I was diagnosed with thyroid disease a few weeks ago. I was panicked at first, as time goes by, I was realizing it has been always a blessing. I am still processing this news, however, I can peace at myself and write this blog to let my friends know what to expect next.
First thing first, I do want to shout out CarePlus – the excellent service with extremely thoughtful doctor, especially Dr. Linh. I am a fan of CarePlus and this is my first choice for my annual health check. My first sign with thyroid disease popped up this April, I was following Dr. Linh’s advise that I should do a check up every 6 months. Fast forward to 6+ months later, I went to check and yeah, my butterfly-shaped gland was double-size compared with April result. When Dr. Linh tried to evaluate my ultrasound, I saw how uncomfortable her face is. She ended up talking to me with the most soften voice, explained everything as well as comforted me that it is not a big deal, and this disease is treatable. She also not recommend me taking any pills or hormones at this stage. I felt so blessed to have her as a doctor, the most considerable doctor I have met in my life, she never lets me feel like it’s the end of the world, even my thyroid disease is nearly critical phase.
I was okay at the day I was diagnosed. Or, I think, I was okay. A few hours later when I was back home, I was numb. My brain was empty and my heart was hollow. I even cancelled some unnecessary meetings because I knew that I needed alone time for myself. My first thoughts came up in my mind, like, “okay, so what?”. Another emotional waves came after that, like, “okay, I shouldn’t care as I live my best life”, “how about my family?”, “how about my upcoming journeys?”, “it is an early sign of cancer?”, “oh stupid me, I should monitor and manage my diet strictly”, etc.
Trust me, it is never a comfortable feeling to deal with the difficult news, especially with our personal health. No one wants to experience this ever. I let myself lost in somewhere for a few hours on that day and the whole weekend with no-brain decision; I finally picked myself up and made up my mind: I need to understand what is going on with my health, my disease, and how I practically deal with it.
I spent about 3 weeks, whenever I have a little free time between work or stuff, I tried to read more books, searched more information, asked people around me who have dealt with this disease before. The more I understand my case, the more I appreciate this opportunity from God. Yes, it’s not a curse, it’s definitely a blessing. One book helped me clear the concern with thyroid disease: it’s mainly caused by EBV – the Epstein–Barr virus, formally called Human gammaherpesvirus 4, is one of the nine known human herpesvirus types in the herpes family, and is one of the most common viruses in humans. EBV is a double-stranded DNA virus. It is best known as the cause of infectious mononucleosis. Actually, we never notice EBV because it’s a silent killer. They can’t make you sick like hell at once time, they slowly quietly eat up your immune system until your body can’t stand with it and those damaged cells become the cancer. More to come, I’ll explain this more in next posts. If you care about this topic, please follow these links below, I’ll put all resources that I have found so far. Disclosure: I’m not a professional doctor or therapist, these resources are for reference only, please always double check with your doctor or professional health care.
Back to my blessed thyroid disease. I would never know how my immune system really is, until it is tested. The given result is like the alert for me, that how my physcial health and mental health would like to be treated and to be nurtured. That means, I am having a great opportunity to take care of them in the right way, to give my life a longer exsitence time in the earth, and to love myself more. If this is not a blessing, I don’t know what it is.
I “spoil” myself the very last time to enjoy all favorite food before I put myself into the strict diet until end of Q1/2023. This is also the last commitment of the year of commitment. I hope I could make it, because I love my every cell, my thyroid, my physcial body a lot.
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Food items below are NOT good for thyroid disease:
- Egg and products of egg
- Milk and products of milk (cheese, cream, ice-cream, etc.)
- Soybean and products of soybean (soy milk, vegan food, etc.)
- Corn and products of corn
- Gluten
- Pork
- Too much caffeine during a day (this is actually cortisol’s favorite food. Cortisol is known as stress hormone)
I am not a fan of milk, soybean, corn, and pork. My struggles are egg and coffee. I love coffee madly.
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Books I read:
Cơ thể tự chữa lành – phục hồi tuyến giáp của Anthony William
Thyroid Healthy: Lose Weight, Look Beautiful and Live the Life You Imagine của Suzy Cohen
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I’ll update after my next check up to see how realistic those advises in Anthony William’s book is. Meanwhile, please do health check regularly.
Love,
Ngan Sau
Ngân Sâu và Thế Giới 💕 