Who was taking astragalus? My current dilemma

[Guest guest]

HI,

I can't remember who was taking astragalus! I bought some and I'd only been

taking it a few days when I became sick. (Only me! LOL) Actually I didn't

think I was sick. Maybe it was working to SOME degree. I wasn't tired or

anything, only extremely achy. I thought it was from all the work I " d been

doing because I'm not used to it. (This is a big joke around my house since

I haven't been able to function for over 20 years due to what I thought was

depression, then last year was told it was ADD inattentive type, which made

sense from what I've read). However, within 3 days of treatment with

Bi-est, testosterone and progesterone creams, I began to get to work around

the house. Hallelujah! Well, even my HANDS were aching. (Hey, I moved 2

dressers, a chest of drawers and nightstand out of the house by myself. I'm

54 years old and had never moved any furniture out of the house by myself

before! Thank you, Hypothyroidism.LOL) Back to the illness, I was achy

probably 4 or 5 days before I began to feel tired. Then I noticed the lymph

node on the left side of my neck was swollen and tender. So the day we were

to take my son back to Fort Bragg (before his tour of duty in Iraq), I went

to the doctor. I had to go to Urgent Care because my regular doctor never

has an opening until next week. Know what I mean? This doctor did a swab

test of some sort, said I was negative, gave me antibiotics (amoxicillin). I

asked him if he knew for sure it wasn't viral. I don't like to take

antibiotics unnecessarily, especially since between last New Years and now

I've had 3 rounds! He agreed with me and told me to wait a couple of days

and if I'm not any better to get it filled. Well, you better believe I went

to Fort Bragg with my son! By Friday I didn't feel any worse. But by Monday

I was. It seemed the swollen gland was bigger and I was beginning to get

some soreness when swallowing. So I started taking it. After 5 days, I was

slightly worse. Oh, yes, I had a temperature at night too, 100-101. So I

called. They wanted me to come in, since the doctor had not given me a

diagnosis. Then what it boiled down to, I couldn't see a regular doctor

until next week (surprise), so they wanted me to come to the Urgent Care.

And guess who was on duty! So I said since he'd seen me already, couldn't

he phone me something else in. So they did. I got Augmentin. Well, after 5

days on this, I'm about the same. (Night before last I slept 15 hours! I

couldn't believe it. My husband woke me when he came home from work). Now I

told the doctor the first time I saw him that when I cough, there's blood in

the mucus. Yuck. I should have warned you that was coming. Sorry to be so

gross. But I don't cough alot, thankfully, but while I was watching a movie

and started laughing, I began coughing and I could taste the blood.

Something else I'm wondering about that I didn't think to mention to the

doctor is that the month prior to getting sick, I've been cleaning a room

that hadn't been cleaned in 10 years. This was my mother's room and I'm

making it into my craft room, FINALLY. It was so full of stuff, it was piled

to the ceiling to the door. You couldn't even get in there. We have had a

mouse problem. Still trying to get rid of them. But you can imagine, in that

room there's mouse droppings everywhere. When I'm sweeping or vacuuming, I

wear a mask. But I wasn't wearing gloves. I just kept washing my hands. (I

know everything you read says not to sweep or vacuum. For the life of me, I

can't imagine how to get rid of mouse droppings, especially on a rug, if you

don't sweep or vacuum. Any ideas?) So in the back of my mind, I'm wondering

if I have caught something from the mice. Next time I see a doctor I'm going

to ask about it. My husband says that problem is mainly in the western U.S.

But I can't help but wonder.

Oh, back to the astragalus. I've been taking the recommended dose. Oh,

shoot! I can't find the bottle. Hope I can find it when I fix my pills for

the week. Anyway, I didn't know if I should have increased it. I did

increase the echinacea while I was taking it. I " ve increased vitamin C,

zinc, and beta carotene.

Sorry, this is long, but I'd appreciate ANY comments. Sorry if I grossed you

out. I'm very embarrassed about the mouse situation. But I realize due to my

health problems and thanks to the wonderful doctors out there, that I've had

no choice. I'm just thankful that now I'm beginning to be able to deal with

it all.

Oh, speaking of doctors, I think I told you my primary care doctor wants me

to see an endo because my TSH was too low. Holy Cow! Heaven forbid! So I

searched through doctors on my insurance list for DO's. I chose two internal

medicine DO's who happen to be women and sent them a letter asking if they'd

be willing to treat me with Armour, not worry about a suppressed TSH, and

allow my free T3 to go to the top or over. If it works, and I like the

doctor, I might switch to her as my primary care doctor.

Thanks,

in Va.