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Showing posts with the label Goitre

Journey to Perfect Health *Part 3*

The words I dreaded to hear were coming from my GP's mouth "Hospital". Now I knew I was in a nightmare... The ECG carried out on my heart showed that my heart beat had become irregular, as well as operating at 3 times it's normal speed! I had no choice - Sime agreed with the doctor & I was extremely scared of what was happening to me. Looking back, it was irresponsible to have let myself become so ill, but Sime was working long hours & I was trying to look after everyone else. It just crept up on me. One of the first thoughts that came to mind about going into hospital was of absolute fear, both my Grandad & my Sister died in hospitals through medical negligence, so I was really quite frightened! As soon as I arrived, a nurse told me that my dangerous heart condition needed to be dealt with quickly. She told me that they wanted to use some sort of injection to stop my heart. "You'll have a strong sense of impending doom, but it will only la

Journey to Perfect Health *Part 1*

I was first diagnosed with Graves Disease (an auto-immune disorder which causes the thyroid to become over active, also known as hyperthyroidism) in December 2005, although looking back - my symptoms started way before... Terrible mood swings, with totally unreasonable behaviour, intolerance to heat, profuse sweating, constant hunger, weight loss, muscle weakness & palpitations. It all came on so gradually at first, that I hardly noticed it! It wasn't until I was out Christmas shopping in Truro on a freezing cold day, stripped down to a T-Shirt & sweat dripping off my nose - that alarm bells suddenly kicked in... That night we did some research on the internet: either I was going through an early menopause or I had hyperthyroidism, another symptom was suggested in the research... A goitre (when the thyroid becomes enlarged), we had a look at my neck & sure enough there was a swelling - why hadn't I noticed it before? I had choked a few times while eating & put