This New Yorker article from a few years ago showed up in my inbox today. Some may have seen it already but, like me, may enjoy revisiting it. It may be new for others. A Hashimoto's sufferer, she writes eloquently and insightfully about life with autoimmune disease. Apparently, she has since been diagnosed with Lyme disease and is working on a book about living with chonic illness.
"What's Wrong with Me?" by Meghan O'Rourke.
A typical story for many on this forum, particularly for those who have no diagnosis and no idea what's wrong with them. Not one expert I saw ever did a blood test for thyroid hormones, even going straight from airport to A&E cardiac and wondering if I'd reach it. Discharged as 'probably viral' after an an overnight stay and heart playing up. Pleading with my GP that I wanted to pay for a whole body scan as there was something seriously wrong with me. He promised that a full blood test would provide the answer. He duly phoned and said my bloods were perfect and not to worry. Never mind that neither the A&E, The GP, The Specialists, also the one who diagnosed me with a post-cricoid web which had to be removed or I'd choke to death. Underwent procedure - nothing there. He still got paid as well as the hospital. Eventually a firt-aider who saw my clearly swollen gland suggested a test which came back positive with a TSH of 100 and I cried - at last a diagnosis.
Thanks to TUK, Dr P and Dr S and Dr L I am now well despite the guidelines.
What an ordeal you went through just to get the diagnosis! Then the fun of determining effective treatment began. A very long slog. Good to hear that you are well now.
Beautifully written piece. greygoose posted a few years ago and I forwarded to my husband. Chilling words, though - 'In 1901, the influential German immunologist Paul Ehrlich argued that autoimmunity couldn’t exist, because the body had what he called a “horror autotoxicus,” or a fear of self-poisoning. Ehrlich’s theory was so fully embraced that doctors stopped exploring the subject for half a century.'
The Paul Erlich de nos jours and his acolytes probably have a rubber stamp for their patients: 'Somatoform disorder' . In, stamp, anti-d prescription, out. Next !
Please, not another half century of this.
Yes, we know of quite a few who stamp their patients with this disorder.
If so, they are not physicians who are interested in healing their patients but their own promotions. It is surprising too that the are promoted and patients disbelieved on the professionals say-so..
If the patients don't have internet connection I do wonder what happens to them.
You really couldn't make up the way thyroidies are treated, could you ? Honestly I'd have scoffed if someone had told me, before I started down this weary road, that I could remonstrate with my doctor that I still felt most unwell as he trotted out, 'but you are in range...' as if that meant I was some kind of deranged fantasist wasting his time.
I worry too about those poor souls who haven't had the internet in their lives...these were the deluded compliant generation who are certain in the knowledge that doctor knows best. What dreadful half lives they must have lived unless they happened across Mary Shomon et al
That truly encapsulates the vagaries of this disease. She took the tiger by the tail and I guess came to terms with it. I was hoping for a better ending but she can live with that one I guess.
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