A Bump In The Road

If you have read my previous blogs, you know I am on a journey to return my thyroid to functioning on its own without the help of medication. Hashimoto's, which my endocrinologist says I have, is an autoimmune issue. My endo stopped there and said "We found the problem, here's your medicine!". I am digging deeper to try to address the autoimmune response, thereby theoretically stopping the attack on my thyroid. It is my goal to prove to traditional doctors that thyroid disease can be improved, if not put into remission, with diet and lifestyle changes.

My endo is NOT on board with this. I literally had to beg him to lower my dose of levothyroxine this week because I am convinced I have too much thyroid hormone swimming around in me. I had this plan of eating gluten for a couple of weeks then getting my antibodies tested to see if there was an autoimmune response. He agreed to do the blood work to check my thyroid levels, but would not run the test for antibodies even though I specifically asked him to. He said it wouldn't change the management so there was no need. I didn't ask my chiropractor to do it because I thought my endo would. I was wrong. And I was so sick from eating gluten that I couldn't go a few more days to get more blood work done, so I just dropped it and will assume it is indeed autoimmune. That was a very frustrating experience! I ate all that junk food for nothing. The tests he did run came back in the "normal" range, he says my symptoms are not related to my thyroid. I disagreed. I don't think that went over very well.

Six days ago I began the paleo autoimmune protocol (AIP) I described in an earlier post. It has gone well so far. I already have more energy back and I have lost several pounds. I hit the fifty pound mark for total weight loss this week! Thirty more to go to my goal. I am eating great meals avoiding all the foods that could cause a gut trigger. I am not eating out, at all. Tonight's supper is poached salmon with lemon and dill, roasted carrots and roasted Brussels sprouts. I made kale chips the other day for snacks, and they are surprisingly good. I do want something sweet, but oh well. I have given up coffee with no ill effect. I drink hot herbal tea in the morning instead. No headaches! I stopped taking my Zyrtec and had a withdrawal I didn't expect. I broke out in hives and had intense itching all over. I have managed this with chamomile and lavender essential oils and it is much better. I have regained most of my movement in my shoulder thanks to physical therapy and should get released from that this week.

So, the next part of the journey is to continue AIP for twenty-four more days and take the lower dose of levothyroxine. I will be monitoring how I feel along the way. I am looking for the heart palpitations and overall jitters to end. Then I will know I am on the right track. I will get new labs run at the end of AIP and see if there are any differences, just out of curiosity.

Mentally I feel much better than I have been feeling recently. It is overwhelming to have so many different things wrong all at once and no one can connect the dots. I am my own best advocate and am educating myself so that I can have in depth discussions with my doctors and understand what is going on with my body. This is a team approach. My team consists of my primary doctor, my endocrinologist, my chiropractor and me. It is my goal to bring all three doctors into the same line of thinking by proving with my own body how lifestyle can cure what ails us better than medicine can. I don't know, we shall see...

Meanwhile, I am enjoying having the use of my shoulder back by paddling on the river near our house at sunrise and enjoying the serenity.

The Heart of the Matter

Waiting for test results can be very stressful, and this week proved to be no exception. The lesson learned from this week....don't have a test run on a Friday before a holiday weekend. 8 days later, I finally hear the results of the echocardiogram. Mild aortic regurgitation, atrial dilation and mild pulmonary hypertension. It sounds worse than it is really. The bottom line is that the heart murmur is being caused by a leaky valve and I have a high volume of blood pumping through my heart, causing increased blood pressure. This is certainly not something I want to let sit around and get worse, but there is nothing urgent right now and no need to see a cardiologist. These are all signs of being hyperthyroid. Have we heard that before recently? Yes, with the frozen shoulder issue. I see a pattern.

I talked to my doctor at length about autoimmune, my thyroid, and the gut connection. Doc is actually researching and experimenting around with Paleo himself, so he didn't think I was a complete nut job! I gave him the book "It Starts With Food" last year and it has sparked his interest in the connection with our diet and chronic illness and diseases. He is watching me as the "guinea pig" I believe and I am happy to oblige! He is not sure that he thinks I have Hashimoto's because the antibody tests he has run haven't shown anything. He also said that just means that for day they drew blood I didn't have a flare-up. He also wants me to have the nodule on my thyroid cut out, as it is suspicious to him even though the biopsy came back negative. I will agree to have the nodule removed only if they can take it and leave all of my thyroid intact.

I am making an appointment with my endocrinologist next week to discuss all this with him. I do not believe he is as open to the whole diet connection. I am going to ask to significantly decrease my levothyroxine dose. I have become pretty adept at assessing my body and I KNOW I have too much thyroid hormone swimming around in me. 

So this is my plan and I'm sticking to it.....next week I will make an appointment with my endo like I said above. At the same time I am going to my chiropractor and have him do some blood work for me. I want to look specifically at thyroid hormones T3 and T4, along with TSH, adrenal hormones and antibodies. He will also check nutrient and vitamin levels. Why my chiro and not Doc? Because he is easier to get in to see, I don't have to explain "why" to him, and functional blood chemistry is "his thing". I am going with a team approach on this. Why don't I just go with the functional medicine route and leave traditional medicine behind? Because I intend on proving to them the connection and that many of our chronic and life changing problems can be reversed or prevented by taking care of our gut.

I have spent the last week intentionally eating "normal food". I have had a hamburger (with the bun!), pizza, Chinese food, lasagna, Mexican...are you ready for this? I even drank.... A COKE! (gasp!) And I feel like crap! I did not enjoy the meals as much as I thought I would, but I did get a break from the kitchen. Why did I do that after working so hard the last year to not eat that stuff? Because I have a point to make and I want my blood work to show what this stuff does to us. Once I have the blood drawn early in the week, I will "detox" for a couple of days and let my gut rest. I will have a green smoothie for breakfast, drink a really good veggie broth during the day, eat a light dinner, and soak in an epsom salt bath each day. Following that I will begin the autoimmune paleo protocol for 30 days. Then I plan to repeat the blood tests.

One last thought....something else I struggle with is reconciling God's sovereignty in my life and my control over my life. I do believe with all my heart God is ultimately in control of everything, even the bad things that come along like thyroid disease. I also believe that He has given me a healthy body that I have helped weaken by my food and lifestyle choices in the past. By rebuilding my body I hope to bring glory to Him, not myself. I could not possibly have the will power to make the changes I have needed to make, and continue to need to make, without His hand guiding me. I can't imagine embarking upon this journey without Him beside me the whole way. I have had many people say they could never do this diet because they do not have the will power I have. That makes me laugh, because I have NEVER had will power before. Perhaps they don't have the security of knowing that through Christ all things are possible?