Monday, January 1, 2007

I think I finally found a good doctor!

I found him at http://www.thyroid-info.com/topdrs/index.htm

He is a holistic M.D. He doesn't do thing exactly the way that I would. Mostly just does things at a slower pace, but it is all headed in the right direction, and I have a lot of HOPE!!!

I saw him for the first time two months ago. I told him about my past experience, and told him that I had raised my Armour dose on my own. He said that was probably the right thing to do, and raised it even more. Most doctors would probably have lowered my dose.
Anyway, I went home with two home tests (stool and saliva). The stool was to check my system for any possible viruses, and just a general check. The saliva test was to check out my Adrenals. (Again, most doctors would not have even acknowledged that there could be a problem. Most of them thing adrenals either work, or they don't. They don't realized the might be working, just not very well. Just like the thyroid.)
Anyway, then I went back in 6 weeks for my blood tests, and then finally saw him again a few days ago.

Here were my test results.
My TSH is so low, other doctors would be scrambling to decrease my thyroid dose, but my free T4 is on the lower end of normal, and T3 is in the middle. That just doesn't make sense. According to my TSH, those should be above normal.
TSH= <.03 reference (.47-5) Actually, new research shows that the range should be .3-3 many labs just haven't changed yet.
Free T3= 2.5 (1.7-3.8)
Free T4= .9 (0.7-2.0)
reverse T3 is .25 (.18-.51)

The saliva tests are what really showed what is keeping me down. Keep in mind that cortisol should be high in the morning, and lower at night.
7:30am - .12 (.27-2.06... 1.5-2 would be ideal)
1:05pm - .16 (.03-.77)
5:30pm - .04 (.03-.56)
11PM - <0.03 (.03-.5)

So instead of being high in the morning, and going down during the day, I am almost flatlined, either under or at the bottom of the "normal" level. It pretty much means that my Adrenals can't keep up, and are working so hard just to keep me going, that I can't handle much stress. (It is also the reason why it is SO hard for me to wake up in the morning.)
Now, I don't find myself flying off the handle or anything, but I physical stress is hard for me to handle, and I feel overwhelmed very easily. DHEA is high 318 (14-277) DHEA/Cortisol Ratiox 10,000 is 2,650 (35-435) I am not quite sure what that means yet, but it is obviously not where it is supposed to be.

Here is a graph showing where "normal" is (green) and where I am (black line with circles.) You can see where the doctor drew a line about where I should be. (Sorry it is not more clear, our scanner is not hooked up, so I had to take a picture of it.)
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

When he started explaining what that meant (which I pretty much knew from all the reading I have been doing, and from forums.) I started crying! It was happy tears! LOL I was so happy to finally have something to point at! T
he plan is to take some Adrenal supplements and see if that helps. If it doesn't, then he will put me on Hydrocortisone. I want to feel good now, but at the same time, I am more than willing to try it a more natural way first. That is my inclination anyway. I am pretty sure that the Hydrocortisone will be needed though, from what I have been reading.

My GI stool tests showed that I have too much bad bacteria, and not enough good bacteria in my gut, so that can work against my immune system, and is probably connected. Not sure exactly how that works, but it explains a lot of things... (like me being so hungry sometimes, and digestion problems.) The supplements he has me on for Adrenal support are Metagenics Adrenogen http://www.metagenics.com/products/detail.asp?pid=112
and Metagenics Adreset http://www.metagenics.com/products/detail.asp?pid=211

For the gut bacteria problem he has me on
Metagenics Ultra Flora Plus DF http://www.metagenics.com/products/detail.asp?pid=86
Xymogens IgG 2000 DF http://www.xymogen.com/feature_formulas.asp
Florastor http://www.florastor.com/

(Also on my own I have been taking selenium for my thyroid (supposed to help in converting T4 to T3) and 3000MG of vitamin C for my adrenals... along with a multivitamin, super B complex and A and E. There are others I want to take too, but haven't yet. I do think that when I started taking the C and selenium, I started to feel a bit better.)

I go back in a month for a follow up. :)

3 comments:

4MySales said...

Laura,

I hope you feel better and are having success at getting your thyroid under control.

Let me know if you have any questions about the Metagenics products. I am one of their probiotic specialists and may be able to help.

Be well,

Barrett
http://stopchronicdisease.wordpress.com

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Roy D. Slater said...

I have a friend who has been using metagenics adreset and it has helped him out a whole lot. He swears by the stuff, I think I'll have to get some of this and try it out for myself.