I'm new here, signed up tonight. Just wanted to add to the Hashimoto folks who have all of my love and support. I started have symptoms and low blood counts when I was 15. I was officially diagnosed when I was 25 and was so bloated I felt like if you stuck a pin in me I would explode! This doctor was right out of med school and knew to check for ANA levels and the like. Mine was through the roof. I am soon to be 54 and last year I went to a new encrinologist who preformed an ultra sound on me. I had never had one. There is no thyroid!!Nothing's left! No tissue, which means my antibodies have feasted on my thyroid all these years and there is nothing left.

I do want to caution some of you if you have Hashi's and Sjogren's Syndrome, you are at a greater risk of developing Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I had both the thyroid disease and the Sjorgren's and developed a mean case of Non-Hodgkin's with a prognosis of 6-8 months to live.

I just want these folks to be on top of that. I'm not sure why they follow in three's like that but that is what my rhuematologist told me.

Now I don't have to worry about getting cancer on my thyroid nodules, since I have no signs of a thyroid anymore. And also to alert experts, doctors, know-it-alls that yes, autoimmune diseases can be serious and I am still showing thyroid antibodies in my blood. I'm not sure what that means. Are they looking for their next organ victim? I don't mean to scare anyone, just trying to have a sense of humor, but I am going to ask that question, even if I get laughed at. I don't care, it's my body that's gone astray, not theirs!