the Sick Face

I’ve been feeling well lately but I am in constant fear that the heavier, puffier, paler version of myself could make an appearance at any time. And before you know it I’m trying to force 10lbs of sugar into a 5lb bag (or jeans) that fit just one week ago.  Damn you hormones!

I know I’m not the only one who feels this way, those of us living with a chronic illness are forced to deal with our “body image”  sooner or later. At times we can look like someone else, someone we don’t recognize in the mirror;  our changing appearance can be caused by medications, treatments or just the illness itself.

In one of my favorite books chronically ill Dr. Naomi Remen writes on how she goes up and down dress sizes depending on her medications. Over a year she can weigh varying amounts and her closet accommodates for this.  Amen, sister.

I don’t have an easy solution to deal with your body image, it is something I’m still working on. But I do know this: the people who truly love you pay little attention to your physical appearance. They see your sense of humor, your kindness, your thoughtfulness, they see what makes you, you and that can never be taken away by illness.

Readers, how do you deal with looking ill?

xoxo Ashley

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29 Sep

Overcoming Feelings of Hopelessness

Posted by Ashley in Health, Illness, Mind.

A lovely lady by the name of Allison contacted me in early September in the hopes of contributing her expertise to Searching for Health.avalisa green hope 225x300 Overcoming Feelings of Hopelessness I, of course, was happy to oblige and continue to encourage anyone interested in guest posting to contact me.

So, who is this guest blogger? Allison is a writer for psychologydegree.net and has been a curious student of psychology since high school. She brings her understanding of the mind to work in the weird world of internet marketing.

When our bodies are compromised, we struggle with them. Maybe you feel betrayed that your body won’t allow you to move the way you used to, or you feel frustrated that getting sick is a lot easier than it was before. It doesn’t take a psychology degree to know that coping with such a significant change is incredibly difficult. Whether you’ve had to reduce your work hours because of your condition, or you can’t run with your kids the way you used to be able to, there’s no need to feel hopeless.

If you’ve been diagnosed with a chronic illness, know that there are still ways for you to be useful and involved with your local community despite your diagnosis. Continue reading

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