So I have previously put up a post kind of explaining why I am vegan.
What started off as an ethical issue about the plight of bobby calves and the cruelty involved in the dairy industry soon became a health issue. I researched becoming vegan before I took the plunge and found out that there is a lot of iodine in dairy products, which is bad for me because I was Hyperthyroid (thyroid gland was over-active and produced too much iodine and poisoned my body).
On MANY occasions I asked general practitioners, dieticians, and endocrinologists if there was ANYTHING I could do in my diet to help my thyroid. All everyone told me was "Keep away from iodine which is found in iodised salt and seafood, other than that there is nothing you can do." Which turns out is BULLSHIT!!!
THERE IS A TON OF IODINE IN DAIRY!!!! Something I had to find out on my own about 5 years AFTER diagnosis!
Well, since I I became vegan (and quit smoking and stopped drinking Coke) I have only improved both my physical and emotional well being. I have lost a guilt that I had for a very long time, but was never able to figure out what this guilt actually was.
I have now lost 13kg.
But the most impressive, amazing, exciting part of it all is that I have lost my Hyperthyroidism!!
This of course was my overall (short-term) vegan goal, proving that I could cure myself of a disease that not only makes me very heat intolerant, an insomniac, depressed, anxious, hyperactive, soooo hungry, gives me heart palpations, forces me to be on 2 different kinds of medications, but also stops me from falling pregnant, goal number 2!
Very quickly after becoming vegan I felt there was no need for me to take my medication any more, so I weaned off, maybe a little quicker than I should have, but I had done it once before, so felt confident in what I was doing. Very quickly I started feeling better and non-symptomatic so I was extremely happy, yet nervous. I was nervous that it would only be a matter of time before I entered a state of total thyrotoxicosis.
I went to my endocrinologist a couple of weeks ago and not only did she agree with me that cutting out dairy was a good thing to do as she knew it wasn't good for somebody like me (another doc, some "wonderful" fertility specialist told me I had to go on the Atkins diet, fuck that!), but she RAN SOME TESTS!! A completely amazing and novel idea, I thought!
You see I have had MANY blood tests over the last 5 years, but it turns out, according to my medical history, that it has been a VERY long time since I have actually been attended too in a thorough manner.
Well when the results came back she informed me that not only am I not sick any more, but that I am in REMISSION! Far better than I expected, I knew I wasn't sick, but I didn't realise how not sick I actually was/am. I was blown away and so incredibly happy! Knowing that I had done the right thing, all by myself was amazing! I am still waiting for a couple of other bloods to come back to find out why I haven't fallen pregnant after NINETEEN months of trying, another thing no doctor seemed to give a rats arse about "Your young, don't worry about it....." FFS how long did they want to let me go before taking a little bit of fucking blood to see if I actually even fucking ovulate?!! (a story for another time).
So in summary, I am happy, healthy, lighter, and getting lighter all the time, thrilled that I have found a doctor that actually seems to give a fucking shit about my health, and I've done it all by myself after getting sick of nobody caring (or at least that's how it seemed).
Oh, and I use WAY too many exclamation marks!!!
BUT PLEASE DO NOT JUST STOP ANY MEDICAL TREATMENT AND TRY A "NATURAL" TREATMENT FOR ANY HEALTH PROBLEM WITHOUT PRIOR CONSULTING MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS, AND DOING A LOT OF RESEARCH FIRST!
They might rip us off, give us the shits and leave us feeling bewildered and confused by not answering our questions or just see a disease and not a person from time to time, but they are the ones who went to med school, not us!
~SJ xo
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