To which I responded, "little Freddie boke his leg, but they put a
cast on it yesterday, so he is allright and should be expected to
lead the pack in the foot races in gym today as he always has
before, ....  right?"  (Except I wasn't QUITE as fluent then, this one
has been polished a bit with re-use.)  Then I went home and
wrote up a short summary of Hashi's for his teachers.  I ran it
by our doctor, who approved.

In this note I pointed out that Hashimoto's is a LIFE-THREATENING  
illness.  Without treatment, it will normally progress through
myxedemia to a lingering, painful death.  As it did for centuries
before any treatments were known.  In this way it is no less
severe than juvenile onset diabetes.  Unlike diabetes, where
the replacement hormone must be injected, Hashi's can be
treated with oral doses of hormone.  

Just because we have relatively easy to administer replacement
hormones does not change the severity of the underlying disease.  
And just like juvenile onset diabetes, where changes in eating habits,
life-style, or internal changes in the organs can change the requirements
for replacement, so does the various forms of thyroid disease expose
one to the problems that the dose you take today may not be the right
dose a few months from now, or next week, or even tomorrow.    

So, we informed the teachers, Thomas has a life-threatening illness
which fortunately CAN be managed.  But one which will require
constant vigilance about changing dose requirements throughout his
life.  Vigilance which it would be nice if the MDs would take
care of, but that can NOT be depended upon -- too many do NOT.  
So vigilance which Thomas must supply himself, for we will not be
there to watch over him for all his life.

SO although Thomas was only in 3rd grade, we were training him to
assume the management of his life-long life threatening disease, and
we expected the school to support and not to casually frustrate through
ignorant sayings, our efforts to teach Thomas how to manage his
health.
(Again, what I sent to the school back then was not as polished as that.)

It is unfortunate but common that people judge based solely on what they
CAN see.  A one-legged person, with crutches, parks in a HP space,
nobody blinks.  Take the same situation, but the person stepping out is
(apparently) whole (severe, crippling asthma is hard to see) and even
though the vehicle has the HP tags there will be disapproving frowns.

Hashi's and Grave's, neither leaves an easily visible trace that others
can SEE so trivially as does a missing arm or leg.   And a lot of people
like to believe if they can't SEE the reason you have problems, then you
don't have problems you're just gold-bricking.  There is little you can
do with that crew.  

Find those who can be supportive, and try to enlist their aid in watching
over you for signs that your dosage is off.  Tell them the dose
requirements
can shift.  That you can't always tell when you are sliding into
zombie-land.
Your car may have a gas gauge, but you don't have a thyroid gauge!
If there are NO such people where you work, then maybe you should
think about moving to a new workplace.
--
Kevin G. Rhoads, Ph.D. (Yes there is life after CIH)
T_Rhoads@NO_SPAM.MSN.com
krhoads@NO_SPAM.cmpnetmail.com