My health journey.

My journey to wellness started in about 2001. My first step was to find out what was wrong with me. I had severe fatigue, sometimes falling asleep while driving or while sitting at a computer at work. I suspected it might be my thyroid so I obtained some lab tests including a TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone) and, sure enough, the TSH was elevated, meaning I had hypothyroidism (my thyroid was sluggish). I then made an appointment with a local doctor for treatment. She decided to repeat the TSH first, and it was still elevated, so she started me on Synthroid. I felt pretty good for about a month and then it wore off and the fatigue returned. When I had the TSH tested again, it was zero (too low) but I didn't have any hyperthyroid symptoms so maybe it was a lab error. Anyway . . . Synthroid didn't seem to work for me or my doctor didn't know how to adjust it. She did mention putting me on an antidepressant because of the long list of symptoms I had but I declined that. I asked her to treat me with Armour Thyroid after doing research on Synthroid and finding things I didn't like about it. She said she couldn't use Armour Thyroid because she didn't know how to dose it correctly. I started looking for another doctor.

I found another doctor who would put me on Armour Thyroid and also wanted to treat me with supplements. She wasn't local, though, and I had to drive about an hour and 45 minutes to her office. She ordered a thyroid ultrasound first, which showed a thyroid nodule. Then came a nuclear scan of my thyroid, which showed it was benign. She started me on Armour Thyroid after that but it made me feel unwell and like I was getting the flu, so she told me to discontinue it. She also found my progesterone was low and had started me on Prometrium. I didn't like the way it made me feel and switched to progesterone cream, which helped some of my menstrual symptoms. I eventually lost contact with that doctor because I felt like she couldn't help me, even though she tried and never once mentioned putting me on an antidepressant.

A few years after that, I tried the bioidentical hormone route and went to a doctor about an hour and 20 minutes from my home in the other direction. He ordered saliva tests to test my estrogen, progesterone, testosterone and cortisol levels. I started taking estrogen, progesterone and DHEA creams (bioidentical - supposedly the most natural and closest to what our bodies make) and didn't really feel that much better. He then put me on Armour Thyroid and, at first, I felt like I was getting the flu and felt unwell (again). He said that was probably a coincidence and maybe I really was getting the flu. I stuck with it for a while and then actually felt good - again for about a month. Then, I started feeling terrible and like I was full of toxins. When I went back for followup and told him the symptoms I was having, one of which was breast swelling like a balloon ready to pop, he said I needed to get that checked because "we might be dealing with cancer." That was the last time I saw that doctor, and I gradually weaned myself off all of the hormones, including the Armour Thyroid, and started feeling a little better and less toxic. I suspected that maybe my liver was not doing its job at flushing out used-up hormones and was holding onto them and causing me to have the symptoms I was having. I also read that some women actually convert progesterone to estrogen, which may be what I was doing, causing estrogen dominance symptoms.

I decided to be my own doctor again for a while and tried different supplements. Just last summer, I was taking a thyroid supplement for hypothyroidism but was not under a doctor's care. I was trying to mow the lawn one day and my heart was pounding. I had also been having other symptoms like trouble sleeping, sweating (I rarely sweat), diarrhea (I rarely get diarrhea), shakiness, anxiety and weight loss. One day after taking my supplement, my heart started pounding again, and I felt nauseated and really bad and thought maybe I was having a heart attack. Both of my parents died of heart attacks, so this could have been a real possibility. Since I didn't have health insurance and since I don't like conventional medicine, drugs, hospitals, etc., I thought long and hard about going to an emergency room. I prayed, had other people praying and went to bed and tried to sleep. When I got up, I felt better. Eventually the light bulb went off in my head, and I realized that all the symptoms I had been having were symptoms of hyperthyroidism (thyroid too fast), so I stopped taking the supplement and started feeling better and the symptoms all went away.

All this time, I had been doing lots of research on the internet and reading books about fatigue, thyroid disease, adrenal problems, hormone imbalance, Epstein-Barr virus, etc. I think I have them all. I started trying to eat better, exercise and take the right supplements, along with seeing a chiropractor and massage therapist regularly. I felt like I was going along blindly, though, and needed a professional to help guide me. Not having much luck in the past with finding such, I continued to be my own doctor until I felt like I was getting worse. I did more research and googled for a naturopathic doctor that wouldn't be too far away.

That's when I found Ella and her clinic, about an hour and a half away from my home. It took me a while to work up my courage to make an appointment because I was afraid of being disappointed with another doctor, but I finally did it just last month. The drive to the clinic is nice, lots of farms and nice houses. The atmosphere at the clinic is very laid back and relaxed and everyone is so nice. There is also a health food store in the same building. There is a porch with rocking chairs where people can wait and another room with a massage chair and other chairs and reading material. Since I was there for about 4-1/2 hours altogether, my husband tried the porch and the massage chair out and fell asleep in the chair.

When I got there, I had to fill out papers about my symptoms and give urine and saliva samples. Then I saw a nutritionist who went over my papers with me and asked me for more details. When I saw Ella, she looked at my irises (iridology) and could tell if there were different health concerns in my body. She also showed me the results of my urine and saliva tests and gave me a list of possible problems. I was started on some supplements, put on a mold-free and yeast-free diet for 4 weeks and given a followup appointment for a month later.

At first, I felt worse with more fatigue, like someone had "pulled my plug." She told me to take 1 tablespoon of raw apple cider vinegar in some water twice a day and told me to increase the vitamin C I was on for three days and also started me on some B vitamins. I felt better after the vinegar and vitamin C and wasn't sure which one helped me but I think it was the vinegar. I went back for my followup after a month and my urine and saliva tests had improved. I had taken a temperature test to test for hypothyroidism and it had shown that my thyroid was low, so she started me on some thyroid supplements and also something for my adrenal glands. I also had a session with someone else to do something called "repatterning," which was quite interesting, and was started on flower essence. More on these subjects later. I went back in 10 days with the same person for something called "results," and will give more details on this later also.

So that's where I am now. I have to return to Ella in August. Hopefully, the supplements will start to work on fixing my thyroid and my adrenal glands and my emotions and I will feel better very soon. It's been a long journey and I'm tired and want to be well.

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