Patience, Young One

I know all my Facebook friends have just been dying (DYING!) to learn about how my appointment with Cool Acupuncture Guy went, right?! The short version is that it was good! The long version is as follows. :) 

Learning To Be Patient-I told CAG that I had reduced my Thyroxal dose by one pill, so I take five Thyroxal pills a day instead of six. It's only been two weeks since I started doing that. I feel mostly fine, but I have noticed that I have a tad bit more arthritis symptoms, but they usually go away.

For me, two weeks should be long enough for my thyroid to do it's dumb (or, awesomely important) job. But my DH and CAG tell me that these things can take a long time.

In telling me to get over myself and be more patient, CAG compared my body to Germany after World War II. He said it took 30 years for people to want to go there to visit again. So, the lesson for me is two-fold, be patient and racism is bad. 

Weaning Myself Off Of Thyroxal-CAG said to stick with five pills a day and then get my thyroid hormone levels checked again in two months. That's much longer than I would have waited on my own devices. It's nice to have a number to put on that, a deadline.

I asked whether he would ever give up and just tell me to take Levothyroxine. He basically said, "Hell no!" When pressed (I have been confused on this point), he said that he would rather I keep taking Thyroxal, with the herbal support, than the Western drug from the pharmacy.

I was assuming that if my thyroid didn't start working, I'd have to take Levo anyway sometime. Guess he sees it differently. The problem I see here is money. Thyroxal (all total) is about $70 a month. Levo is $4. Wish my insurance would cover herbal medicine.


Pregnancy-Here's where my mind was really blown today. I'm going to type up a not-at-all-accurate transcript.

Me: "Part of the reason I'm really impatient with all this is because I'd like to have another baby someday and I want to get my thyroid figured out first."

CAG: "What do you mean?"

Me: "Well, I want to get weaned off of Thyroxal, I'm not sure I want to take Thyroxal while I'm pregnant?"

CAG: "Why not?!"

Me: "...I just thought it wouldn't be safe."

CAG: "Nicky, people do crack and have babies."

Me: "----"

CAG: "I mean, people smoke, drink, do drugs and have babies. And you're worried about a thyroid supplement."

Now, I'm not going to say that I shouldn't worry about herbal supplements and pregnancy, but the man does have a good point. And, as my DH pointed out later, if my thyroid hasn't magically recovered I was totally planning on taking Levo during a pregnancy. If I am still on something (whether it be Thyroxal or Levo) and I do get pregnant, then I guess I'll stay on it or increase the dose, as is often needed during pregnancy.

In my Dream World, I will be totally successful in weaning myself off of Thyroxal and my thyroid will pick up the slack before we have another kiddo. From my lips to God's ears.


Maintaining My Current Diet-I didn't tell CAG that I had tried Imodium out of desperation. I did tell him that these are the things I have been doing that have helped me stay healthy for the past few weeks:

• Drinking Peppermint Tea & Sometimes Taking Fennel Seeds
• Avoiding Foods that Are "Trigger" Foods, like Milk & Wheat
• Juicing Veggies Every Day
• Taking Probiotics

I asked for some direction and he said that if it was working, keep doing it! Gotta love that. DH says he has known many doctors who just want to 'do something', even at the expense of the patient, so it's nice to have a relaxed perspective...


Gui Pi Wan Teapills-When I asked CAG if he wanted me to take some more herbal stuff, he said he was afraid to mess with a good thing. He checked my pulse, my tongue, and then asked lots of personal questions about my period. So after all that, he recommended some teeny little herbal pill that is supposed 'strengthen my blood'. Will let you know about that.

 Next week I go to the D.O. to have my blood drawn. Then, two month-ish from now, I go to see some more midwife-type-people (okay, okay, Nurse Midwives) to talk about thyroid stuff. More to come...

For good measure on how I am doing today, here's a photo of my viral rash. You heard me.

I don't think you can really see it, but bunches of tiny red dots are there that aren't normally there. DD and DS have a viral infection of some sort and they passed it to me and, though I'm getting better, it has manifested itself like this. Ugh.