What has been your most helpful advice? Like a lightbulb has just gone off type of moment? A million lightbulb moments since joining here a couple of days ago have gone off for me. It's been eye opening and empowering.
What has been your least helpful advice? Mine was from a GP who told me to accept l was over 40, eat less and do more.
Least helpful advice from endo, after I was late for my appt (having waited for a parking space in the hospital car park for almost an hour) was that I should cycle. The journey is only 16 miles round trip. Well done for listening to my symptoms, exhaustion being the main one.
Most helpful was to try t3, which was a revelation. I'm not symptom-free, but it has made the biggest difference out of everything. Being advised to try b12 injections was also pretty great advice.
I know but desperate times called for desperate measures. This was a VLCD that was under the care of a GP. Why an earth didn't they look at the bigger picture?
Probably the biggest shock news that needs to sink in is that your doctor likely knows nothing, and you need to learn for yourself and make your own decisions. Particularly difficult when too sick to read!
The advice I always give others, is to be prepared to deprioritise or give up working. I've been off work for 2.5 years, and have been surprised to find that the sky didn't fall down. Its given me the perspective that health is a lot more important, and rest goes a long way to reducing symptoms. I think for people with milder illness than where I am now, guilt and shame are the first things to hit. I went through a year or 2 of this before I was diagnosed with cancer. I couldn't get up in the mornings for work, or concentrate well. I thought it was a moral failing on my part, 'something was wrong with me'. Of course something was wrong with me, but it wasn't that I was a lazy shirker, it was cancer.
Now I have 2 good hypothyroid friends who work full time. Both of them I'd like to see cut down by one day per week or more. Just enough to let them catch up with things and figure out where they are.
The best advice I was ever given, was when I was 11. From my maths teacher - one of the most brilliant women I've ever met.
She said : always have the courage of your convictions.
Not as easy as it sounds, but I've translated that to mean that if I know in my heart of hearts that I am ill, I will stick with it til I find what's causing it, and not listen to stupid doctors who tell me there's nothing wrong with me!!!
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