My Introduction & Diagnosis to HASHIMOTOS DISEASE
My life was my normal life for 25 years. And one day it just wasn’t my life anymore. That was August of 2007. At the time, my body was going through a storm period. I later was diagnosed with Hashimotos. And everything else? Well, that’s truly where life began for me.
But let me back up.
Hi, my name is Sarah. SarahRuth. Or maybe you just know me by Ruth. I’m NOW a 40 something year old mom to the most amazing daughter named Savvy. I’m autoimmune with thyroid issues, but prior to my diagnosis in 2007, I was ‘normal’. I was an active athlete. I had body image issues but NEVER any issues with weight management, fatigue, or my body simply shutting down. It was like being normal one day to the next day looking at a stranger in the mirror. It didn’t happen slowly over time. It happened overnight.
The hard part was getting a doctor to listen to me. Most doctors told me I was depressed, to eat less, to workout more. But at 25 years old at that time, I knew my body better than that. Nothing made sense and NOBODY was listening.
When I finally got my hashimotos diagnosis, not a lot changed. Why? Because I was in sheer denial AND I didn’t think that it was fair that I had to change the way I lived my life. Because life is all about fair, right? I wanted to eat what I wanted, I wanted to drink how I used to, and I wanted to be able to jump on a treadmill and run it all off like I had for the years before.
Not anymore.
I think the hardest part about Hashimotos was grieving a life that I once had. It was being forced to do something that I wanted no part of. It was being handed obesity and infertility when all the responsibility I wanted at 25 years old was enjoying day by day.
The hardest part of Hashimotos was accepting a new reality, working through the grief, and finding a new normal. This autoimmune diagnosis was kind of like sobriety for me: I had to want to make changes and I had to be ready to make them. I wasn’t. So I didn’t. I had a pity party for the next few years. But in my next blog post I’ll share what I DID do when I finally decided to pull my head out of my tail.
I have a lot to share that will be coming in the next blogs. But if you also want to get tips, recipes, etc in your inbox every week, make sure to scroll down and snag your newsletter.