How Adam Levine Changed My Life

So, a couple of weeks went by.  I was faithfully taking my medications.  If you've ever taken Synthroid or the generic equivalent, you know that you're supposed to take it an hour before eating.  I knew this from the get-go.  This medicine was a pain to take.  I found myself setting the alarm early, getting up, taking the medicine and then going back to sleep until it was time to actually get up and get ready.  It didn't take me an hour to get ready and I didn't want to wait an hour after getting up to eat.  I know it was mostly a mind game but hey, it's what I did.

One Saturday night (January 26th) I read on Twitter that Adam Levine was going to be hosting Saturday Night Live.  As any good girlfriend fan would do, I set the DVR to record the program.  I know he's a bad boy but I can't help it.  That voice.  That hair.  Those tattoos.  Ahem.  Anyway, it turned out that night I had a hard time falling asleep, so I turned on the TV to let the vision of Adam lull me to sleep (mmm...that face).  Somewhere in the middle of the program, a commercial for a local clinic specializing in Hashimoto's Disease came on.

WHAT THE WHAT?????

The clinic had a website.  I spent an hour reading the articles and wishing it wasn't past midnight so I could call my sister and tell her what I'd found.

Let me emphasize something here.  If you know me at all, you know that I head for bed around 10:00 p.m. and most nights I'm asleep by 10:30, 10:45 at the latest.  From time to time I can't sleep (which will be explained in a future post) but it's not that usual.  For me to stay awake through Saturday Night Live is significant.  It was like I was meant to see that commercial.   Even if I had watched the recorded version on my DVR, I would have skipped through the commercials altogether.

Monday morning I called the Red River Health and Wellness clinic.  Turns out they offered free consultations and asked if I was interested.  "Is Adam Levine the lead singer of Maroon5?", I said (to myself).  Of course I was interested.  I scheduled an appointment for Wednesday, January 30th.

I went to the appointment on Wednesday.  Turns out the clinic is in the same office park that I work in.  THE SAME OFFICE PARK!!!  I drive by the clinic every.single.day on my way to work.

There was a bunch of paperwork to complete - health history, health questionnaire, etc.  Basically a dossier on everything wrong with me EVER in the history of me.  I met with Dr. Gage.  He and the other three doctors in the practice are Chiropractors.  [If you don't believe in the benefits of chiropractic health, then you probably won't enjoy reading anything else I have to say.  I do believe in the benefits of chiropractic health.  I also believe in trying to find natural ways to heal ourselves and our bodies.  Now, that doesn't mean I don't believe in practical medicine - I do.  I just always want chemically produced/manufactured drugs to be my last option.  Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I'll continue.]  Although they are chiropractors, they are also certified by the American Board of Functional Medicine - they are highly trained in immune and endocrine disorders.

We started talking - he was trying to assess how long I'd had Hashimoto's Disease.  I was trying to decide if they were legit or quacks looking to take my money.  Going through my history, we decided that it was possible that I'd had this disease for 8-10 years.  All of the symptoms and complaints I'd suffered meant something.  I wasn't crazy or hypochondriac.  Everything made sense and I didn't even know why.

I left my most recent blood work results with Dr. Gage - they would do an analysis for free.  I set up a follow-up appointment for the next week.  It gave them time to do the analysis and it gave me time to decide if I wanted them to help me manage my auto-immune disease.

Before I even walked out the door, I knew that I did.