Catching Up

On one hand, May was a slow month for progress.  On the other hand, getting through May meant conquering some heavy issues that have been lingering for awhile.

In May, Dr. Stadler and I started addressing secondary issues - important issues that couldn't be tackled without complete assurance that my intestinal track was healed and absorbing nutrients properly.

On May 10th, Dr. S ordered a battery of lab tests to determine my progress. Here's a rundown of the tests he ordered:

1. Comprehensive Metabolic Panel
2. Lipid Panel
3. Glycated Hemoglobin Test
4. Assay Thyroid Stimulating Hormone Test
5. Vitamin D
6. C-Reactive Protein
7. Free T-4
8. T3

At my May 16th appointment, we discussed the results and since it's been several weeks since I actually discussed the results with him, I'll give you the bottom line.  I'M DOING AWESOME!!

In almost every test, I had met or exceeded his expectations for progress.  With the exception of my cholesterol test (the lipid panel), I made great strides.  My Vitamin D levels bottomed out a few years ago at 17.  When tested in January, the level was up to 22.  In May?  My Vitamin D level is at an all time high of 58!  Simply stated, what I've been doing is working.  The high level of Vitamin D is a strong indicator that my leaky gut is healed.

Also up to satisfactory levels is my C-Reactive Protein.  If you remember from an earlier post, the previous results from this test indicated I was at risk for diabetes, heart disease, heart attack and the possibility of other auto-immune disorders.  While the functional levels are not where Dr. S would like to see them, they are at the top of a "normal" range.  This is progress.

With this level of progress, it was time to start really tackling my adrenal fatigue, fatigue in general, mental fog and problems sleeping.  He started me on a hormone cream called Adrenostim.  The primary purpose of this cream was to regulate my cortisol levels so I wouldn't wake up exhausted everyday and/or have my energy bottom out in the afternoon.  I started using it on a Thursday and noticed results within a few days.  

Since then, I've also started taking a mega dose of B-12, a cholesterol-lowering supplement called Cholestar, and two supplements to help regulate neurotransmitter activity (brain fog and sleep patterns) - Acetyl-CH and Gabatone.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was able to introduce beef back into my diet.  It was a welcome change but I'm careful to only eat it once or twice a week.  It tastes good and I did miss it but I noticed that it tends to clog up my digestive system just a bit and honestly, the ways I was used to eating it are not a part of my diet anymore.  

Now that I've pretty much mastered my diet, I've noticed subtle (or in some cases, not so subtle) changes that happen when I eat certain things.  Iodized salt seems to be a huge trigger for me.  It gives me a major headache, it makes me retain water and the bloating can last for days.  This is one of those ingredients that doesn't have to be specifically labeled on products - manufacturers only have to list "salt".  They don't have to tell you it's iodized.  So, unless the packaging says "sea salt", I try to avoid it.  Also, bananas for breakfast make me nauseated.  Although they are supposed to be a low-glycemic fruit and shouldn't spike my blood sugar, for some reason it feels like it does.  Or, maybe bananas and fish aren't meant to be eaten together for breakfast...

My weight loss stalled in May as well.  I lost and gained the same 3 pounds during the whole month.  June is looking good though.  As of this morning, I've lost a total of 34.8 pounds since February 16th.  I can't even remember the last time I was in this weight range.  It was at least two and half years ago.  It feels so good to put on clothes that used to strangle me and have them feel loose.  Even better getting a text a from a friend I hadn't seen in a few weeks telling me that I looked "radiant".  

Perhaps the most significant thing I did in the month of May for my health was go back to talk therapy.  In a tender-mercy moment, I reconnected with a therapist that helped me years ago.  Going back to her was like meeting up with an old friend and talking as if no time had passed at all.  I believe now, more than ever, that everything happens for a reason and I found her again at the exact right time.  Working with her has been just as imperative to my health as working with Dr. Stadler.  Both have become an integral part of my healing process - both emotionally and physically.

I realize, as I hope you do too, this is my version of Hashimoto's Disease.  I've met so many people that don't even have this disease but somehow, through our connection, they've been able to help me heal and I've been able to help them in some way.  Knowing that I am not taking this journey alone is so comforting.

2nd Runner Up

The 2nd most asked question is not really a question but more of a statement, "You must be feeling so much better!" (the exclamation point included).

To which I reply as if it was a question, "Not yet." (no exclamation point included)

That is the short answer.  No.  I'm not feeling "so much better".  In fact, some days, I feel worse than ever.

Right now I'm going through a hyper-thyroid phase and it's wreaking havoc on my system.  Heart palpitations, extreme cold and intermittent sleep patterns.

The long answer is that there are a lot of positive changes happening and the program I'm on is working.

