I am so thankful to say that I have gotten my life back, after five years of suffering with the frustrating symptoms of hypothyroidism.  At the age of 35, I was diagnosed by my primary care physician with the disorder and placed on Synthroid.  This is exactly where my roller coaster ride of ups and downs began. 

After the birth of my second child, I felt tired, achy, cranky, as though I were in a daze, and I was losing a disproportionate amount of hair.  I had two visits with my obstetrician over the following year in which I told her of my symptoms and was told that I was a new mom again, and that was expected with the territory.  Finally, while visiting with my primary care physician for a cold, I told him of my other symptoms and he ran tests and put me on 1 mg. of Synthroid. 

After a few weeks of the Synthroid, I was back to feeling foggy inside my head, had a short attention span, a short temper, joint aches and I was still loosing my hair.  I began noticing that sometimes I did “stupid stuff” too, only to discovered it later (like when I put the milk away in the pantry and the cereal in the refrigerator, and getting lost driving to my sister’s house!).  My husband often complained that I was not remembering what he had told me (and that was just not who I am …I remember what people tell me and I always remember names…or at least I used to!)  I also began getting up in the middle of the night to turn the air conditioner down to 68 degrees even though I had been freezing with extra socks on when I went to sleep. 

My obstetrician suggested that I might try an endocrinologist and referred me to “the best one in town.”  I went eagerly to this expert, just knowing that he was going to solve all my problems.  The new doctor did an extensive exam, noting that I had a goiter and scanning it to see how many nodes it had.  He reviewed my blood work, and determined that I was on the right amount of thyroid medication, and that my symptoms were not thyroid related.  He suggested that perhaps I was feeling sad or having some type of personal problems.  I was also told that I should “march right back to my gynecologist and make her fix the problem”.  Expert after expert, no one ever seemed to have answers to the problems I was having, they just seemed to want to refer me to someone else. 

At another appointment, with my primary care physician for a cold, I told him of the problems I was continuing to have just hoping he might understand.  He asked me if I was feeling blue.  He said, “Is everything okay at home?  Are you under a lot of stress?”  Feeling uneasy, I said that I was fine and we left it at that.

Then one day, my husband phoned me from work after listening to Dr. Hotze’s Health and Wellness Hour on the radio. He explained to me that he had been listening to other hypothroidists discuss their symptoms with Dr. Hotze.  He asked me to listen to the next program, and to look at the website because “these people sounded just like me.”  I immediately went out and read everything there.  I took every test, and examined my results.  I already had confirmation that I had hypothyroidism, but the results said that I also had estrogen dominance, yeast overgrowth and adrenal fatigue.  I had renewed hope that I had found someone who would take my frustrating symptoms seriously, and scheduled an appointment with Dr. Ellsworth. 

At my examination, Dr. Ellsworth, came in and sat down with me, listened to all of my concerns and problems and discussed them with me.  He examined me and ran tests.  Dr. Ellsworth explained to me about natural thyroid supplementation, and discussed how it would benefit me.  I knew I could trust Dr. Ellsworth because what he was telling me made sense, so I began all the regimens for hypothyroidism, estrogen dominance, adrenal fatigue and yeast overgrowth.  Once I was on the program, I noticed results very quickly and was feeling up to speed within a few weeks. 

After almost one year on the program, I can joyfully tell you that bio-identical hormone supplementation has helped me return to normal.  I have lots of energy, I am no longer achy or cranky, my mind and memory are sharp, and I do not leave a trail of hair behind me!  I no longer do “stupid stuff” and I have patience and energy at the end of the day.  Yes, I truly have gotten my life back indeed!!!
 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007 at 8:25 am and is filed under Success Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.