Tylenol

I am getting rid of all Tylenol from the house.  The more that I am learning, there really is no  need for this dangerous OTC drug to be in the house.  I used to take Tylenol all the time, for everything. I would take a lot too.  Sometimes over the recommended dosage in the hopes that whatever headache or cramps I had would be alleviated more quickly.  Little did I know that I was damaging one of the most important organs in my body!  Tylenol causes liver damage!  It says it on the bottle, although it says only if taken with alcohol..which I think is a crock of poo...

My liver is not converting the Synthroid (T4) into the active T3 hormone that my body is starving for....  I can't blame it all on Tylenol, but if I can remove one risk factor for my family that is an easy fix, then why shouldn't  I?  It  pisses me off that when you are pregnant they claim the only safe thing to take is Tylenol! That really makes me wonder. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that I have full blown liver disease, but I definitely am suffering from some liver dysfunction.

So no more Tylenol in the house for me or the family.

Plantar fasciitis

I have no idea if this is a side effect of Hashi's, but I definitely have it!  It has gotten progressively worse too.  I think I am going to have to break down and make an appointment for the podiatrist.  Although I really don't think there is anything that can be done about it, I am sure that losing weight would help... I just feel so stuck.  I really hate what my life has become.  I never thought that I would be this way or feel this way.  I am just so unhappy.

I can hardly walk, it is just so painful!

I fell off the wagon

I feel like an alcoholic. Only for me it is food....  I was doing so well with the gluten free lifestyle and then one day, boom... I just fell off the wagon and I can't even find the wagon to get back on.  I think if I can face reality for a moment, I can admit that I have a food addiction.  it is the only thing in my life right now that can make me happy. It is like a double edged sword though, those first bites make me so happy and then I feel guilt and a slew of other emotions.  I am an emotional eater, I think I have always used food from one extreme to another, when I was much younger, I would not eat because I felt like the only thing in my life that I could actually have some control over was what I put into my mouth. It wasn't a good time in my life, but I was thin!  now I am fat and I wish that I would be able to find some of the self control over food that I used to have! I am just so blah...

I can't even go to an OA meeting because any of those anonymous things have you put your faith in a higher power which definitely is not for me. No fairy tales for me.

To buy or not to buy

There is this "kit" that I am thinking about buying, but I have such commitment issues with laying out a lot of money for a purchase for myself. But the kit is for how to "cure" your hypothyroidism. Granted I know nothing is going to cure the Hashi's, but if there is something that is going to make me feel normal again, it may be worth the $127 investment. It isn't some sort of quick, easy program where you take a pill and you feel better, it is more of a lifestyle overhaul, Knowing what to remove from daily life and what to add in. some things that I know suppress thyroid function are the fluoride in my toothpaste that I use every morning, the antibacterial soap that I use more times a day than I choose to admit. I know they may all sound like little things, but I know that the use of these products just compounds my problems, and if I were to know all the things to remove I would be on a journey to a better quality of life. I also know that I need to find a doctor that is going to prescribe me desiccated thyroid instead of just Synthroid. I have an appointment at the endocrinologist next month, so I will get the blood work before the appointment and if I can not get him to give me some sort of T3 then I will have to try to find another Dr. I may also try a thyroid glandular that is online that is recommended by the maker of this "kit. It's what he uses himself, and he has hypoactive thyroid and has "healed" himself. ( I know you can't heal yourself, per se, but if he is feeling a remarkable change due to his lifestyle changes then perhaps I need to make the investment in myself a shell out the money to read all that he has learned. I think that I am going to buy the kit when I get paid next week....

