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.
Fortunately I have finally found a wonderful endocrinologist and primary doctor. The downside is that my endocrinologist is in Miami, the plus is the two work well together, and I finally know enough about my levels to know where I need to be without the doctors telling me.
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.
