Totally great doctor

[Guest guest]

Today I had an appointment scheduled with a doc that runs the health

clinic that I go to to see my naturopath and psych. She is an OB-GYN

so I figured I'd see her for my annual exam. Well, I was so totally

pleased with her and left her office really excited so I have to

share my news. This medical center has its basis on Functional

Medicine, which means that no matter what the doc's specialty is

they look at the whole person as opposed to a particular disease or

diagnosis. Dr. , the one I saw today, is one of the founders

of the center. In any case, they don't use insurance at this place

so that they can spend whatever amount of time with patients that

they want and not have to follow insurance rules. They'll give you

information to submit yourself to insurance companies. They don't

take Medicare though so that's out for me from that respect. In any

case, I pay with Time Dollars which I earn through selling stuff

usually.

So, my appointment was scheduled for one hour. We began with her

taking a brief history which ended up being not such a brief

history. She focuses on the whole body and once I told her about

the CFS and my thyroid stuff that is going on she got really excited

and started explaining all kinds of stuff. She is really very well

versed on the thyroid stuff as she had the same type of thyroid

cancer I had. I told her that the doc can never keep me on a

constant dose of thyroid meds and that it is always having to be

adjusted. She said that is because thyroid cancer folks don't act

like typical patients who are hypothyroid, except that docs treat

them the same way. Evidently if you have a thyroid, even if you

take meds because it isn't working right, the normal fluctuation in

your thyroid hormones to balance them with the other body hormones

still takes place. With no thyroid, as in my case, I get a constant

amount of thyroid hormone and therefore my body can't add or

subtract thyroid hormone as needed daily to match the fluctuations

of the other hormones. So, depending on when I get my blood tests,

I can show too much or too little thyroid hormone so my dose keeps

getting adjusted even though it is the other hormones that really

are the issue.

In any case, she was the most informed doc I have seen or heard of

as far as CFS goes. She spent well over an hour talking to me and

answering my questions and all and never even got to the exam. She

said to come back again for that AND to finish our discussion. She

was able to answer my questions re my inability to stand and walk

without getting sick and all. So, she said that the first thing I

need to do is balance out my estrogen levels and so I am to take

certain supplements for that. Once my endocrinologist finishes with

the cancer stuff, then she said she can work with me on adjusting my

thyroid meds. My meds, Synthroid, only work on T4 which is

converted to T3. So, she said some folks can't do the conversion

and so I might need to take T3 as well. She explained what the docs

are trying to do with my thyroid levels re the cancer better than

any endocrinologist I've ever seen. She talked a lot about adrenal

fatigue and cortisol levels and all. Her main goal is sleep. She

said the only time people can build adrenaline is during sleep and

if you don't sleep then you can't replenish what you use. So, she

gave me some ideas for that. One is to take 1mg of Melatonin in the

late afternoon. Also to add another supplement around bedtime and

assorted other stuff. She likened my adrenal function to that of a

95 year old.

She recommended a particular book called The Edge Effect. This book

breaks people down into different types according to certain

transmitters. It gives some sort of quiz to determine which type of

category you fall into and then what types of things you can do to

help your deficiencies. So, I'm to do the quiz and let her know

the numbers I come up with. Evidently the book isn't the easiest to

read, but she said the information in it is really good.

She also said that exercise is important for people with CFS as

well, but that the amount of exercise you do is the issue. So, she

said that my getting up from my chair and walking outside might be

the total that I can do for that day. She said the way to know what

I can do is that I can start with something easy, like walking, and

I can walk as long as I can breathe through my nose. She said as

soon as I would need to open my mouth for more air, then that means

I'm done with the amount of exercise I can do. I've never heard it

explained like that before. She also said I could use a pulse

monitor and exercise till my pulse is 90 and then stop.

I'm looking back at the instructions she gave me and I guess the way

she described it is that the main goal is to sleep to increase the

amount of adrenaline I have available, and to decrease the amount of

adrenaline I use. So, to decrease the adrenaline she said you have

to eat before you get hungry, exercise the amount you can, keep

stress down using whatever stress reduction techniques you want, and

avoid foods you are sensitive to. And I guess that working on the

estrogen has something to do with helping the adrenals as that is

one thing I'm supposed to start with. She said I want to turn down

the level of estrogen in my body to reduce inflammation and also to

improve my estrogen metabolism.

A couple of websites she suggested are these:

www.wilddivine.com and www.heartmathinstitute.org

Evidently these two sites do a really good job of helping folks

figure out how to live within their energy stores or something like

that. I know the first has something to do with biofeedback use and

knowing your energy levels or something like that and is set up like

a game to play to teach you how to do this.

Anyway, she ended our appointment saying that she doesn't have the

answers to everything, and that in fact she has more questions than

answers, but that if I am willing to work with her then she will try

to help me. She said I might get frustrated and so might she but

that she is stubborn and curious and that she is not one to give up

looking for answers as long as she has questions so that she would

stick with me as long as it takes. She said working with folks with

issues like mine isn't easy or straightforward but that she kind of

keeps people like me in her mind and anytime she learns something

new that would apply she keeps track to mention it the next

appointment. So, I have to make another appointment and I don't

know how soon I can get one as time dollar appointments are

limited. And I'm not clear as to whether I can kind of consider her

my primary doctor or what. But it sounds like she is planning to

work with me long term and such so that is really good. At this

point I sort of feel like maybe I don't need to go to s Hopkins,

but I think it probably is still worth going and doing all the

conventional medical stuff for whatever information it gives, and

then continuing to see Dr. on an ongoing basis.

Sandrea