Spending Ramadan with Hashimoto’s
This is the first year that I am spending Ramadan while officially being diagnosed with Hashimoto’s. Before it began, I talked to my specialist about taking medicine and how to go about doing it. He told me that since I take it in the morning anyway, I can just take it at suhoor time and go about it that way. With Synthroid, you have to be on an empty stomach for four hours beforehand and then not eat anything for half an hour after. So, it has been a bit of a struggle to eat during this month.
At around 10:30 or 11:00pm, I need to stop eating so that I can have enough time during suhoor to take the medicine and then wait the half hour needed before eating until fajr comes. So it is a delicate balance between sleeping and eating. However, surprisingly, that is the least of my concern. While preparing for this month, I had asked my doctor about the medicine situation for which the solution was easy, what I did not expect was the energy crash. And it is tough.
Some days, I am sitting on the couch soaking in the recitation of the Quran, flipping from one page to the next with confidence. Those days, I am making plans on continuing this habit for the rest of my life. And then the following day, I find myself lying on the couch, unable to move, exhausted, unmotivated, lacking energy to even walk over to the kitchen to prepare for Iftar. My chickens are neglected, my cats are neglected, and my faith is neglected.
It is rough.
How am I getting through it? Maybe it is because I know that this is not permanent. That this day will end and tomorrow has a chance of being as productive as before. Knowing that Allah (swt) demands from me the basics and if that is all I can achieve, then that is good enough indeed. Or maybe it is still made easier by not having responsibilities of children and extended family, of Iftar parties and halaqas. Maybe it is my mind that refuses to give into the negative spiral living with a chronic illness can create. I allow myself to feel bad for a day and then I pick myself up again the day after. It is okay if my clothes have been in the dryer for five days – as long as I have clean underwear, I am going to be fine.
Isn’t it amazing how your mind begins to work with you to cope with the problem at hand?
I had made Ramadan goals this year, as you can read on my post here, while giving myself room to breathe. The goals were basic with options to do more, should I be able to. I am grateful for being guided towards that. As long as I am doing the basic things, I feel like I am doing something. And that counts.
