Thyroid Storm: A Personal Account

Testing for a thyroid disorder is commonly believed to be as simple as giving a blood sample, making a diagnosis and prescribing a medication. For some patients, however, the thyroid disorder requires much more extensive diagnostic tools. From a personal account, I can attest to the pain and complications that are associated with the thyroid disorder diagnostic tools as I witnessed these in my sister's fight to obtain the right thyroid diagnosis for her.

Several years ago, my sister experienced an event known as a "thyroid storm". This event was episodic, involved a sudden increase in her heart rate, increase in respiration, sudden vertigo and then, without warning, a sudden ringing and popping in her ears and a total loss of hearing on one side. In fear, she sought out medical attention, immediately, from her family physician.

Without realizing this event was a "thyroid storm", my sister's healthcare professional began running a series of tests, misdiagnosing her complications as that of a neurological or cardiovascular event. It wasn't until she was examined by her gynecologist, for an annual well-woman exam, that her thyroid was determined to be abnormally enlarged and, as a result, she was referred to an endocrinologist for further testing. This is when the plethora of complications began.

Upon accompanying my sister to a doctor's appointment, where she was scheduled to undergo a fine needle aspiration, I was astonished at the sheer pain associated with this procedure. Described to my sister as a minor procedure in which a needle is inserted into the neck and through the thyroid gland, my sister was assured that an anesthetic would be applied and the procedure would take a few seconds and would be relatively painless. This was absolutely not the case!