I haven’t done an update of all my diagnoses in a long time. This was a highly requested blog post to do. I’m just going to kind of run down the list of them and explain them in my words a little bit and how it makes me feel. This isn’t a typical blog post but I hope it helps those who have the same diagnoses to know they aren’t alone and to raise awareness that even though I look “fine” on the outside no one knows what’s going on inside.

I will go through them chronologically. I don’t remember the exact dates or years but I do know the order about which they happened.

I got diagnosed with hypothyroidism my junior year of high school. It runs in one side of my family the one doctor tested the antibodies for it or something and confirmed it was Hashimoto’s for the cause of hypothyroidism. My thyroid is only functioning a little bit. I have had to get my dosage moved up quite a bit since getting sick. I also see an endocrinologist now. He did a baseline ultrasound and I had a bump on my thyroid. They didn’t know when it got there or if it grew so I had another one 6 months later. It didn’t grow but I had a small one starting on the other side. Hashimoto’s can cause lumps/bumps on your thyroid and be completely harmless. It hasn’t really grown in a year so now I just have to get monitored every year which we are thankful it hasn’t been anything major.

Then I got ovarian cysts and had to get one surgically removed because it started growing and twisting. I ended up taking a trimester off of school because I didn’t feel good enough to go to school and after a meeting with the counselor we decided that would be best and it was my senior year so I was fine to still graduate. I still get them but not as much or as severe due to the medication I am on for that (which is birth control I know it sounds weird but that’s what stops them). I also got diagnosed with migraines during this time.

I had h pylori and gastritis and polyps next up. This took me 2 rounds of the big antibiotics to get rid of and it took a year to finally get my stomach feeling ok.

After the h pylori I was doing ok and felt like I was kind of getting my health back under control. In that time frame I started really working out again, going for walks, running a mile on the treadmill nearly every night.

Then just around the corner was the facial cellulitis that triggered/ woke up a lot of illnesses in my body.

I was diagnosed with High Blood Pressure. I see a nephrologist we tried to figure out the cause since it started in the Hospital. We aren’t sure the cause still but I have to be on 2 different high blood pressure medications to control this which raises concerns with my doctors. When it first started it was 180s/100s. It’s doing ok now but every once in a while I have rough days.

After 3 months I got diagnosed with very severe fibromyalgia. You have to have at least 3 consistent months of pain and “trigger points” and some other symptoms to get diagnosed.

I have Raynaud’s Syndrome which basically means if I get cold or touch something cold my fingers and toes will turn white when the blood flow is cut off then they will turn blue when the oxygen is low and red once the blood gets going again. It’s painful and hurts. It happens a lot in the winter so I have to have warm shoes and gloves and usually have heat warmers in my hand a lot.

It’s a fancy name called a Cervicogenic Headache which is a headache at the base of your neck that I have everyday. I also have Daily Chronic Headaches at the front of my head. I also have Myofascial Pain which is a little different than Fibromyalgia but basically is widespread pain that targets muscles.

I also have a Vitamin D Deficiency which is very common with many of the health conditions I have. So I have to take prescription Vitamin D once a month.

I have insomnia and am finally on medication to help that. I also have restless leg syndrome and suspected thoracic outlet syndrome which basically means my arms are numb when I wake up because blood vessels or nerves get compressed for a little bit.

I have mild to severe depression with anxiety and I can tell you I was shocked when I was diagnosed with depression. Once I got the medications right I was much better and looking back I could see I was depressed. Many people dealing with chronic illnesses have depression and or anxiety.

I have sicca syndrome which is dry mouth and dry eyes. I have eye drops and mouth wash that specifically help these symptoms.

I also have a photosensitivity rash so I have to wear sunscreen a lot indoors and outdoors. I have to really limit sun time or wear hats and lather on the sunscreen.

I also have POTS which stands for Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome – say that 5 times fast. After doing the tilt table test it was confirmed. ( I will talk about the testing process next week). This can cause a variety of things and is usually a secondary problem meaning another illness is causing this.

They are still trying to figure out what the big problem is and also more things can happen or get triggered as you can see once I got the infection a lot of things kept piling up. I think I got everything named. I wasn’t naming symptoms just the diagnoses.

If you have any questions let me know. It’s kind of overwhelming when I have to list them all at once and think about them.

xoxo,

Abby

“When my heart is overwhelmed lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” – Psalm 61:2