Since I was diagnosed almost 4 years earlier, what took me so long to make significant changes as I did in Summer 2017? Well like most, I was prescribed a magic pill of Levothyroxin when I was diagnosed. After a couple short months I noticed a huge improvement in how I felt. So that was that, take a pill daily and I can live my life happier forever, right?
I said I saw a huge improvement, but not everything went away. For example, heart palpitations never went away, but my doctor wasn’t concerned why should I be?
My indigestion was basically accepted to some degree. I had gone to the doctor for that and he of course told me to take an over the counter antacid. That didn’t help so he prescribed me a PPI (protein pump inhibitor). That also did not eliminate the symptoms completely so he recommended I go to a Gastroenterologist.
Nah. I decided to do more research. Did you know that indigestion remedies such as over the counter antacids and PPIs lower our stomach acids when in fact typically low stomach acid causes indigestion? Low stomach acid causes digestive issues. Seems counter productive.
I worked with a very good friend of mine who was a health nut and she recommended Good Belly probiotic drink. That was my introduction to probiotics. Drank that daily and bam!! The indigestion was gone.
I didn’t stick with it. I think we all have a tendency to feel better and after a while return to old ways. I won’t do that this time.
Well I should have learned a bit of a lesson with the indigestion/probiotic experience. What I put in my body on a more natural way helped me. But I still was okay with the daily pill. They even were able to reduce the mcg of my prescription from 125 initially to 75 so I took that as a good sign.
Early 2017 things started to change for the worse. I was playing single mom while my husband was out of town and run kinda ragged with my 3 at home very active daughters. I had 3 amazing job opportunities with flexibility that were perfect for my mom schedule. A couple of those jobs fell apart beyond my control (one of which was so dramatic it is silly). I didn’t understand how miserable and even depressed I felt after. Couldn’t really understand why it bothered me so much.
I felt more and more exhausted. Re: single mom role of three active daughters. Oh the taxiing!!! My eyes would feel so heavy as I drove that I was borderline worried I may fall asleep. Luckily I was driving mostly in town. Concerning and weird but I was just worn ragged I guess.
It really was the summer of 2017 that I had to start accepting (again) Hashimoto didn’t like to be ignored simply with a pill.
I had a feeling it was Hashimoto, so went to the doctor for some testing. As the tests were narrow scoped (only TSH, no antibody testing included) and “normal”, the nurse practitioner I saw of course diagnosed me with anxiety yet again. Eye roll. I refused, again, treatment for that.
I noticed things like milk started to make me feel bad. I went on a few vacations and one of which included a night out with my friends. It completely sucked because I felt so nauseous and just sick even though I wasn’t coming down with anything. I had had a delicious latte from one of my favorite coffee shops (shout out to Caribou coffee!!) The foo-foo drinks were my stress relief, but backfired now. That wasn’t cool, as my time with these friends out of state was my escape from stress of life too!!
Hair balls had never really gone away but the rate and size definitely picked up this year. Even my husband commented on his friendly hair ball greetings in the shower daily (I just forget to throw them away!!), but now had the addition of hair accumulation at the drain as well. Even with this and brushing I could still stand over the trash can and run my fingers through my hair and throw all the lose strands away for about 5 minutes.
Other symptoms raring and ready to show their ugly head included brain fog (I seriously was scared when someone I was working with mentioned something we had worked on the week before and I truly forgot about it completely), gassiness (the burping had become a not so funny joke in my house), restless legs returned, complete lack of motivation (I seriously felt like such a loser most of the time!), sudden desire to cry over nothing in particular, palpitations daily, heart racing suddenly at least weekly, almost daily headache on some level including migraines increasing in frequency, the “dead arm” while laying down, and the never ending non existent poop (I still am embarrassed to put that out to the world, but no holds barred here!).
Our last trip that summer included a visit to another piece of our family in another state. Luckily it was a laid back sit around with family type trip. My husband was there with us on this one (he wasn’t always). I can still picture us standing outside while he worked on repainting an antique light pole and I told him with tears I just don’t feel like I will live a long life.
That may seem an exaggeration to some but I truly felt like my life would not be long. I couldn’t continue to feel this worn down and miserable for another 40 hopeful years.
I had begun researching with the help of two expert written books: Root Cause by Izabella Wentz (she is my idol in all of this!) and Adrenal Thyroid Revolution by Aviva Romm. I learned that once a person has an autoimmune disease they are more likely to get another in their lifetime! There are more than 100 other autoimmune diseases including such horrible ones as Celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Type 1 Diabetes, Lupus, and Fibromyalgia. For a more complete list refer to https://www.aarda.org/diseaselist/.
Heck no!! I can’t let that happen!
I made the decision that trip I was going to make significant changes when I got back home. I vowed to find a doctor to change my prescription to one more recommended by fellow Hashimoto’s patients, natural dessicated thyroid (NDT). I also vowed to try and heal myself with a restricted diet plan called the autoimmune protocol (also known as autoimmune paleo), or AIP.
We returned home Sunday, Monday I shopped and planned, and Tuesday I dove in with the diet. I will say the first few days were hellish: I cut out sugar and caffeine (well 3-4 cups down to a small half cup since couldn’t go cold turkey as I thought I might die, then completely done after one week) which I am pretty sure while causing unknown to me destruction in my body, made my prior daily life feasible.
I was able to get an endocrinologist to switch my prescription as well a couple weeks later. In addition I researched and found a functional doctor (oh how expensive!!) that was willing to dig deeper into other potential issues (which we discovered multiple issues such as H Pylori, Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth, and low pancreatic function thanks to her!). No holds barred for me.
My dietary restrictions are challenging mainly when I am out or at social gatherings. The cost of supplements and healthy food is a tad insane. Why the hell does healthy food cost so much anyway?!! When I say healthy I mean organic, grass fed, cagefree, all natural type stuff. I don’t eat anything with added sugars, caffeine, alcohol, dairy, gluten, most nuts, eggs (recently added back) anything artificial, certain vegetables, and vegetable oils. I’d like to say I am saving so much money without my foo-foo Starbucks and caffeine drinks, but definitely doesn’t balance out.
The past 5 months have been hard and had plenty of ups and downs but I am still full steam ahead. I constantly research and put myself pretty far up there on my to do list. That last one was probably the biggest change for me as a very maternal-put-kids-first-always mom of 4.
I really believe overall I am getting better and feel better. Many symptoms have gone away. This battle isn’t over yet though for me. It won’t be over until a doctor can tell me I don’t have the antibodies for Hashimoto’s disease any more.
I don’t ever want to feel like I won’t live a long life again.