Something happened today

Sometimes you just don't realize how bad something has gotten until you are able to see it from a different perspective. So unfortunately, that's what I did today. I went to try on a bathing suit.... worst idea in the world...I thought i would be able to find a cute thing to wear tomorrow, boy was I ever wrong! I managed to get a full 3 way view of my body that I have never experienced before and needless to say I am traumatized. I guess it doesn't help when my hubby says how great I look all the time, because he has really been lying to me. My fat has fat! No really, there is fat upon fat... the lumps have lumps...I never realized how badly things have gone downhill for me. I don't know what to do. I wish I could get the thyroid situation in order and then at least I could pinpoint what else is causing this fatness. Last year I was going to the gym everyday for an hour and a half and I was really working out, I was running, lifting weights, elliptical, bike, spin.... everything and I never lost weight. I weigh the same now as I did when I gave birth to Madelyn! How shitty is that? I want to crawl in a whole and hide away. I am so embarrassed and ashamed that I have become this thing...

It's been a while

There was a bit of family drama and I had to go home to Ohio to visit my family. While I was there I was kind of traumatized and just not really "present." I went alone with the two little kids, ages 3 and 5, and staying in a hotel with a 3 and 5 year old is not and easy venture. Visiting the ICU is also not an easy venture, especially when my daughter, the 3 yo, is puking.... So needless to say it was a very stressful time. The funny thing is during that time I stopped taking all my medications. No Synthroid and no medication for my PTSD... and the funny thing is....wait for it.... I felt better! I felt clear headed, not sore....I felt like I was me again! What an incredible feeling! So recently I started taking the Synthroid again and guess what... i feel like shit! Pure and utter shit. My joints feel so so sore that I can hardly move by the end of the night, literally. Headaches... brain fog... the whole shebang. So this morning I decided to not take the Synthroid... and I felt a bit better, I was still a little sore but nothing as debilitating as I have been feeling. I did take a Raw Thyroid supplement, which has T3 as well as T4, so I think I am going to try taking that and see how I feel after a few weeks. i know deep down my body desperately needs the T3. I also started doing a lot of supplements. First and foremost being Vitamin C... it can be very therapeutic in high doses, so I am trying to get up to a hefty dose, perhaps 3 times a day. I also started Niacin, B12, potassium, and I plan on getting some iodine, I just have to check into it to make sure I can take that with Hashis. I also manages to gain about 8-10 pounds,I didn't really stay on the scale long enough to see the final number, it just wouldn't stop and I got upset. I have been feeling so down in the dumps about the weight issue. I started the gluten free diet, and I have been doing pretty well with it, but I think that I am really going to start trying to eat salads at least twice a day, but I really don't think that it is the amount of calories that I am putting into my body... it's just my freaking evil thyroid... I just want to feel pretty again, i want to feel normal and not obese. I am sick of the rolls that have become my belly... I mean for fucks sake there was a time before all of this stuff that my waist was 25 inches! now I don't even want to know....

Life happens

It has been a while since I have posted anything. There was a family emergency and I had to leave town for a week and it's just taken a bit of a toll on me emotionally. As far as overall mental well being.... I have been feeling so different lately. Where should I begin? I realized that my liver is not converted the T4 that I am prescribed into the T3 that my body needs and I kind of thought that with my last bloodwork results, that I needed to lay off of the Synthroid for the time being to try to get everything evened out. I am still trying to find a doctor who will prescribe me Armour Thyroid aas well..... So I stopped taking my Sythroid when I travelled home to Ohio, it just kind of worked out that way, not that it was 100% intentional. The thing is...I have been feeling great! I wake up now feeling like I am actually rested...something that hasn't happened in years! I don't feel like I wake up with an elephant sitting on my shoulders...it feels great. The only problem is I don't know what to attribute this to. Because not only did I stop the Synthroid, I stopped eating Gluten products ( it will be a month on the 10th!) AND I also stopped taking my antidepressant for my PTSD.... I know it is a lot of changes, I realize that! But I truly feel better! I feel normal for once! Maybe it was the Synthroid that was making me feel so lousy for the past 5 years. If my liver is not converting the t4 into the necessary t3, that would make a big difference. I was only concerned with a TSH level for all of these years because I didn't know any better, now I am learning that TSH isn't the be all and end all of tests to determine how I should be feeling, or what my dosage of medication should be. I think I am going to order the Natural Thyrois online and start taking that because it has t3 and t4... although it may not be as regulated, at least I will get the hormone that my body so desperately needs right now... until I can find the right dr..

