It’s possible the biggest obstacle Gena Lee Nolin once faced was looking good in a tiny red bathing suit. “Those suckers were really cut high!” she reminisced the other day. “I’m like, Whoa, Nelly!”

Gena was one of the gorgeous blondes who pranced on the beaches of Southern California pretending to save lives on the “Baywatch” TV series in the ’90s. What an awesome body she had to have to rock one of those suits.

That was before she went on to become a mom. That’s when her body started to betray her. “I noticed something wasn’t right,” she told me. “A lot of people just said, ‘It’s the baby blues.’”

Two babies later, she knew she was dealing with something bigger. “I’m like, this is taking over my body. I cannot function,” she said. “It’s hard for me to take care of my babies. I had the 1,200-calorie a day diet, and I wasn’t dropping a pound. I was getting bigger. My face was bloated. My eyes, my eyelids ... my hair started getting really brittle and dry and falling out.”

Doctors weren’t helpful.

“I got angry. I got to a point where I knew I was better than this. I knew I couldn’t live this way anymore and that I was going to figure it out,” she said. “I got on the Web. I started doing my research. I read blogs. I did anything and everything. I literally Googled my symptoms, and thyroid, thyroid, thyroid, everything kept coming up.”

Gena went on to learn she has Hashimoto’s Disease, an autoimmune disease where her body attacks her thyroid gland like it’s a foreign body. The long awaited diagnosis meant getting on the right medication and getting her life and body back.

It’s a journey she doesn’t want to take alone. So she’s throwing a life preserver to the thousands like her who might be facing the same frustrating symptoms. She headed to Facebook with her “Thyroid Sexy” page and community.

“We have doctors. We have naturopaths. We have experts helping out and contributing experts,” she said.

And it’s a place for Gena and others to go on the days they don’t feel so hot, which still can happen. “It’s so comforting,” she said.

And empowering. Gena says she had to fire a few doctors before she figured out the tools she needed to get well.

“We have a list of things to ask your doctor. We have the labs to ask for,” she said. “So you have some information. Knowledge is power. Walk in, really know what to ask for, get the labs done, and be open to medication.”