Why I prefer natural, my story

[Guest guest]

I've been expressing my opinions rather strongly the last few days, and I

don't want to put anyone off by that. So I'd like to explain why my

opinion is so very strong.

I'll try to make this brief.

I went to the doc, mostly, cuz I was losing weight like crazy. I'd just

started a new job for a vending company and shortly after getting my

uniforms my boss commented that they were hanging on me, was I on a diet?

He ordered new uniforms, two sizes smaller, when they came, they were a

bit loose.

I went to the doc, he did three different tests on me for diabetes, all

were negative. He told me that I was 'too fat to be sick' and sent me

home with some pain killers. See, if I didn't eat enough I got headaches

so bad they'd drop me to my knees. I was eating all this extra junk food

at work and dropping weight, getting headaches if I didn't eat. I was a

body builder with a BMI of 21 %. I dropped 40 pounds, in 30 days... and

the doc told me that I was 'too fat to be sick'. Told me to go home.

10 months later I was eating non stop. Stopped sleeping so that I could

stay up to eat. I was barely maintaining my weight and eating everything

I could lay my hands on. I took expired product (chips, cookies, candy,

etc) out of the dumpster, by the case, at work to eat. I was stopping at

all you can eat buffets every day of the week, twice on Saturdays and

Sundays. The day I couldn't lift my arms to open the side doors on my

truck, I made another appointment with a doc.

This time they sent me to an orthopedist. A bone doc. To find out what

was happening to my shoulders. She came in and asked me to take off my

shirt so that she could watch my shoulders and arms. She moved her arms

and said 'do this', I did. She moved again and said 'do this', I did. We

repeated again and she asked about my periods, I'd not had one in ten

years (I was in my early thirties). She asked several more questions as

she picked up my chart. She said that I was in thyroid storm. She saw the

notations in my chart from the last time I was in. The comment 'too fat

to be sick', notations of symptoms of hyperthyroid, classic, text book

symptoms of hyperthyroid! She went storming out of the exam room and down

the haul to the other doc... basically she reamed him a new posterior

orifice.

She came back and said that she'd be sending me to the hospital, she was

having some blood drawn to verify, but that I was in thyroid storm and

need to go in right away.

That afternoon I was at the hospital, being told that I had to swallow a

pill of radiation, or die. I was told that I had to sign a piece of paper

releasing them of any and all liability for giving me the radiation, or

they wouldn't give it to me and I'd die.

I took it. Then they told me that because I didn't come in soon enough to

get proper treatment that I might still die, and it was my fault.

I spent the 6 months waiting to see if I had any thyroid function left. I

got so hyper that when they tested my reflexes she'd bonk my knee and

then do a slow ten count before my leg kicked.

The next two years were spent trying to get my body to accept Synthroid

without getting sick. They finally got me up to 200 mcg. I was told that

that was the largest pill that they made and they couldnt' give me

anymore.

I'd gained 200 pounds. I used to be able to bench press 250 pounds and

leg press 400 and now I was having trouble at my job. Where I used to

pick up and carry 3 cases of pop I was doing only one.

Over the next 8 years I saw a bunch of other docs, each time my job down

sized and I was out of work I found another job, less physical work, less

money, new insurance, new doc. They tested me and gave me the same 200

mcg. Never adjusting, never changing. Never caring.

I was fatter cuz I was lazy and getting older. I was in pain cuz I was

fat and getting older OR just a woman and making it all up.

I got a bad foot. So bad that I collapsed at work (whole long story) went

in to the doc the next day.. He gave me a poke and a prod and said that I

had Plantaar Faciitis because I was fat. Gave me a little plastic cup to

put in my shoe and a note to give to my boss that said I had to have sit

down jobs for the next two weeks or he'll pull me out of work on

workman's comp. I was told that this was an injury for life, from being

fat.

I lost that job and ended up on crutches.

No job, no insurance, no meds. Crutches to walk. The woman that used to

heft 3 50 pound sacks of dog food on her shoulder and hike it up a flight

of stairs now needed crutches to go pee and couldn't carry a sack of

flour.

Ever gone on a job interview on crutches? Ever told them then you had to

leave your last job cause you couldn't walk well enough to do it anymore?

Any wonder why no one would hire me?

Lost my home, and everything in it.

In July of '02, after reading about how much better natural thyroid was

for soooo many people (in the newsgroups) I found a source. Nutri-Meds. A

friend loaned me the money to order a bottle. The bottle came on computer

fair weekend, it, like many computer fairs before, was visited while

using crutches to walk. The next computer fair, they come to town every

three months, the crutches were in the car, in case I needed them.

Did you catch that...? Three months, just three months, and the crutches

were along 'in case' I needed them.

10 years on synthetics, under the care of numerous docs, blood tests

every year. I ended up homeless, jobless and on crutches.

3 months on an Over the counter strength of natural thyroid, even though

I had ZERO thyroid function and had been pretty much without meds for

nearly three years, I was off crutches.

In the last 34 months.

Crutches are now used to dry home made pasta. Plantaar Faciitis is an

injury that is common to athletes and heavy folks and when it's a

physical injury from that it's life long chronic pain. BUT it's also a

symptom of chronic long term hypothyroidism. And with proper replacement

hormone goes away. Mine went away.

