How I Almost Lost My Thyroid and My Home. A Wake Up Call

The past year has held some real struggles in it that I haven't written much about yet.

I've shared with you all about our son's eczema and food allergies, and his autism (Asperger's), and our struggles with candida.

We've made it through those, thankfully, but more was to come.

More than I could have imagined.

I'll go into more details in the near future, hopefully, but for now, I'll share a little bit about what happened and some of what is on my heart about health.

My Thyroid Scare

One year ago, I had symptoms of iodine deficiency and ended up seeing a local herbalist who gave me tinctures to remedy the situation.

About 3 weeks later I had a very frightening moment.

I was picking blueberries and touched my thyroid by accident and felt lumps.  And it was sore.

I was seized by fear about what was happening to my body — after doing so much to heal my gut and adrenal fatigue.  Why this?!!?

The trip to the doctor's office was NOT reassuring.  My doctor looked alarmed and sent me for an ultrasound and blood work twice.

The result?  The nodules eventually resolved, but they wouldn't treat me and sent me with my scary labs to an endocrinologist.

My numbers looked like Graves' Disease they said and I knew what that meant – possible zapping of my thyroid.    Not pretty.

Like I said, I will tell you more later, but this all put me on a path that I never thought I would be on.

One of learning about thyroid, autoimmune disease, metabolism, hypothyroid, Hashimoto's, Graves' Disease, hormones, and more.

I still have my thyroid, but I feel like I've been through boot camp for autoimmune and gut healing.

How Mold Almost Took Our Home – and My Wake Up Call

Remember Andrea Fabry's post on black mold in her home?

Well, wouldn't you know it – just 3 days after her post was published, I found mold in our basement.

And so began one of the most frightening summers of my life.

I'll be writing a series with many more details about this later, but here is the gist.

I was down in our basement office that day and thought I smelled something “musty”.  I'm like a mold detective – if there's mold somewhere, I can smell it.

I'm that sensitive.

Anyhow, we'd had a little bit of water on the carpet in that room so my husband pulled the carpet out and ditched it – just to make sure we had no ongoing health effects from it.

But on this day I saw some suspicious brown spots near the wall where the carpet had been removed.

I was convinced it was mold.

Over the next few days and weeks my reaction to the mold increased.  I had sneezing and an itchy nose, puffy eyes and eventually a sore throat that finally got so bad it felt like I had needles pricking the lining of my throat.

Eventually it all ended in our having to evacuate our home due to the severity of my reaction.

We were out of our home for 3 1/2 weeks while we got things cleaned up and made sure it was safe to move back in.

The whole story is very complex, but suffice it to say there wasn't much mold. Some, but not tons.

My reaction, however, was horrible.  At one point I had a HUGE hive under my left eye and ended up covered with hives even after evacuating.

What I've Learned – and My Wake Up Call

I can't begin to tell you all here everything that I have learned from thyroid to autoimmune diseases, to gut healing, to mold removal, mold testing, and waterproofing.  We are still in the midst of all of it but I am feeling so much better.  So much!

On the one hand, I am incredibly frustrated at all that I had to deal with, but on the other hand, I am thankful.

Thankful for the experience that can now be used as a way to alert others to the problems that surround thyroid health, and mold issues.  And more so, of the importance of living a toxin-free, healthy from the inside out life.

I have to admit, I was extremely frustrated to see how fragile I still am / was despite all of the changes I have made to my diet (going sugar-free and gluten-free), and I am realizing that there is more that I need to do to work on my immune system – and some of it I have already begun (I'll write about it soon).

But moreso I am realizing 3 things:

1.  I have a WHOLE lot more to learn 

and

2.  I could have been a lot worse off if I hadn't done what I had done already.

3.  I have a renewed passion to share the whole food / healthy living / non-toxic message with more people.

Do you see it too?

Autoimmune Diseases, Allergies, Autism, Cancer — they are all on the rise.

My allergist's office is packed every week and everywhere I turn someone is getting diagnosed with celiac disease, another autoimmune disease, Hashimoto's, or cancer.  It's simply frightening.

I'm not saying we should run around with our head in our hands, but let's do something about this.

Let's arm ourselves with the information we need to be healthy, to raise healthier families, and let's do what we can to make our world less toxic.

It may just be our little corner of the world, but if every household makes a change, we can make a huge difference.

What Can We Do?

1.  Reduce Toxins  (see this publication for some ways that toxins affect your thyroid and here are some easy ways to reduce toxins from your life, and here are some ways to help your body handle the toxins.

2.  Eat Healthier 

3.  Get in Shape (I personally use T Tapp for my exercise routine)

4.  Arm Ourselves with Natural Remedies like essential oils, this ear infection remedy, and this wart remedy.

What step is next for YOU in your healthy living journey?