Not good, really scared and feeling defeated, possible Hashimotos Disease ?

Hi,

If you've seen my last post you'd see that I'm now on Methylene Blue and Crypto-Plus for Bartonella.

The last month or month and a half I've gained alot of weight in my stomach. I'm losing my hair at a very fast rate that in all seriousness if I don't get help now I'll be wearing a wig by middle of summer. I have horrible cold intolerance and constipation. My brain fog and ST memory loss is getting worse and affecting my job. Daily eye burning headaches ( don't know if that goes with Hashimotos) . All my thyroid blood work was normal. Ive literally had hundreds of thyroid tests in the last 20 years. No, I never had an ultrasound or CT scan of my thyroid. I do have Hashimotos on both sides of my family. My mother is asymptomatic but has the marker.

I know many ppl in the Lyme community suffer from thyroid issues esp women. I see a new PCP next week to get a referral for an Endocrinologist. My LLMD has been of much help.

I talked to my Ob/Gyn recently about PCOS but my Testosterone and Dhea levels were normal, my periods are normal too, no cysts were found on my ovaries. She couldn't do much more on her end and suggested an Endocrinologist. Again blood work means nothing and my OB/Gyn assured me I could still have stuff.

I've been treating my Lyme and Co's for 2 years with no resolve ( Bartonella about 1 year). Only getting worse with abx and herbs. Im wondering if my thyroid is getting attacked and this is impeding my Lyme treatment?

I am really not in a good place mentally. This is draining. I just want a quiet stress free summer for a change. I have incredible worry I'll be like this the rest of my life.

Anyone been through this?

on the upside - hashimotos is usually pretty straightforward to diagnose
antibody tests for 2 - or 3 different antibodies - along with all the usual thyroid hormones - usually yields a pretty clear result - especially after several tests

i am no doctor - but in your case i feel it would likely show up in at least some of those tests as antibodies - or at least way out of whack T3 or T4

that said inflammation in the body is known to interfere with the proper conversion and receptor function of all sorts of hormones and certainly thyroid hormones. This means that your thyroid gland may be making enough hormone and it may not be converted to the active form efficiently
- eg high T4 low T3 and hypo symptoms - or high rev T3 and again - and again hypo symptoms).

alternately, the levels of all hormones could be OK - but the receptors are just not working properly due to all the inflammation - and so tests would be OK - and yet you could have hypo symptoms

just some guesses / possibilities to check out

-do you have any recent tests of inflammatory markers or clear inflammatory symptoms? ( almost guaranteed with Lyme et al )

- anti-inflammatory diets and lifestyle changes can help with this

- there are also thyroid specific supplements and co-factors that can help with various steps in the chain - but it requires some reading as the thyroid metabolism is not a simple thing

i usually recommend this guys site as a decent place to start - i have no affiliation - but just find it about the most useful without going crazy deep

https://www.restartmed.com/free-resources-downloads/

Nope his name starts with a J. I don’t know who H is. Can you email me his name? I am looking for another doc. Oh wait is this dr R H? It’s not fair to say I made no progress but it’s questionable whether I’m better overall... one thing gets better and something else terrifying breaks. The problem is all the docs in my area basically follow the lead of my doc. So switching in my area feels pointless. Though sometimes I do wonder if part of the problem is lack of active attention. Lately I’ve taken to asking my Lyme doc if he’s out of ideas and I should just prepare to die. That’s about all that gets a response from him and even then sometimes I don’t get one. He mostly just looks at me pensively during my appointments.

To be fair I started my treatment way back when with a different doc and quickly got labeled “complex” and shuffled off to my current doc. Every other doc I visited in the area mostly just says oh I know go visit dr j,... and I’m like I’ve been with him for years. To be clear I’m still not angry at my doc.

Because of my doc’s esteemed position in the Lyme community I’ve been wondering if his lack of success means I really don’t have any more options. That’s actually why I started posting here looking to see if there are any other docs who can help me where he failed. Oh I should also add I have mitochondrial dysfunction too which is probably what my doc blames my lack of progress on.

Post Edited (Bailey) : 6/5/2021 4:00:44 PM (GMT-6)

Bailey - I think you see the same Dr I see.
Do you see him - or one of his PA’s or NP’s?

I had thought maybe you were seeing Dr RH

Sunflower, sorry I don’t mean to hijack your thread. Running wild is right, a lot of us feel that way. I will say in my long tenure in the Lyme community, most patients aren’t like me and do get better eventually. In all likelihood, even when it looks very bleak, you probably will recover. It’s one of those rare happy times when you can say, the odds are in your favor.

Also, methylene blue had some very severe effects on me. It may be screwing with your mood. My thyroid numbers have always been low normal, but I still think I benefited from taking armour. I noticed my eyes which had been sort of dull before had some of their wet brightness return after getting on it.

astroman said...
The link Garzie provided > "Dr. Westin Childs".

I almost fell out of my chair since he looks like a twenty -five year old Red Bull pro skateboarder or BMXer "dude", instead of a "thyroid guru" ....;.

lol