Living with Graves' disease
Jazmin Lucero, a junior in the Journalism and Public Relations Department at California State University, Long Beach, was diagnosed with Graves’ Disease, or Hyperthyroidism, in 2013.
Graves' Disease is an autoimmune disease that causes a swelling of the neck and an obtrusion of the eyes due to an overactive thyroid gland; this often results in hyperthyroidism.
A few of the symptoms of Graves’ Disease include anxiety, fatigue, heat sensitivity, hair loss, insomnia, palpitations, irregular heart rate, and weight loss.
“I had lost a lot of weight and I remember it was hard to breath at some points. I had gone to a free clinic and they referred me to Harbor UCLA in Torrance and I was admitted that night. I was in the hospital for for about two week,” said Lucero, remembering the incident that occurred over four years ago.
Treatments could include the removal of the thyroid and, most often than not, consuming daily dose of medications.
This disease is often caused through genetics but it could also be the results of many environmental factors.
If left untreated, it could lead to serious heart problems and could be fatal.
Although hyperthyroidism is a huge part of Lucero’s life, not many people in her life, including her roommate, know of her struggles to keep the overactivity of her thyroid under control. She has struggled with losing and gaining weight but tries to maintain a healthier lifestyle.
In the last six months, Lucero changed her daily routine: “I started working out a lot more; I started eating healthier, cooking a lot more and cutting down on greasier foods...”
Lucero takes three different medications per day to make sure she maintains some normalcy. The progress she has made in the last six months is apparent and she hopes the doctors will soon tell her that she could be off two of her medications.
Lucero hopes to graduate next spring from CSULB with a journalism major with an emphasis on public relations.
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