After I had my first child, it took a longer time for me to recover from the delivery than I had anticipated. I didn’t have a cesarean delivery, but even still, I had back pain, incontinence and fatigue for weeks. I got into a pattern where I ignored how I was feeling so I could make it through another night with a newborn. I wanted to focus my full attention on my child and my family.
But even 6 months out from my delivery date, I felt off. I couldn’t put into words what I was feeling. I had anxiety for the first time. I had a short temper. I couldn’t sleep at night. I had a voracious appetite, frequently eating double portions. My husband went so far as to say that my personality had changed. To say it put a strain on our relationship would be an understatement.
I think I was avoiding seeing my doctor about this. I knew there was something wrong with me, but I didn’t want to find out what it was. When I finally saw him, he ordered some basic blood tests and did a physical exam. He thought what I was experiencing could be a form of postpartum depression or physical deconditioning. He suggested I get back into exercising and spend some time focusing on me.
I took his advice to heart, joined a gym and bought a wearable fitness monitor. I noticed pretty quickly that I had an unusually high resting heart rate. It was over 100 bpm, even when I was sleeping. Week after week, it never went down. I printed out the results and brought them back to the doctor, who ordered more blood tests and cardiac investigations. It turns out I have Graves disease. My thyroid hormone levels were 10 times higher than normal.
I saw a specialist and started treatment right away with 2 medications, propranolol and methimazole. If I’m being honest, I hated being on the medication. As my hormone levels came down to normal, I started gaining weight and feeling sluggish, with a drop in my stamina and energy. I jokingly told my doctor that every new mom could use a touch of hyperthyroidism to make it through the first few months of motherhood. I’m fully in remission and off all medications now.
I love being a mom. But I think I used the excuse to ignore my own health issues and avoid seeking medical attention.
This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original publication is properly cited, the use is noncommercial (i.e., research or educational use), and no modifications or adaptations are made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/