Monday, January 10, 2011

One Day at at a Time: Ain't it Funny How Time Slips Away?

Well hello there,
It's been a long long time 
How am I doing? 
Oh well, I guess I'm doing fine 
It's been so long now and it seems that 
It was only yesterday  
Ain't it funny how time slips away?

--Willie Nelson

It's been a month since my last post.  I pretty much forgot that I have this blog.  All my computer time lately has been devoted to researching Hashimoto's, an autoimmune disease that attacks the thyroid.  Emma has it.  She was unable to complete her finals last semester because of brain fog, hypoglycemia, short-term memory loss, and anxiety attacks.  Apparently the Hashimoto's was triggered by the stress of school, although she has had some mild symptoms for a long time.  I'm sure now that her navigational problems must have something to do with the brain fog. We are addressing the disorder with Dr. Kharrazian's protocol as described in his book, Why Do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms When My Lab Tests Are Normal.  The first step was going gluten-free and addressing her severe vitamin D deficiency with emulsified Vitamin D.  Now we are in Phase II, which is a 3-week detox/elimination/provocation diet.  The goal is to find out which foods she is sensitive to and eliminate them permanently so that she is not constantly firing up her immune system.

The interesting thing about Hashimoto's is that one goes back and forth between being hypo and hyper-thyroid.  Emma says that hyper is definitely more fun as she has lots of energy then, as opposed to hypo when she is severely fatigued and often depressed.  The down side of hyper is that it also makes her heart race, keeps her awake all night, and makes her feel light-headed. 

The Healthy Skeptic has an excellent series on thyroid disorders. 

So that's the highlights for today.

5 comments:

May said...

I'm so sorry to hear of this. My best wishes for Emma's health!

Are you familiar with this organization? I don't know but it might help, since they specialize in endocrine function. I know some people with thyroid problems and they have found it useful:

http://www.brodabarnes.org/

Kindred Spirit said...

Dear Wendy, I'm so sorry to read about Emma's health problems. I will keep you in my prayers and, God willing, Emma will be well again soon. May God bless you and Our Lady protect you.

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

I have thyroid problems, as did my father. His was very unusual- he had to be treated opposite of the way they expected but he had to have his destroyed. Also, I am doing OK on levoxyl although I will swear, against the test results, that things are not perfectly ok. My friend said you might ask the Dr about trying the non-synthetic Armour. It's the only thing that she found helped her. If your daughter has to take medicine check with the dr to see if you take it on an empty stomach and wait at least a half to one hour before eating. I take mine first thing when I wake up. Sometimes they forget to say that and the person wonders why nothing is helping.

Anonymous said...

I'm so sorry to hear Emma has a health problem. I hope that you all will find out what kind of diet, etc. will help her. I have a gluten free diet, but I still have problems. I try to eat a yeast free diet also, but that is harder to do. There is alot of information on the internet with gluten free recipes.

Wendy Haught said...

Thanks to everyone for their encouraging words. They mean so much. You are all wonderful. God bless!