Dear Doctor,

Why are you not doing your job? Why is is that you can clearly see that my T4 is not converting to T3 like it should? Why is it that you aren't checking my liver function, which is where this miracle conversion is supposed to take place? Why do I have to piece all of the little pieces of the puzzle together? Granted, google isn't the greatest place to try to find medical information, I know that, but when I realize that my body isn't converting hormones the way that it is supposed to, I need to know why. I find it strange that this tumor that I have on my clavicle is just growing for no known reason, but just leave it alone... it'll be fine. This kind of tumor is common with liver dysfunction...oh... liver dysfunction... you know, the large organ that is supposed to convert the T4 that you continue to give me even though it isn't converting to the t3 hormone that it is supposed to. My system is being overrun with the wrong hormone and is exacerbating the problem, not allowing me to get better.

Why are you not telling me that since I have Hashimoto's it is a wise decision to go on a gluten free diet, since gluten feeds the antibodies that are destroying my thyroid even more. It's been 4 days since I started going gluten free, and who knows if it is psycho-somatic but I feel slightly better. I wake up in the morning feeling a tiny bit rested which is an amazing feeling. Usually I wake up feeling like I was run over by an 18 wheeler. I feel like a veil is being lifted.

So in addition to going gluten free, I have been taking a lot of Vitamin C. I am trying to mega dose. I have seen a lot of research about mega-dosing vitamin c. It isn't going to hurt, there has been research that mega-dosing can be therapeutic in curing cancer! But there's no money to be made to cure cancer by an IV dose of vitamin C, is there? Vitamin C also helps with liver function! Who knew?

Welcome!

I have been dealing with a hypoactive thyroid for about five and a half years now. I was recently diagnosed as having Hashimoto's disease and I am kind of at my wits end in trying to feel better. For the past 5 years I have felt so terrible. I feel like I am walking around in a fog. I can't be the mother that I always thought that I could be and that I wanted to be because I just have zero energy. I have gained more weight than I could ever want to admit to, but just for the sake of honestly, I have gained about 60 pounds. I have a hard time recognizing the person that I have become. The list of symptoms is staggering.... I never knew that my ice cold butt cheeks were due to my thyroid! The thing is, I can joke about it or I can do something about it. I always thought going to the Dr. was the only answer. The Dr. would check my TSH and only my TSH and adjust my levothyroxine by that one number. I never felt any improvement in my symptoms, never! I started going to the gym and working out. I got up to working out 6 days a week for at least 70 minutes, and I mean I was really working out! I was exhausted and I never lost a pound! I actually gained weight! Talk about feeling like a loser! I went to Weight Watchers and didn't lose any weight either!

I finally thought... I should see an endocrinologist! He'll know what to do! He took a ton of blood and did a ton of tests.... only to keep me on the exact same medicine! Although he insists that I take the name brand T4 now, so I am taking Synthroid instead of the generic... guess what! I don't feel any different!

So I am going to take things into my own hands. I am researching everything about the thyroid and Hashis. I have learned so much already! The internet is a wonderful resource to have right at my fingertips.

One of the tidbits of information that I found was that going Gluten free would help with the Hashis. I am definitely not one to diet. I hate diets! I hate restricting my food. I like to eat what I like to eat. I love, love, love bread! But... I would love to feel like I am human again more than I love bread. I would love to have the energy to keep up with my kids more than a sandwich. While at first glance going gluten free seemed overwhelming, I think I am getting there. It is day two of being gluten free, and it wasn't that bad! It's definitely not as bad as a carb free diet. That turned me into a demon! The gluten free pasta really doesn't taste bad!

As I learn more, I am going to post more about how I am going to beat this under active thyroid problem!