Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To the Associate Dean,

I am appealing to waive the appeal deadline to request credit standing for the courses I completed in my 2nd year of university, the 2018-2019 academic year.

The reason I am appealing is because during that particular year, I was suffering from a condition called hyperthyroidism caused by Graves¿¿ disease which met its height at the end of that year in which I underwent surgery to have my thyroid gland removed. Supporting documentation from my endocrinologist is currently being requested and will be added to the appeal once it has been received.

I was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism when I was 16 in the second semester of grade 11. At the time, I was put on a medication known as methimazole to treat my overactive thyroid gland. However, after a few months, this treatment no longer became an option for me because the medication was having adverse effects on my liver function, a known side effect of methimazole. I am including this info because my only other options for treatment provided by my doctor were either surgery, which would surgically remove the thyroid gland, or a radioactive iodine pill, which would kill my thyroid gland outright. Both options would leave me requiring medication every day for the rest of my life, and as such, neither option was particularly appealing to me.

I decided instead to pursue a naturopathic route which involved a strict diet and various supplements in order to control my overactive thyroid. While it required adherence to a strict routine (i.e. no foods with wheat, barley, potatoes, white rice, soy, eggs, and more), it did manage to control my overactive thyroid and I was able to function more or less ¿¿normally¿. I carried this routine with me throughout grade 12 and into my first year of university.

However, when I entered university and began living away from home for the first time, it became much harder for me to maintain the strict routine required by my naturopathic remedy, and my adherence to the routine began to falter. As a result, my symptoms of hyperthyroidism began returning, and it became far harder to do schoolwork. Hyperthyroidism is a chronic autoimmune condition that essentially raises the metabolism in your body to beyond healthy levels. What this meant in practice is that it became much harder for me to focus and concentrate, because my mind was racing thinking about other things, it became much harder for me to maintain a proper schedule, as I would get tired much faster than other individuals and require naps throughout the day just in order to continue functioning, and during tests and other big assignments, my heart would pound at around 130-150 beats per minute because my nervousness and anxiety would plague my thoughts, making it hard to focus on the given assessment. Taken altogether, my ability to perform my studies in a way that was representative of my best efforts was severely hampered by the fact that I was unable to meaningfully focus and concentrate on the material I was being taught and I was physically unable to maintain a lifestyle that would help support my studies.

Despite these setbacks, I still managed to achieve what I thought was a good GPA in 1st year, which is why I did not change anything heading into 2nd year. I think a large part of the reason I was able to still do somewhat well in first year is because a lot of the material was repeated from my last two years of high school in which I completed the IB program, so I was not required to learn or put that much effort into my courses. However, when I reached 2nd year, courses began requiring new info, and as such my prior knowledge became less useful. It was in this year when my hyperthyroidism truly began to affect my studies, as I began to get grades lower than I ever had before, even failing a few courses. My health deteriorated, and I lost my ability to maintain any kind of normal schedule. I started sleeping through lectures because I was so tired, and studying for tests or exams the night before became a common occurrence because I could not force myself to concentrate on the assessments at any point before then.

When I went home during reading week of my 2nd year, it was noted that my thyroid hormone levels were out of control and my doctor told me that surgery was required. As such, in the summer following 2nd year, I underwent surgery to have my thyroid gland removed. My doctor told me that I would ¿¿feel like a completely different person¿. While I felt a slight difference initially, over the course of 3rd and 4th year, I realized just how truly debilitating my condition was. I can tell you now that I really do feel like a completely different person, namely in terms of my energy level and my ability to concentrate and focus on tasks for far longer than I ever would have been before. This difference reflected in my grades as well; during 3rd and 4th year I was able to maintain a 3.9 GPA. This is part of the reason I am requesting this appeal now ¿¿ I recognize that this request is past the deadline. However, to be honest, I had not realized how my condition affected my studies the way that it did until now. Because I had been living with this condition since I was 16, the effects of hyperthyroidism had become normalized to me to the point where I had convinced myself that I was the reason for my poor achievement in 2nd year, that the experience I had in 2nd year was the same as everyone else¿¿s. The positive effects and turnaround from the removal of my thyroid were gradual, and it is only now when I look back that I realize truly how devastating hyperthyroidism was to my studies.

I have just completed my fourth year at Queen¿¿s University, and I am happy to say that I am and will be free of any thyroid issues moving into the future. However, my poor achievement in the 2018-2019 academic year in which I did have hyperthyroidism is negatively affecting both my chances at pursuing higher levels of education and my access to potential job opportunities. This was an extenuating circumstance that I feel was beyond my ability to control, which is why I am requesting to appeal the grades I received in that year to credit standing. I recognize that this is past the appeal deadline, but I honestly could not have told you how debilitating my condition was to my studies until now. I would greatly appreciate if you could accommodate my request.

Sincerely,
Brent Leung
20049374