“I cried with relief when he told me. At last I knew what was wrong ... I was not imagining the symptoms. He also told me I would not have survived a further two weeks and that stunned me.”

My story starts in April, 1995 when I first had a problem with my muscles. I noticed the muscle in my forearm go into a cramp for no reason and this lasted a while and I thought it unusual. I was getting tired but with four children I figured this was normal. This tiredness started to get worse over the next couple of months and as winter was coming on I started to feel cold all the time. The muscle cramps were getting worse and I started to feel something was not quite right. I went to my doctor for the first time but he said it was nothing to worry about and if I got worse come back. I started to have trouble standing up for long periods of time such as washing up, hanging clothes on the line and walking anywhere. My back especially felt like I was stretching my muscles in my lower back down towards my feet and after a while I had to sit down to rest. I also started having very painful muscle spasms in my shoulder muscles which would keep me awake at night. These lasted for a few minutes before I would get some relief. I went to the doctor again and was told it was stress with a virus and it would go away.

June was now ending and winter really setting in. The feeling of being cold was getting worse. I felt very cold to the touch and my workmates used to ask me if I was dead. At night I would sleep with winter nightie, bed socks, jumper and sometimes dressing gown together with my waterbed on high to get a bit of warmth. The depression started about now. I was starting to get concerned with all these symptoms I was having. I would come home from work and sit on the lounge not being able to do anything and it was an effort to even lift my arms. I was crying a lot and feeling very down and confused. By the time August and September came I was getting a lot of symptoms.

As well as the ones already mentioned, I was putting on weight, I was also dizzy and feeling pretty weird. I was not motivated to do anything and I realised this was not normal for me. My husband is in the Navy and was away a lot that year and saw the changes happening to me. He and my family tried to help but could not understand what was happening to me. How could they - I was unable to myself.

I was getting symptoms which may have indicated low blood sugar so my doctor sent me for a glucose tolerance test. This was a nightmare. I had to have my blood tested every half an hour for six hours. As I had put on weight my veins would not cooperate and I ended up with seventeen puncture marks in both arms and hands and only five of the twelve tests I could not take anymore and stopped them. I had bruises up both arms where the veins had collapsed and could not be used. If I had been pulled over by the police they would have thought they were track marks from drugs. I was diagnosed with hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and put on a special diet and told to eat every 3 hours but after a couple of weeks was no better. I got my results and asked my doctor if he thought it was low and he said it was but within normal range.

October came and I was getting even worse. My weight was getting out of control. My face was very puffy. My speech was slurred (slowing down) to such a degree that my family in Queensland used to ask if I was drinking (I am not a drinker). The depression got worse and the muscle cramps were coming a lot more during the day and night and involved different muscles. I can remember trying to eat a sandwich and only got half way through before my jaw was so tired from chewing I could not continue. After this time the depression got so bad I was referred to a psychiatrist who put me on anti-depressants. I kept telling him about the other symptoms but he told me they could all be caused by depression. After about six weeks and a reaction to the anti-depressants, I started to feel I was better, mentally at least. I think this is when I realised there was something very wrong with me. The physical symptoms I was having were getting worse. I was so tired I would go into a trance-like state sometimes. I found it very difficult to concentrate and was confused and when I woke in the morning it would take all my strength to stay awake. I remember one morning I could not wake myself up and told my husband if he could not rouse me shortly to call an ambulance. After about an hour I woke up enough to get up. It is a very scary feeling not being able to wake up.

I went to my doctor again and this time was not able to see him but got a lady doctor instead. I told her about all the symptoms I was having. She could not say what was wrong but when I told her I was seeing a psychiatrist for depression she “smiled”. I asked her to phone the psychiatrist to see if they could work out what was wrong. After some persuasion on my part, she did. I was listening to her conversation and then she started to laugh and look at me. By this stage I felt I was being treated as a “lunatic who should be locked up”. When she got off the phone she told me everything would be okay and go home and take some Panadol and lie down and if things got worse to come back. This was the only time I have ever pleaded with a doctor to help me as I knew I was not imagining the problems I was having and I was frightened for me and my kids who needed me to be well. I have never gone back to that doctor again! This was the end of November and I was very bad now. My skin was so dry the hair was standing on end and my skin was flaking. My hair was very thin and falling out. My face was so puffy I could not open my eyes properly. The muscle spasms were very bad. I was nauseous all the time and could not eat. I was exhausted. My heart rate was very slow and so were my reflexes and could not walk for more than a few feet before becoming very breathless.

I then started to get angina attacks. The first one threw me for six. I thought I was having a heart attack. I had the second one the same day after I had gone to bed and this one was a lot worse. The pain shot across my chest and down my arm and I thought it would never end. After about 10 minutes it did and I went to the doctor (a different surgery) in the morning and he said he did not know what was wrong but could be low potassium (told me to eat more bananas) or multiple sclerosis but he referred me to a specialist. The first time I saw him he took heaps of blood for tests (my veins were hidden so he took it from my foot). I went back the following week and was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. I cried with relief when he told me as at last I knew what was wrong and I was not imagining the symptoms.

My symptoms were so pronounced he says he knew what was wrong with me as soon as I walked into his room but had to get the results before he could tell me for sure. He also told me I would not have survived a further two weeks and that stunned me.

I was put on a large dose of Oroxine and it took over six months before I started to feel well again. It has not been easy to get the dosages right but I am there now. It has been 18 months now since I have been diagnosed and I feel really well. I also joined Weight Watchers last year and have lost 34 kilos and feel so well and have so much energy. I am having blood tests (out of my arms) every 6 months and my results are in the high normal range but because I feel so good the doctor says to keep taking the same dose. Taking the tablets each day is a small price to pay to have control of my life back.

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