For instance:

1. I'm losing weight.  This is a HUGE change.  If you haven't seen me in person for awhile, the difference is quite noticeable.  Maybe I'll post a recent picture.  You can really tell in my face.  When I look back at pictures from the last few months and years, my face is puffy.  Not just puffy as in the natural puffiness that occurs with a weight gain but puffy like the Stay-Puff marshmallow guy.  Looking back, you can see the effects inflammation had all over my body.
2. There are more days between headaches.  As I've mentioned before, I'd gone years with some form of a headache every day.  The last time I remember having a headache was Monday.  Today is Thursday.  That is a big deal.
3. There's really no delicate way of putting this...I don't poop as much as I did before.  I was under the impression that the more frequently you have a bowel movement, the healthier your system is.  Negative.  A healthy digestive system should eliminate waste 1 or 2 times every 24 hours.  I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that my system was not healthy.  It's getting there.
4. My appetite is controlled.  I don't feel hunger and I rarely have cravings.  I learned this morning though that when I do, it's not my mind playing tricks on me.  It's a physiological reaction.  Yesterday I had the worst craving for a Diet Coke and some Cheez-it crackers.  I didn't give in to the craving and instead, ate a good serving of snap peas and drank some water.  I told Dr. Stadler about it and for that, I got a high-five.  I recognized that my blood sugar was low - my brain was actually producing a request for endorphins (I was a little stressed at work yesterday) and I replied with a hefty dose of protein and fiber.  I did exactly what I supposed to do.  Yay me!  Three months ago, I would have tried to feed that request with gluten and sugar laden foods and, as a result, was causing more damage than good.
5. I feel stronger emotionally about the choices I'm making with regard to my health.  I'm getting excellent care and education about how to treat my body.  This makes all the difference.

Just as he does every week, my doctor makes it all better.  Dr. Stadler is extremely qualified in his practice but more than that, he helps me realize all of the good things that are happening.  He is a doctor, cheerleader, counselor and guru all rolled into one.  I'm grateful every day for him and Red River Health and Wellness.

I still have at least four months left on my program with him.  I really can't wait to see what happens.

My New Favorite

So, I continued to see Dr. Gage at Red River Health & Wellness on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Each visit, we'd review the plan, I'd have a list of questions, he'd give me answers and never fail, at each appointment I'd ask if I could start exercising again.

The answer was always no.

Because my adrenal system is so compromised, any amount of exertion puts me at risk for a number of concerning things including increased fatigue (as if I could be any more tired than I already am?), a heart attack and extreme difficulty in actually healing my adrenal system.

On March 7th, I met with a doctor in the practice I hadn't met with before. Dr. Stadler. By this time, the results from the stool sample test came back. I had a leaky gut - officially called intestinal permeability. My system wasn't absorbing the necessary nutrients or calories from the food I was eating. Combined with a low level of Vitamin D and the number of food sensitivities I had, my cells just kind of went haywire and instead of using the energy of the food I was consuming and eliminating what I didn't need, everything I was eating was just turning into stored fat.

Dr. Stadler felt that given the fact that I had so many things to "fix", he needed to take a day or two to regroup, meet with the other Doctors to review my case and decide where to start first. That was a Thursday. He said he'd call Friday afternoon or Monday at the latest.

He called Monday with a plan. We were going to start with healing the intestinal permeability. If we didn't start there, any other treatment would be pointless. An impermeable gut is needed to ensure the adrenal system could rebalance and heal properly. Can't fix the one without fixing the other first.

Dr. Stadler also expressed concern that my headaches weren't lessening. He felt that it was exoskeletal as much as it was internal. So, from then on, at every appointment, he wanted me to have at the very least, a 30-minute massage (tough requirement, I know), a program assessment, a chiropractic adjustment and an 8-12 minute turn on the cervical decompression machine.

He promised that if we didn't have positive results, he would take me out of the program and give me my money back. He had confidence though that that wouldn't happen. Working together, we would see results and I would have more good days than bad days.

The next day was a Tuesday and he and I met. From then on, Dr. Stadler has been the only doctor treating me in the practice.

Any doctor requiring me to get massages on a a weekly basis was my new favorite.

The Day Before the Day Before Valentine's Day

February 12th - it was a Tuesday.  I was anxious to know the results of my blood work analysis.

I thought I was going to meet with Dr. Gage again but I met with Dr. Redd.  Dr. Redd is the one that was in the commercial I saw.  When he walked in, I wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing.  Were my results so bad that only he could explain them?

For the record, and because I forgot that they ordered additional blood tests after my first visit, here's a list of the blood tests that they analyzed:

Thyroid Stimulating Hormone
Anti-Thyroid Antibodies
CBC
CBC, Differential
Comprehensive Metabolic Panel
Free T-4 (Free Thyroxine)
Hemoglobin A1c
Insulin, Fasting
Lipid Profile

I was a little worried that I didn't really have Hashimoto's Disease.  I'd been told so many different things over the years, I was starting to question every test result.

Turns out I did, in fact have Hashimoto's Disease and a number of other things to be concerned about.