I have ZERO chronic pain.

My hair is growing back.

My nails are growing again.

My basal body temp has come up from the low 97s to a healthy mid 98

My resting pulse rate has come up from 50 to mid 70s

I can sleep through the night

I can go grocery shopping with the cart trailing behind me, or waiting at

the end of the aisle instead of hanging on it, trying not to fall down.

(ever gone grocery shopping with crutches?)

I can carry all my groceries in from the car, by myself AND carry the

frozen stuff down to the basement freezer AND put the other stuff away.

I can shower, shampooing my hair TWICE, and putting in conditioner and

not fall on my face from exhaustion.

I'm not constipated anymore. I can go potty everyday. With no cramps, no

tearing, no bleeding. No tears (ever been so constipated for so long that

when it finally passed you tore yourself?)

I laugh, and I giggle and I dream and I smile.

I WANT to go do stuff now.

I finally started losing weight

This list goes on. The point is that even under the care of docs that

knew zip about proper thyroid care I ended up one of the walking dead. As

I learned more about thyroid care, medication options, self monitoring,

charting and common sense I brought myself back.

Now.. want to hear something that TOTALLY sucks???

I had my labs done in February, through Health Check, for the first time

since '97. I've had all these amazing improvements since getting on

natural (I'm now on Time-Caps brand of prescription grade natural) and

wondering if I'd get any better, I still haven't gotten every thing back

that I'd wanted but was trying to resolve myself to the fact that I'd

been abused for over a decade and was a lot older, I may not get much

more back..... So, what did the labs show?

TSH .333 (.35 - 5.5)

Free T4 .9 (.8 - 1.8)

Free T3 2.9 (2.3 - 4.2)

So. Once on replacement hormone TSH doesn't mean squat (unless there are

other issues).

The Free T4 value shows that I'm at the bottom end of the range, that

means it's too low, it should me mid range or above.

The Free T3 value is also at the low end of it's range, since it should

be at the top end of it's range, or slightly over.... it's too low.

That means that the replacement hormone that I'm taking is not enough.

That means that I have to take more.

Some math. To make this even more astounding.

Natural thyroid has 38 mcg of T4 and 9 mcg of T3 per grain.

T3 has four times the biological potency of T4.

So, one grain of natural is biologically equivalent to

38 plus (9 times 4) or 74 mcg of T4

I was taking 3 1/2 grains of natural thyroid at the time my labs were

done

3.5 times 74 is 259 mcg

For a decade none of the docs gave me more than 200 mcg of T4. Now, I'm

on the equivalent of 259 mcg, show VAST improvement with a lot of room

for even more improvement and I'm still hypo, proven by both symptoms and

labs.

How horrible were my numbers for all of those years?

Now.. here's another kicker. As a body builder I held a steady weight of

277 with a BMI of 21%. During my thyroid storm I dropped to 220 a large

percentage of the weight that I lost was muscle mass. Within the first

six months after RAI I gained weight, fat weight and shot up to 311 then

started creeping up from there.

Synthroid is dosed at a rate of 1 mcg per pound of body weight for full

replacement.

I had no thyroid. I was on full replacement. I started out at 220.. shot

up to 311.. over the years the weight continued to creep up over the 400

pound mark... how far? I have no idea I haven't got a scale. All that

time they NEVER gave me more that 200 mcg.

I was chronically underdosed for all those years, my labs were not

considered, my symptoms were not considered. Many of the docs refused to

weight me, they just wrote grossly obese on my chart.

This was not one doc, or two, or three or even four. I can remember the

faces of 6, there may have been more. This was not one clinic, or even

one insurance carrier. It was several. It wasn't even all in one county,

it was three. All of them around a major metropolitan area, Minneapolis,

Minnesota.

The doc that diagnosed my Plantaar Faciitis was a doc in the very same

small clinic as the doc that was currently treating my thyroid. They

never talked to each other. How small a clinic? Oh... about the size of a

six car garage. A member clinic of a rather well known national 'chain'

of HMO type carriers (not gonna say the name, it could get me sued)

This is why WE have to learn this stuff.

This is why WE have to stand up for our health, our quality of life, our

lives.

This is why WE can't just say okay and blindly do what we are told.

This is why so many of us are here, in this group and many others like

it. Why and I have the ThyroPhoenix website. To give other people

the information that they need to make informed decisions about their

health care as it relates to thyroid dysfunction, adrenal dysfunction and

doctor dysfunction.

Learn, ask questions, read, understand do what you have to do (no matter

how many times you have to ask something to be clarified or repeated)

until you understand this stuff and know what is right and wrong for YOU.

We don't all need the same type of med. Some do great on synthetic,

others do better on natural, some do a combination.

Some are getting enough med, some not enough.

Some need vitamin and mineral supplements to help their body with the

things it's missing, to help it heal.

Some, like me, have to be picky about how and when to take their meds (I

have to dose 7 times a day - I think in part cause of the damage

resulting from so many years of underdosing and my having zero thyroid

gland function)

But the only way to know what you need to feel the healthiest that you

can is to learn.

..... and never give up.....

Topper () *who wishes more than anything that I knew this stuff

fifteen years ago - I'd still have my home. I wouldn't be sitting here

crying right now, thinking of all the things that I've lost because of

this*