<. . . Continued >

 

Her symptoms got much worse when she enrolled in a high school in Korea, which is named Chung Nam Samsung Academy. She would wake up with sweat all over her body, shaking; she would not be able to move her body well without pain; she would not be able to breathe unnaturally. Her hands and fingers were shaking so much from time to time that she could not write on paper. She gained about 10kg in a month - in such a short period of time. According to several medical and science journals that she has read, when a body gains 1 kg, the joints of the body feels 7 kg of pressure. Therefore, her muscles around each joint were not able to support her body movements such as walking and going up and down stairs. More than that, the arch of her each foot broke down, they were not able to manage the rapidly gained weight in a short time.

 

All these happened when she did not know what thyroid exactly does and what hypothyroidism is. So she did not know which hospital to go. Since on the direct view, the major issues seemed to be the great pain on legs, especially on the pelvis, she went to orthopaedics. There was no apparent issue on the pelvis according to a checkup, and she felt frustrated because she did not know where to go and what to do to get better as soon as possible.

 

 

At that time, she dropped out of the school she went to for about one month and a half and moved to Suzhou, China. It was for both better education in an international school and earning some time to take care of her health. After moving to China and taking some rest, she began to exercise hard like she did when she was an athlete. This was because she assumed that all her bad physical pains and abnormal feelings were caused by the rapidly gained weight. 

 

However, somehow, even with proper warming-up and training routines, her body did not seem to change and actually, the intensity of her exercise clearly did not correspond with the changes of her body and in turn, the changes on her health. And - that was the time when she shockingly realised that it was not the weight gained that has caused me such a pain, it was something else and weight gain was just one of the consequences of that 'something'.

 

At that time, she mentioned this realisation to her parents but they were extremely busy after moving internationally for the first time in their lifetime, and her mum has been abusive - she did not try to 'solve the real problem', and instead, she considered her health issues as some kind of 'burden' to her own life. Her mom blamed almost everything, including hypothyroidism and depression, on Yunjo's vegetarianism and being sensitive. She notes, "Now looking back, my mum has not been able to recognise and manage her own issues and stresses. Her life looked like a misery that is not recognised by the owner. I hated her so much when I was suffered from hypothyroidism and depression, but now I am able to let go of the hate and see her poor mental health that she has had from when I was a little baby until now."

 

The first two years of 'battling alone with this thyroid' in a foreign country were enough to cause her depression. During that period of time, she did everything that is healthy for her body: regular exercise, talking to her friends, having a nutritionally balanced diet, getting enough sunshine everyday and talking to the counsellor at school. She was able to hold on to the little stableness in the wild unstableness because she went to the international school for achieving her dreams (They are mostly on <Explorations> Page on this website!) Despite all her effort, her health did not improve well but it got better a little. Or, she got used to the condition. Or, both. She recently said, "Being on the medication for treating hypothyroidism is very controversial even between doctors on that field. There is a doctor whom I recently met and whom I trust, and he seriously told me that it was wise of me that I did not take the medicines for treating it. Apparently, the side effects of that medicines are as bad as the conditions of hypothyroidism. Like, you would gain a lot of weight in a short time if you took that medicines, and in turn, that would cause other side effects too, and so on." It is still a controversial area to discuss but she does not have any big regrets in regards to making decisions in the past in her holistic perspectives.

 

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At the end of last year (around November 2017), the hormones that take care of thyroid in her body increased a lot again that the statistics indicated that it was a dangerous condition for her. She began to have the similar symptoms that she had when she was in the high school in Korea, from around May 2017. She fell down and went almost unconscious about 5 times from May to July. She went to a well-known university hospital and other private hospitals in China but every doctor she met told her and her family that it was likely about stresses. (The medical system of China is about 60 years behind that of Korea.) Therefore, like she did when she first came to China, she did all she could do for health: exercise, sleep, food and focus on her dreams.

 

There was one time in around October when she fell down and went unconscious and somehow her breathing part was getting much worse than other symptoms. Finally, she and her mum decided to have a detailed health check-up because her IB final exam was coming up soon as well as her schedules at the end of high school. She went to Korea for the health check-up and the statistics of the result showed the hormones that manage thyroid in her body increased a lot again that it was an unsafe condition for her. Also, the doctors she met told her that she has to have a surgery for her breathing issue. She has had a nasal allergy since she was a little baby but it became chronic, according to the doctors. Therefore she had to apply for a leave of absence from school with about 6 months left to graduate.

 

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And here she is, recovering well from the surgery and having time to take care of her health! 

 

(Many parts of her battle with hypothyroidism were simplified but the general idea of how it went about it is presented above. :-))