-So, I'm a working mom.
I've been with Horizon
 for about four years
and been married to my husband
 Ben for about eight years now.
We have two beautiful daughters
Hayden and Harper
who are about five and eight
and we have a dog named George.
I was 26 years old 
when I became pregnant with Hayden
my very first child.
The pregnancy was rough.
Something just wasn't right.
I didn't feel like myself
but I kind of chalked it up to being pregnant.
But after I'd had her
I still continued to feel that nausea
that tiredness, a constant anxiety.
I couldn't have the thermostat 
at a certain number
because I was terrified 
of that number for some reason.
I kept every door locked.
I was so terrified that somebody
 was going to break into my house.
You really do feel like you've lost your mind.
I just remember looking in the mirror
and I said, "This doesn't look like me. "
My hair's falling out.
My eyes hurt.
My body hurts.
I'm getting angry
 at Ben for no reason.
I felt like there was something wrong with me
but nobody could figure out why.
A lot of people just know it 
as a thyroid disease
but it can mess with your emotions.
It can mess with your anxiety
 your sleep, your skin.
I felt extremely guilty
because I had waited 
so long to go to the doctor, sorry.
I wasted a year and a half of Hayden's life.
As a new mom, so paranoid, so not myself.
When I first got my treatment
 it was like night
and day when the thyroid 
eye disease really started.
It started out with extremely dry eye
sensitivity to light.
I think the one lowest point 
that I went through was
I remember waking up in the morning
and I felt like I had to peel
 my eyelids off of my eyeballs
because it just feels like a desert.
I cannot leave the house without sunglasses.
It hurts too much to drive
to play with my kids on the playground
to go to a baseball game.
It's a struggle, and it can be painful
but it's something you just have to deal with.
-I love my mommy this much.
My mum does a lot of our work 
and she reminds me of a super hero
because she's really special 
and I love her so much.
-Danielle is just a fantastic mother
very dedicated to our daughters
very dedicated to her job.
And, on top of that, I forget 
that a lot of time she's doing this all
with an illness that does impact her 
on a daily basis.
So, thinking about that
 it's just even that much easier
to admire what she does day in, day out.
-He's my best friend. It's nice to see him step in
when he sees me drowning.
I feel a little nervous about telling people
just because I don't want them to look at me
or treat me differently.
If it gives other patients the voice
then it'll make what I've been
 through the last eight years’ worth it.
If I can help put a face to a disease
then yes, I've done a good thing.
