My story begins when I was 16 years old. Up to this point I was a teenager doing the teenager stuff your parents don't want you to do. I smoked pot, drank, and had taken ecstasy and mushrooms a few times. But I was a good, nice kid. Did well in school, had a lot of friends, and worked hard when I had to. But I digress...
(Sorry in advance for the long story)
My story begins with me at 16, and a bad experience with mushrooms set in motion an interesting array of events. I started feeling very sick, weak, nervous, and depressed and thought there was something very wrong with me for 4 or 5 months, going into the ER and doctors office constantly. After a while, my primary care sent me to an endocrinologist because my thyroid hormone was a little low and I have a family history of thyroid disease. At this point, I think I had my tinnitus. I couldn't tell you exactly when I got it, but I know that it was within the course of me starting to feel off. Anyways, I see the endo and he diagnoses me with hypothyroidism and prescribes me synthroid. But at the appointment, he felt my neck and felt a mass on my thyroid. "Huh." Cool, doc. He sets up an appointment for me to get a needle biopsy done on it to see if it was cancerous or not. Whatever.
So that day, I go home and take my first synthroid pill. Within an hour EVERYTHING WENT BACK TO NORMAL. I could have cried. I think you guys understand when I say that the way I felt was agonizing and dreadful. I don't know if it cleared my tinnitus or if that I felt so good that I didn't care, but either way I was fine. Good even. So for about 3 months of feeling this way, I had the biopsy done for my nodule on my thyroid, and it comes back inconclusive. Sweet. The endo tells me that I might as well just get the whole thing removed just to be save, and I obliged.
On July 2nd, 2011 I was diagnosed with Papillary Cancer of the Thyroid.
And you know what, I didn't care. I felt that good. After feeling the way I did, I felt so good that it didn't even phase me. The doctors said they removed all of the cancer tissue, so I felt fine with it. I knew I was going to beat it, and that was that. I left the hospital a few days later (had some complications with my calcium levels) and went back to leading a normal life. For about 3 months.
My doctors needed my thyroid levels to drop, so they did not change my synthroid dose to compensate for my lack of thyroid. This is when things go downhill. All the symptoms come flooding back. I went back to anxiety, depression, weakness, fatigue, you name it. And tinnitus. Oh the tinnitus. And when they finally get my levels back up to normal, all the symptoms stick around.
That puts me to where I am today, 20 years old, cancer free, but not tinnitus free. I guess I should say I only had tinnitus in my right ear, and I've had MRIs and CAT scans, so there wasn't any tumors or something causing it. Maybe I had it in my left ear too, the right might have just been louder.
I had all but coped with my symptoms, habituated a lot to my right ear ringing, able to lead a fairly normal life, but then in the beginning of January 2015, I get sick with a cold. My ears get stuffed up and not I have tinnitus in my left ear, louder than my right.
Feels like I am at square one.
Well thats my story for the most part. If you want to know more, let me know. And thanks for taking the time to read it.
(Sorry in advance for the long story)
My story begins with me at 16, and a bad experience with mushrooms set in motion an interesting array of events. I started feeling very sick, weak, nervous, and depressed and thought there was something very wrong with me for 4 or 5 months, going into the ER and doctors office constantly. After a while, my primary care sent me to an endocrinologist because my thyroid hormone was a little low and I have a family history of thyroid disease. At this point, I think I had my tinnitus. I couldn't tell you exactly when I got it, but I know that it was within the course of me starting to feel off. Anyways, I see the endo and he diagnoses me with hypothyroidism and prescribes me synthroid. But at the appointment, he felt my neck and felt a mass on my thyroid. "Huh." Cool, doc. He sets up an appointment for me to get a needle biopsy done on it to see if it was cancerous or not. Whatever.
So that day, I go home and take my first synthroid pill. Within an hour EVERYTHING WENT BACK TO NORMAL. I could have cried. I think you guys understand when I say that the way I felt was agonizing and dreadful. I don't know if it cleared my tinnitus or if that I felt so good that I didn't care, but either way I was fine. Good even. So for about 3 months of feeling this way, I had the biopsy done for my nodule on my thyroid, and it comes back inconclusive. Sweet. The endo tells me that I might as well just get the whole thing removed just to be save, and I obliged.
On July 2nd, 2011 I was diagnosed with Papillary Cancer of the Thyroid.
And you know what, I didn't care. I felt that good. After feeling the way I did, I felt so good that it didn't even phase me. The doctors said they removed all of the cancer tissue, so I felt fine with it. I knew I was going to beat it, and that was that. I left the hospital a few days later (had some complications with my calcium levels) and went back to leading a normal life. For about 3 months.
My doctors needed my thyroid levels to drop, so they did not change my synthroid dose to compensate for my lack of thyroid. This is when things go downhill. All the symptoms come flooding back. I went back to anxiety, depression, weakness, fatigue, you name it. And tinnitus. Oh the tinnitus. And when they finally get my levels back up to normal, all the symptoms stick around.
That puts me to where I am today, 20 years old, cancer free, but not tinnitus free. I guess I should say I only had tinnitus in my right ear, and I've had MRIs and CAT scans, so there wasn't any tumors or something causing it. Maybe I had it in my left ear too, the right might have just been louder.
I had all but coped with my symptoms, habituated a lot to my right ear ringing, able to lead a fairly normal life, but then in the beginning of January 2015, I get sick with a cold. My ears get stuffed up and not I have tinnitus in my left ear, louder than my right.
Feels like I am at square one.
Well thats my story for the most part. If you want to know more, let me know. And thanks for taking the time to read it.