Here's a quick summary. Lyme finally got into my endocrine system, after it left my heart, and it just will not leave. I had a thyroid scan in 2016 that showed my iodine uptake is pretty much stellar. My thyroid is functioning great. When I followed up with the doctor, he diagnosed me with "self-limiting transient autoimmune thyroiditis with hypo/hyperthyroidism" or, in other words, "your TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) is out of whack, but I really don't know why, so we're going to wait and watch it." He's trying to find a trend in the labs, but there isn't one yet. For a year, my TSH was normal. Now, it's back in the front seat of the biggest roller coaster in the amusement park.
He gave me several options - 1) ablation - which basically means you irradiate the thyroid and kill it. This option would mean I would be on Synthroid for the rest of my life. 2) meds - unfortunately, I can't remember which ones or even what category they fell in. Honestly, I wasn't interested. 3) do nothing - which would be the option I chose. I'm almost always going to go the least aggressive route unless I feel like something more is required. My husband and the doctor agreed right away with my decision. Having my thyroid removed wasn't an option and I would have fought tooth and nail against it. People who have Lyme do not recover from any trauma to the body like most other people do. Surgery is terribly traumatic to my body. I felt that ablation would also be too big of a shock to my system. It's not surgery, but it's killing something in my body that is functioning the way it's supposed to anyway. It just didn't make any sense. So, we've been in the watchful waiting phase ever since.
I take this paper along with me to every endocrinology appointment. I add to it whenever my new labs come in. It has the results of every thyroid test he has ever ordered. The first two results were impressive. In 5 weeks, without the help of anything, I went from severe hyperthyroidism to severe hypothyroidism. I have never had a thyroid problem and have never been on any medication to regulate thyroid hormones.
I made a graph this afternoon of what he always draws when he's explaining my condition. I'm constantly up and down, up and down. He needs me in the middle.
The recommendations in that episode were - 200-400 mcg selenium and 600 mg thiamine which is also known as vitamin B1. In addition to that, I already knew that an herbal supplement called Ashwagandha has been shown to normalize thyroid function. I started with an herbal tincture and switched to capsules of that last week. I've been taking those three for the past 2 weeks or so...after I had drawn my last TSH. It will be interesting to see what the result will be this month.
I found out that my endocrinologist is from Grenada. He is VERY open to people trying alternative methods and talked about a couple of his patients who had used their own treatment methods. One, in particular, is a diabetic Hindu priest. He had been taking something that was normalizing his HgbA1C...the test that gives an overall picture of a patient's blood sugar over a period of 3 months. It was working great! Dr. M. told his patient that he wanted to do an experiment. They did testing after the patient treated with his meds from India, got off of them, started on what Dr. M. prescribed and retested. He found out that whatever his patient was taking from India worked better than the medicine he had prescribed. So, that patient is continuing with his alternative means of blood sugar control.
That being said, I think it is wise to research whatever condition(s) you have to see if there is an alternative means of treating it/them. Of course, most conventional doctors will NOT like that you want to do that and some may even get mad at you. Maybe it's because they don't understand it or wasn't their idea. Or, just maybe...they won't make any money off of a plant or supplement that can do just as good of a job or better than any medicine they would prescribe. There is a place for holistic medicine and I would much rather go the road less travelled. The best thing people could do now is find a functional medicine doctor. There isn't one on every block, but they're out there. Those doctors are the ones who find out WHY you have what's causing your problem. They don't cover it up by treating the symptoms. If you don't get at the root cause of the problem and fix that, how would you ever expect to get better? You HAVE to get at the root of the problem and fix the cause.
Most likely, I will have more to add to the thyroid topic...hopefully in the near future. I'm in the middle of researching it more and looking for answers that will help me. Undoubtedly, by doing this, I'll be able to help others with the same problem. Even if you don't have a Clinical Laboratory Science degree or a nursing degree like I do, you can still do your due diligence. No one is ever more invested in you...than YOU.