Adventures in Thyroid Land

Hi Efurryone, Raja here.  We haven't posted in so long. I've really missed it. But Mommy had health problems.  A zillion years ago, before I came to live with her, before I was even a kitten, she had a bad disease called cansur.  The hooman vets cured her.  The treatment damaged  her thyroid, though. She takes pills for it.

Mommy explained that the thyroid is a gland in the throat. It's shaped like a butterfly. We kitties have one, too. If the thyroid doesn't work right your body doesn't run right. Some kitties take the same kind of pills as the hoomans do.

Well, Mommy was taking pills, but her thyroid stopped responding. She started not feeling well. She had mini panic attacks, rapid heart beats, nausea, lightheadedness and shakiness. She was so upset. She would hold me and cry. As long as she didn't use me as a furry kleenex, that was okay.

She finally went to the hooman vet. The lady upped her dosage of medicine.  Within two weeks my Mommy was back. She wasn't crying or worried anymore. I am so happy. But she wants to talk now, so I'll let her. I love her so much and was so worried when she was sick. We were all scared.

Tracy here. I just want to warn people that your thyroid influences your whole body. I should have paid more attention to my symptoms. The mini panic attacks, when a frisson of panic would repeatedly shoot through my body, should have been my first clue. The pounding heart  should have been another. I developed both symptoms when I became hypothyroid. Instead, I worried about my blood glucose level, fretted that I was going to wind up in the hospital ( and who would feed the kitties?), and blamed myself for being depressed and anxious. I even accused myself of giving into depression, just like my mother had. Instead I was just sick. 

I'm on a higher dosage of Synthroid now, plus Ativan for the panic attacks (which  I'm needing less and less). My heart still beats funny (I do have mitral valve prolapse), and next month, when I see the doctor, she may increase the Synthroid again. But I spent six weeks attacking myself for a medical problem that I should have picked up on sooner.

So, the moral of the story is, when your body doesn't feel right, check out the thyroid. It's not nice to scare the kitties...