Tomorrow is our first day with students and the end of summer vacation. Normally, I would look forward to my kids but dread the physically and mentally exhausting part that comes next. But my new normal is much different now. Totally different!
When I think about this summer compared to last, I get huge crocodile tears in my eyes. I seriously was going to do a video blog, but I started crying every single time. It has been the best summer I think I have had in twenty five years, easy. I mapped it back to the last good one I remember, my son was about five. We spent the summer camping everywhere and my thyroid disease had just started. Although I was tired, I was able to do a lot of things. But every year, it got worse.
Last summer….that was the absolute worst. Physically, I was a mess. I was sore and uncomfortable all the time. I lived on Advil and if I walked into job #2 without it, I was in a complete panic. I could do one big thing a day. Mentally? I was beat up. I couldn’t listen to another health care person tell me to eat less or live with the weight. I hated even going, watching and listening to things that were told to me. I dreaded getting out of bed every morning because the pain would start. I knew that the worst had not even arrived yet as more and more symptoms just kept showing up. I had no idea how I was going to handle more. And I knew no one believed me anyway. I was to the place where I wasn’t believing me either! I was so done.
But, Dr. Jack changed all of that. One piece at a time, he has smashed my old thoughts. He has totally changed me! This summer? Yeah, that’s the proof! I wake up most days early with no alarm. I get up, do some stretching or my Pilates homework. Sometimes I do some high intensity jumping or moving, getting my body awake! I jump in the shower and am raring to get my day going! Gone are the days I can’t drag myself to the coffee pot. I don’t drink coffee anymore! I look at my calendar and think on what things I can do for the day. I squeeze as much as I can in. I can’t believe what I can accomplish and still have energy for my job.
I have spent a ton of time getting the most out of my YMCA membership. I have tried all kinds of new classes, worked with a trainer, improved skills and swam countless miles. I started playing pickleball and traveled all over my area finding classes and new people to play with. I have played with people who have taught me skills and just enjoyed their company. I have met great new people and still had time for lunches with old friends, time to do everything I thought was lost forever!
I have physically and mentally felt better than I have ever felt, all without an ounce of picnic food, without an ice cream cone. Its been the summer I always wanted to have but couldn’t. I have taken walks by the lake, enjoyed my yard, done tons of work outside and inside my house and still had energy left over to do things I wanted to do. I got to go to the fair, first time in over ten years!
I have worked on projects for school, painted things and enjoyed hobbies I was too tired to enjoy. I have explored new holistic ways to take care of myself, and enjoyed relaxing times. I have sat on my porch steps and not cried wishing things were different but instead smiled at heaven thankful for all I have received!
Interestingly, I have not read a single book, although I always enjoyed that, I just have been too busy enjoying physical things! I have been able to watch sporting events for my friend, Mark, got to see Dr. Jack play in a live concert, and enjoyed the beauty of nature around me. I changed up my Y membership to a masterkey so I could go anywhere I want. I have taken my mat outside and done my Pilates in the sunshine and fresh air. I have worked hard and enjoyed sweating, like getting totally soaked! Something I have not done in forever! ( Many hypothyroid people do not sweat.). It has truly been the best summer I have had in twenty five years. The best!
Last year, when Dr. Jack told me it would be like this, I couldn’t believe him. I wanted to believe him but I was afraid. I knew he had pictures of hundreds of successful people on his wall, but I never ever thought I would eventually be one. I would visit Kelly at Dr, Jack’s office for my skin and look at all those successful people and dream about if I could ever look like them. Now?? I know it’s all just a matter of time. I just wait for him to tell me that it’s going to get even better! I love hearing that from his voice! Love the sound of it, and wait in anticipation.
Dr. Jack? I know I have told you a thousand times, but I can never repay you for all that you have done for me. My life is so different today than that day we found each other across the Internet. I am so grateful for that day, so grateful that you saw past the pain. You have completely and totally changed my life. You will never know how grateful I am to you because there are no words to explain it. None…..
I return to my crazy two job life with all that comes with it tomorrow. I return renewed, rejuvenated, refreshed, retaining the best qualities of myself and yet totally reinvented!! I can’t wait to see what comes next!! I am excited! People keep telling me how happy I look. It’s easy to look happy when you truly are!
For my Hashimoto friends and people suffering with other conditions……Seriously! What are you waiting for?? Tomorrow Dr. Jack is hosting a webinar. What are you waiting on?? Your entire life can be different in just a few months and the beauty is, that the longer you go, the better it gets! This is my new life! It’s no longer something I think on, I just live this way, and you can too!
I am just so grateful for all of this….I actually am grateful for what I went through because without it, I would never have appreciated this…… I wish you could see into my heart, Dr. Jack, to know, to really understand just how grateful I really am! I wish you could see that.
Hugssssssss,
Chris