I haven’t really talked a lot about this, mostly because when I was diagnosed with it, I was scared, confused, embarrassed, and not knowing where to start with healing, researching, or even processing. Then just a few months after that diagnosis I was diagnosed with stage 2 melanoma which threw me in to a whole different whirlwind of emotions that were hard to process and still hard for me to process especially after loosing my mom who was my best friend to cancer. To say I had cancer, was honestly a punch to the gut. So here we are, almost 2 years after my official Hashimotos diagnosis. I am hoping this will help someone who is in a similar position give them hope, and understanding, that yes it isn’t the greatest news, but honestly it could be worse, and with the right mindset, it is something that can easily be tackled. 

After having two babies back to back, I just assumed that I had severe post partum depression, this was also on top of moving with a 16 month old and 3 week old out of Washington where I was born and raised, to a completely different state 20 or so hours away. I was oddly ready and excited for a fresh start, sunshine, the ocean just a 15 minute drive away, but I felt like there was something more going on. Before having our daughter we had a miscarriage, so when we got pregnant with her, I was doing lab work weekly to make sure my levels were find. One thing that came back as a red flag was my thyroid and possibility of graves disease. Since I was in the early stages of pregnancy they didn’t want to put me on anything abrupt so instead we monitored my bloodwork. After having her, I had more blood work and my thyroid seemed to be fine. Once we got settled in to our new home in Southern California things just kept getting worse, I wouldn’t leave the house, I would cry every day multiple times, I was so depressed, I just wanted to hibernate and sleep. So I found a hormone doctor to see if they could help point me in the right direction to help get through what I thought was post partum depression. Well my labs came back and almost anything and everything she ran was not good, cholesterol, thyroid, liver, the list goes on. So she set me up on supplements to help…that just added to the stress, so after a month of taking them and not noticing anything I stopped and just thought okay, I am a mom of 2 under two, we just moved out of the state that was my home, this is normal and will pass. Guess what…it didn’t….it got worse, body image started crumbling, I started gaining weight even though I was working out, and doing my best with eating healthy. 

Fast forward to a year later….we had moved again this time to Arizona, it had been a dream of mine and my moms to move here, but when she passed away that dream stopped, but when you lean into the universe and trust the process some pretty magical things happen and that dream came back to life. I found another hormone doctor in Scottsdale Arizona, the depression the weight gain, even though I was barely eating and working out everyday for an hour a day wouldn’t go away, wouldn’t budge, I was feeling beyond defeated. After running more labs, and looking over my previous labs she came can and said…I don’t know how no one saw this, but you have an autoimmune disease called Hashimotos. I was relieved that something was in fact wrong and I wasn’t crazy, but also scared out of my mind…an autoimmune disease? What does that even mean? I have two babies, what am I supposed to do now? 

Well I took that information and went down many rabbit holes. My new doctor prescribed me supplements that I took for almost 2 months but just seemed to make everything worse. So I stopped and then really got lost in research trying to find all the information I could on this autoimmune disease and what I could do for it, with it, about it. I saw a lot of things about gut health, so that is were I started. I was desperate for something to help. I found a reel someone posted about leaky gut and gut health and started following her journey and signed up for her products she was selling, and after a few weeks, I was starting to loose weight, my mood was getting better, I was feeling a little better. So I kept doing this until a few months into it, and it stopped working. Feeling beyond defeated at this point I just started following hashimotos accounts, fitness accounts, coaches, health and wellness accounts, and we all know how the Instagram algorithms work, so more and more accounts with these things started popping up, more reels, etc and so I started reading their posts, watching their reels, and diving into this whole new world of autoimmune diseases, clean eating, protein, low intensity workouts. And I also signed up to get my CPT and CNC through NASM to learn even more about nutrition and workouts. I also read a very eye opening book called Metabolism Makeover which really brought a lot of light to so many things I didn’t realize I had done in the past unknowingly that probably where a slow ongoing thing that overall became a much bigger issue. **Side note-if you have followed my journey so far you know the story of my Mom being a hummingbird, well as I am sitting outside writing this watching my kids play she showed up and chirped to make sure I saw her**

So, a few more months go by of this, and I was talking to a friend who recommended a local PCP who specializes in hormones and also takes insurance. The previous hormone specialists I went too didn’t take insurance and each appointment would end up being $300, labs where anywhere from $500-$1,200 depending on the panels, the supplements where about $300-$500, it added up quick especially with my melanoma surgery, appointments, oncology appointments and all that came with that journey. At this point I thought, what do I have to loose? So I booked an appointment….it was one of the best things I have done. He looked over all of my bloodwork from the last 3 years that I had kept and compiled and instantly put me on DIM. I did that for a month and then go another round of bloodwork done, and he added Synthroid to my regiment…and when I tell you I felt brand new, it is not an understatement. I had felt horrible for such a long time I forgot what feeling like myself, or even a human felt like. After being on this for a little over a month we added in Cyotmel and Testosterone. We re-did my bloodwork again 6 weeks later and for the first time in about 4 years my bloodwork came back within optimal ranges. And I felt human again, I was able to take my kids out grocery shopping without having major anxiety and boarder line panic attacks, the daily crying stopped, I am calmer, the brain fog has diminished, my hair isn’t falling out anymore, I don’t need a nap every afternoon when my kids take a nap….looking back on all of these things I was feeling with and dealing with its just wild, that it took so long to find a doctor that understood what I was saying and how I was feeling and was able to help. 

I know I am not the only one who has hormone imbalances, and I know it is almost an epidemic for my generation as we were all put on birth control at such a young age, we were the generation of the Bath and Body Works obsession and era, the synthetic perfumes we inhaled while shopping at Abercrombie and Hollister, and so many other things. So I hope by sharing my story I can help someone! Of course this is an ongoing journey, to there will be more parts to it. But this is a little of the backstory first before we get into the changes I am making now, and the new path I am shifting down with my Hashimotos. 

X0x0, meagenlea 

ps, my goal this year is to be more present on myoddinary blog and myoddinary Instagram to share more of my journey with Melanoma and Hashimotos. Like I said if I can help change one persons life for the better, then I am going to share my story to help make that happen.