on being dead before doctors will do anything for you

December 6, 2004

If you don't want to read my long-winded " purge " , the moral of my

story is to trust your intuition, leave no stone unturned, be your

own best advocate,read everything you can and don't wait 3 years to

fire your doctor just because he seems like a nice guy. Trust

yourself and persevere! The facts are that hypothyroid and nerve and

muscle problems are all connected, Dr. 's protocol for Adrenal

fatigue is worth looking into and if you have muscle, joint or nerve

problems, it might be worth consulting with a physiatrist

I thought my recent experiences with being hypo might help someone,

so here goes. I started on Armour in May, and because of the

ridiculously low dose and advice given to me by my doctor I had a

very slow uphill climb. I did however, get great advice on this

forum which made the slow climb a little faster. Even though I

started with this doctor 3 years ago with complaints of fatigue and

joint pain, and now was flat out on my back most days from fatigue,

and had to use a medical intuitive to point the way to hypothyroid,

he was still a little reluctant. While on the Armour in the

beginning, I questioned whether I was hypoadrenal also, but because

my saliva test came back with a normal curve (although the curve was

at the very bottom of normal) my doc said oh no. I ignored him,

dabbled a little with Cortef, but didn't like the bloated feeling I

got so I stopped it. On my last visit with him he effectively

planted seeds of doubt in my mind, expressing his concern that my

TSH was so suppressed and that was not good. When I told him most

forward thinking doctors ignore the TSH he told me he has gotten

more conservative and doesn't agreee with this approach. Of course

when I initially got to a decent dose of Armour in the summer and

told him I felt so much better he thought that was good, too.

In September I started feeling odd. Had some unusual symptoms of

fatigue and wierd joint pains, depression, irritability and TMJ

symptoms. I felt fatigued and on edge at the same time. I decided to

decrease my Armour, becuase I read more about dosing on Dr. Lowe or

Dr. Rind I think, and I felt immediately better for about a month.

I felt like I had somehow accumulated too much thyroid. By the way,

my ferritin tested out " normal " at 30 according to my doctor, and

when I asked about iron supplementing he sighed and said " You could

take Floradix, but it is so hard to get iron into a menstruating

woman " I declined his advice, and took a much stronger iron to

build it up. So I theorized I couldn't handle the Armour because I

didn't have enough iron. Well, by the end of October I started to

feel like crap. Extreme joint pains, stiffness,worsening nerve

irritation, depression. I was confused and again decreased my

dose. BIG MISTAKE!!! Because it is getting dark and cold here, I

should have increased my dose instead, so for the past month I have

been slowly getting better after doing 3 (or 5) steps back.

Oddly enough, this lead me to a new awakening. My joint pains and

arm numbness got really bad during this 3-step-back time, so in

desperation I consulted with a physiatrist. When I told him I was

hypo, he said he agreed with me that while he wouldn't classify me

as having fibromyalgia, I have " fibromyalgia-like " problems and of

course the thyroid was contributing to neuropathy, it is very common

to see the two problems together. I was really blown away. I

immediately searched " hypthyroid neuropathy " and found many

interesting articles on Google. Seems only physically-oriented

doctors can see the connection on this one (ecept of course for

Doctors like Lowe, etc. Also, I wisely decided to do another

adrenal saliva test, which I purposely did the few days before my

period when I feel like crap even on the armour. And guess what?

It came back low, I have low adrenal reserve. I have started on the

Dr. protocol, drinking some salted water, using magnesium-

pantothenic acid-b vitamins and C at 2pm to ward off the extreme

fatigue I feel every day from 3 to 5pm, and it has started to work

immmediately. I feel vindicated, but oh so angry right now! I will

NEVER understand why doctors, who take an oath to do no harm, end up

doing so much by their conservative, non-helping ways.!!!!!

R.

December 6, 2004

Wow, , I REALLY appreciate emails like yours. It was also my

own story--trusting my OWN intuition rather than docs who told me I

had a form of Glycogen Storage disease, or a Mitchondrial disorder,

or a general Energy Metabolism Disorder that I had to live with.

BULL. My gut kept telling me otherwise--SOMETHING ELSE IS WRONG!--

tho it took years for ME to get to where I am today. NOT ONE DOC

helped me get to where I am today. NOT ONE.

Tell us--what was the decent dose of Armour that got up to in the

Summer? And I am assuming you were on the dose when those symptoms

appeared in September (fatigue and wierd joint pains, depression,

irritability and TMJ symptoms). Those latter symptoms sound so much

like mine when I discovered my Ferritin was rock bottom after I had

gotten up to 2 grains. You then stated that you decreased your

Armour (to what?) and felt better for a month. Then in October, you

felt like crap, so you decreased your Armour again, which you feel

was a major mistake.

Now you have discovered you do have low adrenal reserve. Amazing.

It'll be interesting to see how you do. Please keep us informed. Are

you saying that you are NOT on adrenal support like Cortef, and are

instead doing the salted water, using magnesium-pantothenic acid-b

vitamins and C?? I am very interesting in hearing how that goes.

How much Armour are you currently on? Did you raise it when you

started the above salted water, etc? Are you still on iron? What is

your latest Ferritin?

Janie

>

> If you don't want to read my long-winded " purge " , the moral of my

> story is to trust your intuition, leave no stone unturned, be your

> own best advocate,read everything you can and don't wait 3 years

to

> fire your doctor just because he seems like a nice guy. Trust

> yourself and persevere! The facts are that hypothyroid and nerve

and

> muscle problems are all connected, Dr. 's protocol for

Adrenal

> fatigue is worth looking into

December 6, 2004