The Thyroid Solution To My Unknown Illness

The thyroid solution was not even in the list of considerations of the medical consultant who attended to me at the medical center where I was  rushed the previous night.

Can't blame the doctor. I am a male, not even thirty years old at that time, and did not manifest the usual symptoms of a dysfunctional thyroid. Sure, I was subjected to diagnostic tests [not including thyroid] and the doctor did not find anything wrong with me. I went home the following day with an unknown illness.

It started one night, when I woke up from sleep. I tried to flip over to change position, but I couldn't do it. I had no control over my arms and legs. But I woke up fine and alright the following morning. However, early that evening, as I got up from the sofa and walked toward the comfort room, my legs gave way again and I collapsed to the floor.


My wife panicked and contacted my parents, who came rushing to our place about forty kilometers away, in a Navy ambulance [I'm a Navy brat, remember?] to take me to the medical center. [read Memoirs of a Navy Brat]

I suspected I was stressed at that time because I was having our house constructed. I had to hire a neighbor to drive for us whenever we went to the construction site.

As days passed by, I was steadily losing weight. Almost a month after the first attack, I was fortunate enough to visit a doctor-friend of mine at his clinic. I recounted to him my experience as he inquired why I had lost so much weight. Suddenly, he blurted out excitedly that he had a very similar case when he was still an intern. He told me that I might have a problem with my thyroid. He then gave me a referral to a lady doctor specializing in endocrinology.

I saw the doctor the following day and told her my story. I was given the "T" test, and sure enough, I was found positive for a thyroid disorder. All the time, I thought it was hypothyroidism because that was what I heard from her. But the weight loss I manifested and the medication given to me, Tapazole, indicate that it's hyperthyroidism. I might have misheard the doctor.

By the time I was correctly diagnosed, I had already lost 40 pounds. I had my last attack at the hospital lobby after my consultation with the doctor. Since I could no longer drive, I asked some of my office mates to come over to the hospital to take me, my wife, and the car, back home.

Tapazole was all I took, for two or three months, and I got cured and gradually gained back my weight in time.

The thyroid solution was not considered by my first doctor because the symptom I manifested, the loss of mobility, is not a usual symptom of thyroid disorder. So now I wonder if it is a rare symptom of the disease, or a manifestation of a totally different illness.