I did watercolors of butterflies and put my favorite saying and the butterfly on t-Shirts. My friend (who also has GD) and I will wear our t-shirts every where we go in January. I have been wearing one this past month and people stop and ask me about it.
My t-shirt say's "I Have Graves'....It Doesn't Have Me"
I didn't know January was Thyroid awareness. Now we have a good excuse to wear our shirts more often.
OK .. I had this idea at 3:00AM last night. My best thoughts. Middle of the night.
* I will contact the Endocrinological Society and let them know about our trackers!
* I will try to contact the Thyroid Center @ Columbia Presb. Hospital in NY City and let them know about our group, how often we refer our members to their sites, and tell them about our awesome thyroid tracker.
Any other thoughts?
If anybody has time to find the e-mails for these two sources w/links to their sites great. If not, I will do that when I get some free time.
C~
You know what would really make a big difference? That's if there are any doctors out there with thyroid issues/cancer, I would love to hear their stories and what they are doing to survive the problems that we all have everyday Is there a doctor out there who has suffered from thyroid cancer or thyroid disorders? We need the truth and we need help!!! Some of us are at the breaking point and need to have something from some one who knows first hand about the suffering and also how to treat it right. We need something other than meds that don't work, and doctors that don't care. I am so pi_ _ ed off right now that I could just scream.!!!!!!!!!
I agree it was deliberate....I watched a program on her last night at 9pm....it discussed her whole life and included all the weight issues she has had. It also spoke of her humanitarian accomplishments.
On a lighter note.....For thyroid awareness month....I am very aware of my thyroid and would love to share it with others!! LOL (Like my doctors....who like to make me wait for labs, my family members...who don't understand, etc)
I wish that during thyroid awareness month that we could rid ourselves of our thyroid issues for a month and give those issues to our doctors and families, so they would understand first hand what we go through on a daily basis!!
I think Oprah has had her new awareness deliberately in time for Thyroid Awareness Month in the media ...........................not a coincidence.
She is stating she has now gained all the weight back that she lost. She is addressing her hypothyroidism also at the same time.
From what I have read so far - the pieces are not being put together for her as much as SHE should be putting it together.
My attempt here is "trying" to form unity here in the community to reach out and post letters to her.
So many hypo's have weight issues - it's epedemic !! It not "so much" an eating binge that causes the weight gain either. Most hypo's eat less than they ever did.
So many of us average patients had to struggle to figure out - mostly on our own - what the connections are with weight and thyroid.
I am sure you can google it by now and read more. Cheryl has also post all her links on another post here.
I am sorry, but what is Oprah's situation? I don't get it.
I think Oprah's news hit at a great time. Awareness and education is the key to this thyroid disease(s). Not a lot of people are aware of what the thryroid does and how it affects the body.
I think that's a great idea - about using the Oprah thing - and maybe someone knows of some other way(s) it could be gotten into the media, to let people know 1) there are a bunch of us out here who need help 2) anyone who has these problems is not alone
3) doctors need to update their thinking when it comes to dealing with this disease rather than "it's JUST" stress. Plenty of stress related to it, but it's not JUST stress!!
We need to move ahead as a community to get the the right message out there on this disease.
There is no better way to move forward than to use what we learned in the media on Oprah's situation.
It could be like using a Golden Key her if we united on this and make an impact on awareness.