Why this software program exists

In 2012 I began to experience strange symptoms. An avid tennis player, I went home one day to discover that all my toenails were blue and subsequently fell off. No more tennis. I then began to experience restless legs during the night and night sweats, waking up with a pounding heart and drenched in sweat. Eventually, the muscle symptoms became so bad that I was unable to sit down for a month without severe pain. Later, I would suspect that I was suffering from myofascial trigger point pain syndrome.

In 2013 the I experienced severe facial flushing and wild swings in my blood pressure. By September of that year, I noticed palpitations while in bed. Two months later, in November, I began to suffer from severe insomnia, which would be confirmed by sleep study that I was only able to get three hours of sleep per night.

I went to a doctor, had lab tests done, and one of those tests, a TSH test which is used to determine thyroid function, showed me to be above the normal range. It was at this time I learned just how ignorant many doctors are regarding thyroid diagnosis. After three months of being treated primarily for high blood pressure (I had insomnia, of course I’d have elevated blood pressure) I was discharged by this doctor and told “I’ve done everything I can for you…I recommend you see a psychiatrist.”

I endured almost two years of misery before learning more about my illness, ordered my own thyroid function tests in October 2015, and through reading and getting help on various forums, I began to work on a software program to track my journey. I was dealing with a complex situation where it appeared my decreased thyroid function was causing a surge in cortisol, as I had symptoms for both. I had to be on the top of my game to get treated properly. I needed a way to document my own treatment so that a doctor would take me seriously.

Thyroid Tracker Pro has been in development since 2014. It’s a program designed for thyroid patients by a thyroid patient. I believe that the use of this program will help patients to overcome the resistance of doctors by helping those patients produce documentation that the doctor can then use to provide reasonable care without spending so much time worrying about liability.