I had my appointment on Tuesday and everything went well after he finally made it to my exam room. I love that he takes up so much time with his patients but that also equates to a lot of waiting sometimes!
He asked me how I was doing and what has been going on since the last time I saw him. I told him about the Rocky Mountain and Ehrlichia diagnosis and why I didn’t believe I really had either of them. He agreed with me after I finished all of my explanation.
Then I gave him my current symptom list and told him if he could just make the brain fog go away, I would live with everything else on the list (and it was a full page). He handed me back his own list of hypothyroid symptoms and said “you match this list exactly”. I looked over it and he was right.
So then we started looking over my latest lab results. Before I went to see him, I had gone through and written notes all over my reports. “This marker could be low due to 1, 2 or 3” or “This low marker combined with this being mid-range means XYZ”, etc. He was reading all of my notes and said “Wow, I’m impressed that another doctor took the time to actually write out all of these notes and didn’t use conventional medicine standards to interpret some of the results – these notes are right on!”
I got a big grin on my face and told him the notes were mine and based on my research. 🙂
He asked me how I was doing on my gluten free diet and I said just fine and I’ve gone dairy free as well. He said you’re better woman than me! I just laughed but had to admit that giving up dairy was WAY harder than giving up gluten.
I can’t remember if I have mentioned this but when I went to my regular doctor about the rash, the NP asked me if the pulsing in my stomach had always been so obvious. I was like I don’t know, I guess? It is really obvious, you can actually see it pulsing when I am laying down. So I asked him to check it just to be sure it was nothing to worry about. He asked me to stand up and said “Well, you’re skinny so it’s going to be much more obvious with you anyway”. Wow, you probably could have seen my smile from a mile away – I have never had a doctor refer to me as skinny!!
He checked it and said it was fine, especially when paired with my blood pressure, which is low. Then it was time to work out a new treatment plan.
Anemia
My ferritin level is 26. From my research (and he agreed), it should be above 50 at a minimum. My total iron binding capacity was also below the optimal level as well as my total iron. These numbers were all “in range” but he said just because it’s in range doesn’t mean it makes you feel as good as you could if it was different. If you’re in school, 70 & 100 are both passing scores but the student who made 100 obviously grasped the material better than the one who made a 70. Even though they’re both passing scores it doesn’t mean the 70 is good or where it should be.
Makes sense to me! So he told me about a supplement to start taking called Hema-plex. It has Vitamin C in it so you don’t have to worry about drinking/eating something with Vitamin C when taking it. It also has B vitamins, folic acid and a whole list of other stuff. It’s plant based so it’s suppose to be easier on your stomach. I’ve taken it twice now and so far, so good.
Hypothyroid
He said I am definitely showing all of the signs of being hypothyroid. I told him my biggest concern was with the brain fog because that was a major symptom for me with the Lyme. He said he absolutely believed I was having classic thyroid symptoms and it wasn’t Lyme related.
He said he wants to increase my dosage of thyroid meds gradually. Right now, I take 30mg of Armour in the morning and 30mg in the early afternoon. He told me to dose up to 60mg in the morning and 30mg in the afternoon. Then after a few weeks, go to 60mg and 60mg. After a few more weeks, if I still feel the need to increase, then I can go up again to 90mg and 60mg.
I reminded him that previously when I was taking 60 & 60, my levels went crazy and he backed me off. He said that I was on Cortef then (for adrenals) and it augments the thyroid meds. So you don’t have to take as much thyroid medication. But when you remove the Cortef (which needs to be done if possible) then you generally have to increase the thyroid medication again to stay in balance. My dosage has been DECREASED since I stopped Cortef in July so that’s probably why I’m having all of these symptoms again.
He also wants me to do a saliva test again just to make sure that everything is in line there once and for all. I still haven’t started it. I will probably do it this weekend – it’s easier to do it at home versus at work.
Finally I asked him about B12 shots. My pharmacy has been backordered and I haven’t been able to get it. And the only way my B12 level has stayed in range is with a B12 shot every week. He said he had them and I could get it after he drew blood for all of the blood work. I thought I may bypass that since I had just had some levels drawn but no dice! I think he ordered a bunch of other stuff because she drew 7 vials of blood.
When I went back to the room to get my shot, I sat down on the table when she came in. And she said oh no, this goes in your butt/hip area. I said okay, I usually just do them in my arm at home. She gasped and said doesn’t that hurt? I said yes and showed her the bruises on my arm. She said no, no, no….you won’t even feel it when I do it here. And sure enough, I didn’t feel ANYTHING. So guess where my shots will be from now on? And why didn’t anyone tell me that?!
So now to start upping my meds. I went to 60mg in the morning on the Armour starting on the 27th and I started the iron on the 28th. I’ll wait two weeks before I up the Armour again. The thing that tends to go away pretty quickly when my dose starts getting to the right level is my hair falling out. That started again a few weeks ago and I was so disappointed. I’ll be happy to have that stop again! And hopefully, the brain fog will get straight again and I’ll quit waking up constantly in the middle of the night. I’m also hoping my stomach will get straightened out and I can possibly add back dairy!!
I go back to him on September 27th for him to see how I’m doing and he’ll go over all of the results from this time – the saliva test for adrenals takes forever to come back! When I heard I was going to have to wait another month to get results, I was very happy I had the other blood drawn the week before!
We’ll see how this goes! Hopefully the increase in meds will take care of everything!