Hashimotos - My Autoimmune Condition

A friend of mine on Facebook, Maria Calverley,  has Lupus and she wrote me saying she was praying for me concerning my autoimmune condition called Hashimotos. I've been really down lately, feeling helpless with my new health issues. She started a Crochet Page on Facebook called Crochet Club Gone Wild and there are over 51,000 members. I wrote her this message and wanted to share it here just in case someone else with Hashimotos comes across this post on my blog. Maria is adding me to an autoimmune group on Facebook and I'm hoping to get encouragement from there as well as helping me cope with this. Maybe you even have suggestions that will help me or others. If you know a lot about this, by all means, please comment.

My message to Maria:
Thank you so much for praying for me Maria and adding me to that group. Maybe the info I've found out can help someone there. I'm dealing with a lot of inflammation in my body. It has caused many things. I found out, with much research of my own and talking to my dermatologist and Drs, that the bumps on my face (bone under the skin- Osteoma Cutis) were caused by inflammation, but what caused the inflammation was the fact I didn't go completely off wheat and dairy when I had a test in 1998 and was told I was intolerant of it. I thought the only way it affected me was that those things made me sleepy and acted like a sedative on me.

It's taken about 2 yrs of my research, but I've found out now, it is actually a toxin/poison to my body, which has caused all kinds of things. That may have actually led to my hypothyroidism and the Hashimotos. My Dr told me Hashimotos actually caused my thyroid to go bad. I didn't know I even had that. If that's the case, I've had Hashimotos for many, many yrs because I've been bothered with the symptoms of hypothyroidism for over 30 yrs. They did thyroid tests back then, but the tests always came back normal, even though I had all the symptoms.
I've had cold hands and feet since 1981 and I haven't grown hair on my legs, under my arms or my eyebrows for at least 25 yrs. Those are huge symptoms, (along with feeling disoriented, overwhelming feeling, sleepiness, no energy, weight gain, thinning hair, etc) but I couldn't convince my Dr I thought I had a thyroid problem. My Arthritis, also an autoimmune disease, is really bad and the inflammation makes that much worse.

And by the way, I found out the untreated thyroid is what probably caused the AFib. That's the first thing they asked me in the hospital if I had a thyroid problem and since then I've read that hypothyroidism is one of the things that causes AFib. When I was in the emergency room and my heart rate was up to 170, they asked me if I had hypothyroidism.  I told them no, because the tests had always come back normal. So they did a thyroid test in the hospital and said it was normal. They did several tests for other things and my arteries were clear. They couldn't find any other
reason for the AFib.  One of the other causes is alcoholism and I never drink alcohol, so that's not it. Then about 2 weeks later my Dr (a friend from church), said he was going to do a thyroid test. I told him he had done it yrs ago and they did the test in the hospital, but he said, "I'm doing it again, because even if you do have a bad thyroid, many times the tests come back normal and they're hard to read".  So that time (2 yrs ago) the tests DID come back saying my thyroid was bad.

Back in the 1990's when I had all those symptoms, I should have kept insisting that I had it, but back then I had no idea I could still have it even when the tests were normal. My Dr should have insisted on doing the test for the thyroid at least once every 6 months. Now it's too late and it has caused many other health issues.
So after all the research, I know why I have the autoimmune diseases, but now am struggling with trying to get on the right diet to feel better and lose weight.

Note: I may add to this story as time goes along, telling about any progress I have had in dealing with this condition.