Wings of Hope for Adolescent Thyroid Awareness

Wings of Hope for Adolescent Thyroid Awareness, Inc. is a non-profit organization created to promote awareness, support, and research of Adolescent Thyroid Diseases. On this site you will find links (research, information, and finding a doctor), a store, forum, and blog. I hope it is helpful and please sign my guest book!

The The day I turned 18 I had RAI. As if this whole ordeal wasn't scary enough for me, the initial endocrinologist I was sent to wasn’t used to dealing with teenagers and scared me so much I left there crying. Luckily my regular doctor sent me to a pediatric endocrinologist who at the time was wonderful. At this point I had missed so much school I had to take an incomplete in one of my classes and make arrangements with my professors to finish the rest.

My pediatric endocrinologist was wonderful for about a year, and as soon as my levels started jumping up and down he started accusing me of not taking my medication - I guess at some point you do get to old to see a pediatric doctor. Since then I am now on my 5th endocrinologist and fortunately for me she is the wonderful!!!

The day I had RAI, my life changed forever. At that time I wanted more then anything to have someone I could talk to who was my age, who had been through the same thing I had, and who could just tell me that it was going to be ok. If you had asked me then if RAI and Graves had changed my life for the better I would have definitely said no. Now I believe it has changed for the better, creating this organization has let me believe that out of something horrible I can make something positive. Through Wings of Hope for Adolescent Thyroid Awareness, I am able to provide the hand to reach out to that looks just like yours.

In 2002, at 17, I was diagnosed with Graves Disease. The doctor explained to me that Graves was the reason why I kept having these shaking/dizzy spells whenever I would get really hungry. When I was first diagnosed I thought it was no big deal, if I kept taking the beta blockers the heart palpitations would go away and I could always just carry little snacks around with me. That all changed about a week before my 18th birthday. I was sent to the hospital after my heart was racing non-stop for two days and I was beginning to have chest pains. It was then that I was informed that the Graves Disease had become so severe that I would need Radioactive Iodine to dissolve my thyroid and to take stronger beta blockers to keep my heart under control. This also meant bed rest for my 18th birthday.

Maggie Pedlow / Founder