My Thyroid Story – Kelly Groff Team Jeremy Scott Fitness

Kelly Groff – ISSA CFT – Team JSF 

As I am getting to know many of our athletes here at Jeremy Scott Fitness I have heard many of you talk about the thyroid.  Some of you know of somebody or yourself has struggled with a thyroid issue, I myself included.  In 2010 I was diagnosed with Graves’ disease and Hashimoto disease, yes that’s right I was diagnosed with a hyper and hypo thyroid disorder.

For those of you who don’t know what the thyroid does and its ok I wasn’t aware of it all until I had to learn about it. The thyroid is the largest endocrine gland that can be found in the neck, it controls how our body uses energy, makes proteins, and controls how sensitive the body is to other hormones.  This gland produces two thyroid hormones, triiodothronine also called T3 and thyroxine referred to as T4.

My symptoms came on really fast I was teaching Art at the time and I started to notice the uncontrollable shaking of the hands.  I didn’t think too much about it as my dad’s side of the family tends to have the shakes.  I was feeling as if sometimes my heart was going to jump right out of my chest and other times I would feel like it was literally skipping a beat.

My moods were out of control; my poor family never knew what side of me they were going to see. I blamed that on the extra stress we had in our life trying to figure out what was going on with our youngest son with special needs.  Over the next couple months my students would notice my shaking at school, it got to a point I couldn’t even put mascara on because I couldn’t keep a steady hand.  I went home to visit with family in the Midwest; most of my family is in the health field and suggested I see a doctor.  I was mainly worried about how my heart was feeling and the fact I felt I couldn’t sleep EVER!!  I finally saw my doctor who did some blood work and sent me to a cardiologist. About a month later we found that my T3 and T4 levels were way off. It was a few months later they diagnosed me with Graves’ disease and Hashimoto’s.

We kept testing my levels while I tried different doses of thyroid medications we were also doing ultrasounds looking for nodules, and testing them for pre-cancer.  It all seemed to be happening so fast and honestly I had already a schedule jammed pack of appointments for my son I didn’t even really think about what was happening to me.  IT wasn’t until I went to meet my neighbor for our early morning walk and noticed I was developing a goiter.  I thought that’s it.. I am not playing around with this anymore I need to take more action.

While talking with our team of doctors and as my results are started coming back in, we decided that it was best to remove the thyroid completely.  It was almost 6 months to the date of my first appointment dealing with my thyroid that I then had it removed.  Honestly the surgery went extremely well. I now take medication and have my levels checked often to make sure that the dosage of my medicine is correct.

Kelly Post Removal

I decided to write this to let a lot of you know that you are not alone in your fight against thyroid diseases.  I was and am still there with you.  I have not let it define me, I have not let it get in my way of reaching my goals, and I hope you don’t either!

Kelly Groff – ISSA CFT – Scottsdale Personal Trainer 

Team Jeremy Scott Fitness