Living with a thyroid disease is truly the most difficult thing in my life that I have had to deal with. What started off as a simple surgery turned into something that made my life totally change.

When I was 19 I had my thyroid completely removed. I had 13 nodules. One the size of a baseball. A few the size of golf balls. The rest were pea size. What they told me would be a simple two- hour surgery turned into 5. The nodule that was the size of a baseball was wrapped around my vocal cords. After three days in the hospital and countless amounts of blood tests, I was ready to go home to what I consider my “new life.”

I was a three-sport athlete. I was a happy go lucky kid. I always wanted to play softball. After the surgery I was a completely different person. I was constantly tired. I felt like I was dragging weights behind me. I gained an incredible amount of weight. This was the beginning of my struggle.

Now for the people who don’t know, when you don’t have a thyroid, you take supplements to maintain the hormone in your body that your actual thyroid maintained. This is difficult to master. I have had to get blood tests done every six weeks for the last 5 years. It’s tedious. It’s hard. It’s stressful. It is also something I’ll have to do for the rest of my life.

I know people have it worse than me. Dealing with this though, is something that “normal” people do not understand unless it is something you deal with personally. I have researched articles. Watched numerous amounts of Youtube videos. I have read countless amounts of blogs. There are thousands of people out there that deal with what I do. Deal with having endless mood swings. Being always hot or always cold. Being too exhausted to even get out of bed. Feeling like you aren’t even in your body. Having to explain that the reason for your bad mood, or the reason why you forgot everything someone just told you. But it happens.

If this is something you deal with, you are not alone. I understand how hard it is, and I understand how difficult it is just to get through your day. My advice is to find your support system. Whether it is your friends, family, significant other…find the people that love you and support you. They will be your rock when you can’t be your own. My next bit of advice is research. Look at the pins on Pinterest. Follow the groups on Facebook. Understand that there are so many other people that understand you. They could even give you new tips to try.

Living with thyroid disease is a silent sickness, but there are so many ways to start feeling like yourself again.