I’ve thanked my endocrinologist before, but feel the need to do it again! I meet with him every four months since my complete thyroidectomy in 2011, and will probably continue to see him with great regularity for the rest of my life. Typically, I’ve been a compliant patient, answering the doc’s questions but never really asking any.
Of late, I’ve been searching and searching for an answer to why I don’t feel “good”. I’m not saying I feel dreadful, but I know I could feel a whole lot better. Part of me wonders if it’s that I don’t have a thyroid and am on a replacement hormones. The other part of me wonders if it’s because I’m almost 51 years old. My doc says, “You’ve got the double whammy, sorry.” So reassuring, right?
I’ve been reading all kinds of articles and books to try to make sense of what could be causing this prolonged malaise. I brought one of the books with me to my appointment today. We 
talked about so many things that I’d placed sticky notes on in the book. Doc said he was more than happy to answer my questions, and was pleased to see that I had questions at all; so many patients don’t. He did warn me though, to stay away from the books like the one I’d brought to the appointment; most of what’s out there is just to sell books with very little research to support it.
At the end of the half hour appointment he lead me to his office and handed me a medical journal, pointed to the website associated with it, and said, “You’re smarter than those books, you need to be reading the real deal. Call me if you have questions.” I thanked him for his time–I know that spending the amount of time with me caused other patients to be waiting longer. So, today’s thank you goes out to Dr. O, for being a great doc.
Check out this other blog about thyroid cancer:
365 Days of Thank You 
Thanks for featuring my blog! I’m putting it all out there in hopes that it helps someone else through this journey. Thanks again! Hope you feel better soon!
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[…] Yesterday I wrote about a visit with my doctor. One of the biggest take-a-ways from the appointment, as I mentioned, was his declaration of why I’m not feeling like myself: “You’re without a thyroid and you have likely entered menopause.” He declared it with a smile on his face and so matter-of-factly, that I had no choice but to nod and smile. To be sure of his assessment, he said that he’d run some tests on the blood that had just been drawn. Apparently, hypothyroidism and menopause have similar symptoms so the blood test will be a good way to determine if I have indeed, entered that next phase of womanhood. […]
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