Camilla Luddington is opening up about her health.
The 41-year-old Grey’s Anatomy star revealed that she has Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, aka Hashimoto’s Disease, on the latest episode of her iHeart Podcast Call It What It Is with former co=star Jessica Capshaw, which dropped on Wednesday (August 6).
In the episode, Camilla she’s relieved to get the diagnosis as there’s now a reason why she’s been feeling a certain way, shared the symptoms she felt, what really got to her, and the medication she’s on.
Keep reading to find out more…
Camilla explained that she found out about her diagnosis after going in for a yearly bloodwork test.
“My doctor was like, ‘Everything looks great except this one little thing,’” she shared. “And I remember hearing the words ‘autoimmune disease’ and thinking, ‘What the f—k.’ And then being told that I had something called Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism and that it was very common.”
Per Mayo Clinic, Hashimoto’s Disease is “an autoimmune disorder affecting the thyroid gland,” which is “a butterfly-shaped gland located at the base of the neck just below the Adam’s apple” and “produces hormones that help regulate many functions in the body.”
While she was initially “a little freaked out” about the news, she was then relieved.
“I felt like I had the answer for something that I’ve been knowing is going on,” Camilla said. “And I have health anxiety, so there was a part of me that was like, ‘Am I gaslighting myself?’”
As for her symptoms, Camilla explained that she’s always been tired, but it got to a certain point where it she thought she had chugged some Benadryl.
“I thought, like, I have two kids, I’m in my forties. This is what the forties is. You know, I have I have jobs to do. Maybe I’m perimenopause the thing,” she said. “But it got to the point where, like by eleven and I felt like I had like chugged some Benadryl and I needed to nap. It didn’t matter how much sleep I’d gotten the night before. There was no pushing through the day like sometimes you can. You know, you’re tired, but you can push through it.”
“I remember, you know, back when I used to really be working out all the time, which now makes sense why I’m like I haven’t been. I would feel energized after I workout, and if I worked out in the past year, it would just take me out to the point where I was like, I can’t work out, like it’s just I’m going to be too tired after,” Camilla explained. “But the thing that was really strange, actually, was the week before, I was waking up and my face and my hands were really swollen. So I was like very confused as to why I was suddenly looking so swollen in my eyes, my rings where I was having trouble taking my rings off.”
Now, she is taking medication and taking necessary steps to ensure she remains as healthy as can be.
“Now I’m on a medication called Levothyroxine. I started on the lowest dose of that, and I had to have blood work every six weeks, and it’s the test to see me getting back to normal,” Camilla shared.
Of the effects of the meds, she said, “They said I would start to feel the effects of it, but I’m still not normal, like I got tested maybe three weeks ago. I definitely feel the effects, like I started, I want to say a couple of months? Yes, I took a couple of months and I returned to Barry’s Boot Camp. I did it all last week.”
“I’m on the road to recovery. It’s going to be a journey,” she added.
If you missed it, find out if Camilla will be returning for the upcoming 22nd season of Grey’s Anatomy, which would be her 14th season on the show.