3/3/06 Hypothyroidism

EDIT as I compile these for the new blog: This is a post from my Live Journal when I was discovering that my symptoms were consistent with hypothyroidism and was in the process of getting formally diagnosed. It is interesting how I initially felt that this was something that I couldn't treat with nutrition and that I would be on meds for life. How ironic that in the end my cure was in fact nutrition and I've never taken any meds.

Of course the comments about fighting the status quo and the mainstream are interesting too, LOL. SCD as a treatment for our issues is definitely a fight against conventional medical thought! I didn't know just how big the fight I would sign up for would turn out to be in the end. :-)

March 3, 2006 Hypothyroidism: A post I wrote a week or so ago, but didn't have access to post until now (we have internet connection ago, woohoo!!!)

So I finally have the answer to why I feel so old lately. Why my hair has become so dry and tangly, why my skin is so dry it hurts, why my feet and hands are so cold all of the time, why I’m so damn tired and sluggish and live on coffee, why I gained 50 lbs and went from a cute and curvy size 10 to a floppy and jiggly size 18 in a 10 month period, why my hips and knees ache and burn, why my muscles feel so weak, why my complexion sucks, why I don’t feel hungry until many hours after I wake up, why my temperature is freakishly low, why I’ve struggled with depression and anxiety, even why I made so much excess milk when breastfeeding my babies……. It is all my thyroid. I have hypothyroidism. Apparently it runs in my family….mom, grandma and countless others back through the generations.

So now I’m reading everything I can on the subject. This battle isn’t going to be fun. Managing dosage levels is an ever-constant battle, you have to take over for the feedback system that your body would do itself if things were working right, constantly adjusting dosage up and down to optimize relief of symptoms. And it is going to take a doc who is up to date and well experienced in treating hypothyroidism or willing to become so. I’m hoping my current doc works out because I actually like him.

Me, the guru of nutrition, who believed that nutrition could prevent and/or cure almost any ailment, is now going to be on meds for the rest of her life. But at least I will get my life back. At least I know why I feel like an old lady all of a sudden. Turning 30 for me was like suddenly turning 50. I’m hopeful that with proper treatment, I can feel 30 again. But what lies ahead in trying to find the right meds and dosage to make me really feel better? How many docs will I go through? Can we afford what I need to get normal? How long will it take to reach some level of relief?

It is hard not to feel daunted and depressed by all of this. Why does everything I do have to be such a battle? Why can’t I do anything normal? It seems that at every turn of my life I’m finding some forgotten truths about things that the mainstream just ignores or is only beginning to re-embrace. Childbirth, breastfeeding, baby-wearing, co-sleeping, nutrition, the list goes on and on. At every turn I’m encountering some alternative knowledge that makes sense to me and I have to battle and fight to do things my way. This is no different. I can’t sit back and let my hypothyroidism go undiagnosed; I have to find a doc who understands; I have to fight for treatment options and full optimization of my life. Once again I’m fighting a battle, challenging the status quo, fighting the mainstream, only this time I’m so tired and worn out that I fear the fight isn’t in me anymore.

When did I sign up to walk the path of a wisdom keeper anyway?

Update 3/3/06: well, no surprise here, this is going to be even a bigger battle than I originally thought. My TSH is technically within the range of normal for people with healthy thyroids. Only problem is, according to my reading, you can still exhibit hypothyroid symptoms in that normal range. Dr. F did say he might start me on thyroid treatment even if the TSH comes back normal (because my symptoms are so consistent with low thyroid), but I don’t know how far he is willing to go in experimenting with different drugs and dosages, and I know he flat out won’t prescribe me Armour, which many people claim is the one that worked the best for them. (armour isn’t synthetic and comes from pigs and is viewed by most docs, including F, as just a waste product from the slaughterhouses). All, I know is that my symptoms are clearly hypo and I won’t stop searching for someone who believes me and who will experiment with all the treatment options with me. There is a list of doctors that know that TSH doesn’t tell the whole story and believe that Armour can make a difference in some people when other meds have failed, but none of them are on my insurance network. If I hit a dead end with Dr. F, this is going to get costly. Next step will be to see if I can get him to check antibodies for autoimmune thyroiditis.