37 - Why I Don't Eat Seaweed
Bit of a personal one, let me know what you think :)
When I was young I used to dread PE class. I was already a scrawny, short little kid, and my fitness was pretty atrocious. And no, I didn't hate it because I'm Asian and we value brains over body (LOL), but because I would literally run out of energy after the warm-up run around the oval.
And then we start the class? WHYYYYY.
Through a significant portion of my life I could never understand why my body was so hektik after I'd run just a little bit, or why my energy came in spurts, but never over a long period of time. I remember trying to join cross country so that I could train it out of me, but it never worked. It was devastatingly hard to see everyone be so fit, and as much as you wanted to, it would never come for you.
The initial sign manifested as a lazy eye, at the end of Year 5. I had gone to a school camp during a relatively bad hayfever season, and had come back with an eyelid that would refuse to go back up. Oh, the bullying? - it got pretty bad. I was already picked on for being short and kinda nerdy, but now I also had a physical deformity.
Yay for the trifecta!
I went to eye doctors, specialists, and it took nearly 5 months before I was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune neuromuscular disease. The way it was explained by my neurologist was that the signal wasn't getting from my brain to my eyelids to go up all the way.
He was the one who identified that autoimmune diseases often come together, and asked for a family history, identifying that I may have hyperthyroidism.
Which I did.
Which explained pretty much all the symptoms in my life.
(Doctors are bloody incredible. Both my neurologist and endocrinologist were so good at explaining things and were always so nice. Thank you Royal Children's Hospital!)
What is hyperthyroidism? Well, your thyroid is a gland in your neck that regulates hormones in your body, and ensures that your metabolic rate stays normal. My levels were too high, causing my energy to burn up much much MUCH quicker than normal. It was another autoimmune disease - which essentially means my immune system hates my body. And sends attackers to defeat the 'enemy'!
Result? No energy. My energy levels and my general well-being were adversely affected. One of the symptoms is shaky hands (which I had), being able to eat like a horse, but put on zero weight, and puffy eyes (hence the lazy eyes...though that was also caused by another underlying disease).
I understood now why I had bursts of energy, and why I seemed to 'hate' sport, have a really high heart rate (like 130-140 after light exercise), and be warm all the time. It also showed me why I was so runty (which, in some ways, was a good thing :D).
For the longest time I had to deal with doctor appointments and dealing with new diets and treatments - I don't really eat seaweed anymore, I don't drink soy milk (which I used to love - it's delicious!) and I'm slightly radioactive. No joke - the treatment is a radioactive pill (the other treatment is a thyroidectomy, but there was a risk of damaging your voice - which I was extremely concerned about being a singer!).
It was kept under control for a while with medication - I think I went nearly 6 or 7 years just taking medication on and off when it went into remission, but then came back twice. My paediatric endocrinologist (there's some two dollar word!) was hesitant to get the radioactive iodine because I was so young, and thought it might screw up the hormonal regulation in my body.
Things came to a head in 1st year uni. I had been sitting at home studying for exams and lost weight. Like, this was drastic weight loss - I think like 10kg in 4 weeks with absolutely no exercise. Mum noticed that my face was a bit sharper, which I initially took as a compliment 😁. But then it didn't make sense as I had done nothing for that result to have come around. We had tests, and found that my levels were out of control - around 5x-10x higher than normal, so I was told to quickly get the radioactive iodine treatment.
More scans, more tests, and then taking a small, innocuous looking pill with doctors/nurses watching on. Kind of embarrassing because I suck at swallowing pills and didn't want to fuck up in front of the doctors. But I did it, and was sent home to quarantine myself (self isolating before it was cool).
Did I mention it was radioactive? Because I was, and I had to spend a week in isolation so that the radiation didn't spread in the household. My doctors were even a bit wary of me taking the bus home ("Just...try to sit away from people, yeah?"). But for that week - oh baby - was treated like a ki-...well, an isolated sick person. I think I just watched FRIENDS for a week straight. Or maybe I was on to The Office by then? Unimportant.
Regardless, my levels are normal now. Occasionally I'll get some double vision, or feel a bit tired at the end of the day, but otherwise, my energy is normal, I put on weight a lot easier (dammit) and can exercise without feeling like my heart is going to burst. Not everyone's that lucky - some will have their levels shift down to hypothyroidism, where you need to instead take a thyroxin supplement for the rest of your life. It's better than the hyperthyroidism because the medication for hypothyroidism has no potential side effects - it's a natural supplement.
In the grand scheme of things, this disease wasn't that bad. There are people who have had much worse experiences than me, and I'm thankful that it's only what it is now. All I really have of it now is a paper that the doctors wrote about me - buried somewhere in the medical literature. Hope it helps someone :)
I have to shout out my parents for their incredible effort during this entire time (because, I mean, they read this too). Mum was an absolute rock, providing the support for me to navigate all the doctors and the appointments and the medication that I had to take. We went to get acupuncture, Chinese medicine (which I hated at the time but it seemed to work?) and always had an unshakeable faith that I could get better (and she'd damn well make sure it would happen). Dad showed it in different ways, making sure that I was eating right, making sure I was doing the right eye exercises, coming to appointments with me and keeping what could be a pretty daunting experience as normal as possible (which is actually one of the most important things to do for a kid who's scared) ❤️
Any questions let me know!
Chat soon :)
✔️ Real Life Recommendations
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Super Mario 64 - weird rec, but it was one of the clearest memories I had when I went to the RCH clinics - they always had a Nintendo 64 in the corner which I'd play while waiting for the doctor to be done. I never had a Nintendo 64 myself, so I always relished the chance to play :) Memories.
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The Office - US - Don't know if I've recommended this before but it's one of my favourite comedy series of all time. Don't know why (and also haven't watched the UK version) but it is so incredibly funny - the characters, the storylines, the interactions - they're just a beautiful combination! Highly recommended :D
🚌 Adventures on the Information Super-Highway
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Collection of Zoom backgrounds - a lot of us are working from home these days and probably a few of you are using Zoom! I thought this was a pretty cool resource for Zoom backgrounds - the experience reminds me of visiting those wallpaper sites when I was in year 5 or 6 and got a laptop for the first time - searching, collecting, and downloading. Ah, memories.
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Moving from consumer to creator - just like I was saying here! No idea is original, eh?
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A comedian's jaunt through Mensa:
In 2018, Loftus took Mensa’s I.Q. exam while hungover on shandies, scored in the ninety-eighth percentile, and celebrated her admission with a triumphant blog post titled “Good News, They Let Dumb Sluts into Mensa Now.”
She finds what you probably expected; elitist adults frothing over intelligence, trying to out-intelligence one another as much as possible. It's a great read - she released a podcast which I haven't listened to yet but will probably do during rona times :D
🌱 The Calathea Corner
So er...I'll be honest, I haven't been looking after Feleafcia best during the work from home times. I noticed a yellow leaf two days ago - probably due to my neglect :S Since I've changed my rituals at home, I've probably forgotten a bit to water her, but I am now! This is a good reminder to make a conscious effort to look after her - she's looking better already :)
