As soon as I’d made peace with this, I was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, an autoimmune disease in which your thyroid is overactive, causin...

As soon as I’d made peace with this, I was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, an autoimmune disease in which your thyroid is overactive, causing the rest of your body to operate at full throttle. My quality of life slid backwards again. While I was able to find care for this issue, there was nothing I could take to make it go away. When I’m not in remission, I have to take medicine that makes me feel less like myself; that gets in the way of my daily tasks; that makes me feel like I’m unraveling. It also costs an exorbitant amount of money, but untreated, I’m at risk of dying of a heart attack or thyroid storm. Eventually, I will need to have surgery or radiation treatment, after which I will rely on a different medication to survive.