I want to start out by saying that having a functional physician analyze lab work is a bit different from having a practical physician analyze it.  Did you know (because I didn't) that when you are given lab results, you're given results specific to that lab and the set of people from whom blood is drawn at that lab?  I'm not sure why that's not general knowledge but it should be.  For a really good explanation, click here.

Based on the test results, I was pre-diabetic, at risk for heart disease and a heart attack, had adrenal fatigue, blood sugar problems and alarmingly low vitamin D levels.  Without treatment, I was also at great risk for other autoimmune diseases such as Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus, Type-1 Diabetes and Crohn's Disease.

Mostly, I had a great deal of inflammation.  Inflammation is not uncommon for Hashimoto's patients.  Inflammation manifests itself in joint and muscle pain, acne, digestion issues and a number of other physiological imbalances.  Hashimoto's was causing the overproduction of antibodies and destruction of good tissue which resulted in systemic inflammation.

Another thing Dr. Redd was very clear about - this was my version of Hashimoto's Disease.  Autoimmune diseases are very complex and highly individualized.  Hashimoto's in one person is not the same as Hashimoto's in another.  If you're reading this because you've been newly diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease or suspect you have it, please know that this is my version.  Yours will be different.

For me, we needed to figure out a couple of things - what was causing the inflammation and overproduction of antibodies.  More than likely, I had a gluten intolerance.  A simple blood test would determine that for sure.  We also needed to figure out if and how imbalanced my hormones were.  A saliva test would give us that information.  And finally, we needed to know if my gut was actually absorbing as it should.  Dr. Redd suspected it wasn't.  A stool sample was needed for that.

Dr. Redd believed my liver and pancreas were also dysfunctional.  The liver is a natural detoxifier.  If it's not functioning properly, it can't get rid of the stuff that you don't need.  In case you're wondering, it's called methylation.  Methlylation is what occurs when your body takes one substance and turns it into another, so it is detoxified and can be excreted from the body.  In my case, my body didn't know what to do so it was just holding on to everything.

After the testing was complete, I was to start on an anti-inflammatory diet and several supplements to begin the systemic re-balancing process.

While we were reviewing the diet and supplements, Dr. Redd asked me how I heard about their clinic.  I told him the story about watching SNL late one Saturday night (for obvious reasons, I left out the part about Adam Levine) and seeing their commercial.

He laughed.  He said that he absolutely believed that I saw the commercial but that to his knowledge, they didn't run their commercials at night.  Or on that channel.

Part Two

I left Dr. Gage's office with a lot of information.  One of the things he emphasized was the fact that Hashimoto's disease is an autoimmune disease, NOT a thyroid disease.  Often times practical physicians treat it as a thyroid disease because there is no treatment for Hashimoto's itself.  There is only the management of the "triggers" which increase the overproduction of anti-thyroid antibodies.  Dr. Gage's mission is to help people like me determine the "triggers" and manage them.

The primary way to manage the triggers is through diet and nutrition.  Go figure.  What we eat can affect the way we feel.  Huh.  I wanted to be shocked but the truth is, I wasn't.  Not one bit.

Later that week I was scheduled to meet with my regular Doctor, Dr. Sutton.  It was my four week follow-up and anti-depressant check.  I had stopped taking the Wellbutrin the previous Sunday after a MAJOR panic attack.  I woke up that Sunday morning feeling a bit off.  I showered and started to get ready for church and my heart started racing and I felt so shaky.  After a frustrating episode with two pair of pantyhose, by the time I got to church, I was in tears.  I texted my sister (my personal webMD) and described how I was feeling and she said it sounded like an anxiety or panic attack.  I'd never really had one before and didn't know that's how terrible it felt.  I left church early and came home and cried my eyes out, took a warm bath with lavender oil and spent the rest of the day in bed.

I called Dr. Sutton's office on Monday morning and the on-call doctor recommended I stop the Wellbutrin.  So when I met with Dr. Sutton on Thursday, I told her what happened.  She changed my meds and added Xanax.  Awesome.  More drugs.  Another 4-6 weeks before I'd feel "normal" again.

While I was there, I asked her about the Synthroid again and was she sure I should be taking it?  After my conversation with Dr. Gage, I wanted to get a feel for how she'd feel about me working with these non-traditional (alternative) physicians.  I also wondered if the panic/anxiety I was feeling was because I had too much thyroid - which can happen in surges with Hashimoto's.  Her response was what I expected based on what Dr. Gage had told me.  Dr. Sutton ordered a blood test to check my thyroid but she was sure that my levels were still in the "normal" range.

When I asked her if I could figure out what was triggering the overproduction of anti-thyroid antibodies, would I be able to go off the Synthroid?  Her response was that there was no way to control them.  My best and only treatment was to take the Synthroid.  I left her office sad and frustrated.  In my heart (and mind), I believed what Dr Gage told me.  I knew there had to be a way to manage this disease with something other than an drug I didn't need yet.

I looked forward to my next appointment with Dr. Gage.  February 12th couldn't come fast enough.

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.