Hey Y'All,

So sorry for being a turd and not posting anything in a month or so, but this post is going to make up for that!
A couple weeks ago one of our pastors gave a sermon on Ephesians 6:10-20. It talks about putting on the full armor of God.  Our pastor explained that when the passage uses the word "you", it's the plural "you" or better said, "Y'all".  Meaning that, we as Christians need to go through life TOGETHER!  Help, encourage, and love each other!  You shouldn't go through life ALONE!  It occurred to me that this applies to Hashimotos as well.  Or any disease for that matter.  It is much easier to get through if you have a support system.

Here's how I started gathering my support system.

First of all, I knew my support started with Christ.  I asked Him to give me the strength to deal with the very overwhelming news of having Hashimotos.  I asked for strength because at the moment I felt very weak, physically, mentally, and even spiritually.  So that was a pretty good start, because He quickly gave me that strength, and like I said in my very first post, I dove right in to figuring how to control it!

Next, I knew that I needed to educate my family on what Hashimotos was, and what my specific symptoms were.  That way, they were able to help me out when necessary.  My husband has always been a fantastic supporter.  He is very understanding when I tell him, "I really can't do the laundry or the dishes this week, I'm anticipating my thyroid not working very well." HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!  I'm kidding!  For real though, there have been times when I really do fall behind because I don't feel well and he has always just jumped in and helped.  

My parents also became very involved.  My mom would do research and send me links to websites and email me articles that she found.  My dad would call and make sure I was okay, and let me know that he totally understood me not feeling "normal".  He would talk me through it, and just reassure me that, I of course was not normal, I was extra special and his favorite daughter, (he tells all of his daughters this, I have two beautiful sisters too),  which ALWAYS made me feel better,  and gave me a confidence boost, which I desperately needed!  My mom immediately started making me gluten free food anytime we went to their house for dinner or a family get together.  She even started adjusting her holiday recipes for me. And at the time, I was the only one eating that way. My in-laws have also been very supportive. My wonderful, loving, Italian, mother in-law, is  making my daughter (who also has Hashimotos), gluten free, dairy free lasagna,right now, as I write this.  Now that's what I call support!   I feel very blessed to have such a supportive family.

And sometimes, even though I have a lot of support, I feel like I'm alone, call me crazy, but it happens every once in a while, I go on to, stopthethyroidmadness.com, and read stories of others with Hashimotos, just as a reminder that I'm not the only one going through this.  There are a lot of other people out there with this disease.  It puts things into perspective for me. 

I know not everyone has this kind of support, so I hope, that in some small way my blog helps you out. 

So please feel free to email me with questions.
As always
Happy Thyroids

PS - If you have some time, I encourage you to watch the sermon I referred to at the beginning of this post.
It's the August 26,2012 sermon
http://crossroadsabc.com/sermons/sermons/