Section, AL
Hey everyone my name is Samantha Stephens and I'm a 33 years old happily married woman from Alabama. (Roll Tide Roll!!!!) I have been married for about 3 1/2 years now. Just 2 months after my wedding I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease. Now battling with the 15 to 20lbs that I've put on, I'm trying to find peace with this emotional roller coaster that I'm on.
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Hey everyone my name is Samantha Stephens and I'm a 33 years old happily married woman from Alabama. (Roll Tide Roll!!!!) I have been married for about 3 1/2 years now. Just 2 months after my wedding I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease. Now battling with the 15 to 20lbs that I've put on, I'm trying to find peace with this emotional roller coaster that I'm on.
Here is my story:
I have always been a petite girl growing up, never really had to worry about my weight. I began gaining a little weight and filling out the summer before my senior year of high school, but just a year after my graduation I became anorexic. Battling with anorexia for about a year before I decided I needed to gain some weight back, or I would end up dead. I managed to gain fifteen pounds, and I kept a normal weight for a few years before I noticed I had gained more weight. Now at the age of 24, I was trying to lose the extra 5 pounds that I managed gain. I was crazy to think being 115 to 118 was being fat on a 5'2" frame, so I decided to try diet pills to help me lose these few extra pounds. I took all kinds of diet pills ranging from Adipex, Hydroxycut, Hoodia pops, Carb blockers, Xenadrine (which made me crazy!) and Ace, I'm sure there is a few more that I just can't remember their names, for a period of about 6 or 7 years. Little did I know what I was doing to my body!
March of 2008 and at the age of 29, I had to have emergency surgery to remove my gall bladder due to two big gall stones, and at my check up, Dr. Thompson (the surgeon) told me that I should stop eating fast foods and stop taking diet pills immediately! (I didn't realize then, that I killed my gall bladder with my poor judgements.) Did I listen to the doctor's advise??? No, In fact I continued to eat fast food everyday and take diet pills to lose the pounds that I've been trying to lose for years now. A month after my surgery I became a very happy lady! We got engaged! Now to get serious about this weight lose thing. In May, I went to try on wedding dresses and I was so excited that I could wear a size 2! These diets pills was working for me and I was on cloud 9, until 2 1/2 months before the wedding I had gained ten pounds! Now up to 130 not being able to wear any of your clothes much less your wedding dress, I had to beg the store to return it for another size! I was devastated! I went from a size 2 to a size 8 in only a few short months and with a wedding only 2 months away I doubled up on my diet pills and stopped eating dinner all together. Plus, I started to walk at the park in the afternoons in hopes that I would lose these extra unwanted pounds before my big day!
November 8, 2009 I married the love of my life! That December I started a new diet (with new diet pills) and b-12 shots once a week because I was suffering from a lack energy. The diet doctor told me that I needed to be more discipline with my diet because I was not losing any weight while under her care and she suggested that I should go to my family medical doctor to have my thyroid checked. So, without much hesitation I decided to have my blood drawn for my thyroid since I had other family members with Hypothyroidism. Well, the results came in and I had a sluggish thyroid and I had to see an Endocrinologist. So the appointment was made, the extra blood work was sent to the endocrinologist. Doctors visits after doctors visits, I finally got the news that really kicked me in the stomach. Not only did I have Hypothyroidism but I had Hashimoto's thyroidits. An autoimmune disease! What's that? I asked the doctor. Hashimoto's disease is a disorder that affects your thyroid, resulting in inflammation which often leads to an under-active thyroid gland (hypothyroidism). The doctor asked me all kinds of questions about my medical past since I was the only one in my family that had Hashimoto's. He did blood work to see if I was malnutrition because of my lack of energy. After an intensive blood work and many probing questions later we finally discovered that my years of using diet pills is what broke my metabolism down and played a big part in having my gall bladder removed and now the slow death of my thyroid gland. As a result of my thyroid being damaged and my pituitary gland being enlarged, my husband and I will not ever be able to have kids and my weight loss will be harder than ever before.....
Many months has went by and silently crying and beating myself up over what I've done to myself, if I only knew that diet pills was slowly killing my organs I would have never taken the first pill! Now, that I'm having to take thyroid medicine for the rest of my life, I'm having to teach myself to eat healthier and workout to correct the damage that I have done to my body. I know that I will never be 100 percent but I am trying to change my lifestyle and teach others not to fall into that path that I was on. I still have days that I just want to sit and cry because I done so much damage to my body and health, but I know that what's done is done and if I can reach out and help someone overcome their weight loss struggles without the use of diet pills, then I won't feel like my life was a waste.
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