There are many people who don't even know what a thyroid is. Well, it's a gland that sits in your neck and regulates your metabolism.

Most people think of your metabolism in the terms of if you are naturally skinny or fat. But, that is just a little bit of it. Your metabolism effects your energy, skin, tolerance of cold, and many other things.

So, to get a little more technical about it:

Your thyroid is part of your endocrine system. Your endocrine system is basically all the glands/organs in your body that produce hormones. If one of these glands/organs starts having issues, your whole system goes wonky. (I could go into the details of the endocrine system, but I'll save that for another day...)

So, back to the Thyroid itself. What does the thyroid do? Well, thyroid hormones affect who you use of foods (carbs, protein, vitamins, etc.), electrolytes, and water, and it also regulates your immune response. It also has (as mentioned above) an effect on how other hormones are used in your system. This is why every woman who is having issues conceiving should have a thyroid test done. People with certain thyroid disease are also more likely to have auto-immune diseases (such as lupus...which I am very in touch with) and diabetes.

So, the thyroid is a very important organ. One that can turn your life around if it goes bad.

My personal story? It went bad. By age 17, I was being treated for Hyperthyroidism (too much thyroid hormone in my system) and started taking a Synthetic hormone to regulate it. The problem with that was the extra hormone was being caused by a nodular growth on my thyroid. This growth then caused the whole glad to swell (this is what they call a "goiter"). I ended up having a lobectomy to remove that particular lobe of the thyroid. (The thyroid is broken up into lobes, but you'll never need to know that much detail unless you need thyroid surgery).

So, after the first surgery, I turned Hypothyroid (not enough) and started a new dose of synthetic hormone. By this time, I was 18 years old. I had to have multiple aspiration biopsies (think large needle probing in your neck) and it seemed like I was always at the Doctors office. Finally, a few months ago it got to the point that the gland was so big that it felt like somebody always had their hand around my neck. I would wake up in the night coughing, and I had trouble swallowing even small pills. It was time to get it out. So, I went in and had the whole thing removed.

Of course, this surgery was worse than the first due to scar tissue, and the fact that they were removing all the lobes. i had to go through a bunch of tests before surgery. One of which was testing my vocal chords. Your thyroid falls on top of nerves that run to your vocal chords. If those nerves are damaged in surgery, you won't be able to talk. Pretty scary stuff....though some people may have liked it if I would shut up Anyway, the other scary thing is the parathyroid glands. They aren't part of the thyroid, they just connect to it. If they are damaged in surgery, you will have calcium issues. You can't live without calcium, and you could die quite quickly if they were all removed. So, that was all pretty scary, but it all worked out and nothing bad happened.

So, now what? Well, for the rest of my life I will be on replacement hormone. Seems simple, right? Wrong. I have been on Synthroid since the operation (which is what I have been on for the past 14+ years). Unfortunately, even though my body was happy with it when I still had a thyroid, it's not happy with it now.

Why is Synthroid different? Well, Synthroid is the same as most of the thyroid replacement hormones out there. *Most* people function just fine on it. i am obviously not most people. Synthroid, like most of the replacements, is a replacement for Thyroxine (T4). The problem is- the thyroid gland also produces another hormone in a ratio of about 4:1 (T4 being the 4). That other hormone is: L-triiodothyronine (T3). Since most people function just fine with T4 alone, they typically just put you on it. From what I understand, T4 has a half life of 3 days, so it takes 6 days for it to totally be out of your system. T3's alf life it 12 hours, so you have a more normal "up" time along with the consistency of the T4.

I have now been switched to a new thyroid hormone replacement called Armour. It's a good thing that I am not a devout vegetarian, or I'd have serious issues with it. It is basically processed pig thyroids. Yep, that tasty pork that you ate for dinner is providing me with a healthy balance of thyroid hormone. I am now setting up a shrine for pigs and will pray to them daily. The difference between the two replacement hormones is amazing. After one dose of Armour, I could see a difference. I am much more alert, not as cold, and not sleepy. Hopefully this will finally solve my thyroid issue. We'll see what the next few courses of blood work show, but I feel really hopeful about this!