Dana’s Story

I was diag­no­sed with Hypo-Thyroidism back in Feb. of ’04, put on .100 Synth­roid and told to come back every 6 months for a check-up. I star­ted to feel somewhat bet­ter but still had hair loss, depres­sion, gai­ned weight easily and had severe Arth­ri­tic and FM symp­toms. I sus­pect that I have been hypo for many, many years. I also have a severe form of Inters­ti­tial Cys­ti­tis and have been on pain meds for 3 years now.

Because I was still suf­fe­ring from hypo symp­toms, I did research and luc­kily found this won­der­ful site! I went on Armour soon after. I stea­dily rai­sed until I got to 3 grains and held for many months. I thought I was doing ok, except for some weird symp­toms that were cree­ping up on me. You see, I was in BIG DENIAL and I had a BIG FEAR of Adre­nal sup­port. I was always one of the first to jump in on Adre­nal ques­tions because I myself was afraid to accept my own Adre­nal symptoms.….I now know that denial and fear are actually Adre­nal symp­toms! Please for­give me for my denial all these months and I hope that I did not delay anyone’s Adre­nal treat­ment by my own actions.…..I hope that some of you may be hel­ped in rea­ding this because that is my goal.

I was out of work for 2.5 years due to my severe phy­si­cal com­plaints. But, in order to not lose our house, I had to go back to work in August. I noti­ced that almost imme­dia­tely after going back to work my symp­toms became much worse. My wor­se­ning symp­toms were:

top of head hurt-(not a hea­dache but a weird pres­sure type pain)
legs felt very weak
feet hurt (from stan­ding on the job)
brain fog wor­se­ned
became very sen­si­tive and emo­tio­nal
knee pain wor­se­ned
fati­gue wor­se­ned
almost total loss of appe­tite
felt dizzy
felt fain­tish
hea­daches
carpal-tunnel symp­toms
tingling/numbness in arms and feet
heart­beat skip­ping
Blood pres­sure became low (112/56 was one rea­ding)
cons­tant red face and rashes

I am sure there are more com­plaints but can­not think of all of them! I star­ted to sus­pect my Adre­nals were suf­fe­ring but I still was “afraid” to address it! I didn’t want to have to start over on my Armour and was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to func­tion at work at all if I star­ted down the Adre­nal path. When I star­ted to almost faint at work, I knew that it was serious. The other pro­blem was that I could not afford the Adre­nal Tes­ting. It was all we could do to pay our mort­gage and feed our family at this point so I deci­ded to start on Isocort.

Now, I do not sug­gest anyone to NOT get tes­ted before star­ting on Adre­nal sup­port. It is impor­tant to do so you can see how severe your Adre­nals are.…that is my only regret because I still don’t know how bad I was. But, accor­ding to my symp­toms and the self-tests, I was BAD. I sus­pect I was at stage 6 – 7. All because of my denial and fear all these months!

As soon as I star­ted on Iso­cort (I also drop­ped down to 1 gr. & .025 T4) I noti­ced that my body cra­ved more! It was like my body was saying, “Don’t stop now, give me some more!” lol But, it also cau­sed me to have to stress dose almost imme­dia­tely and with Val’s cons­tant gui­dance (thank you Val!), I had to tirate up a little quic­ker than most. I sta­yed on Iso­cort for about 3 weeks. I did not get much relief from it so I went ahead and orde­red Cortef/HC. I star­ted on HC and noti­ced a dif­fe­rence right away! I never had a Thy­roid dump because I lowe­red my Armour down quite a bit.

I have recently sta­bli­zed on 25 mg. of HC. During this pro­cess I did become seve­rely hypo again so had to do a quick raise to 30 mg. and after 4 days I am fee­ling bet­ter. I know now that I will finally be able to raise my Armour enough to rid myself of ALL of my symptoms.….Alot of my com­plaints were actually Adre­nal symp­toms and I can­not believe that I suf­fe­red for so long, in denial! My hope is that my FM pain will also go away as I have suf­fe­red from FM since age 22. (now 40) Here is another list–

face redness/rashes-almost gone
top of head pressure-gone
excess sweating-better
leg weakness-gone
heart skips-gone
carpal-tunnel-gone
feet pain/knee pain-gone
depression-better!
appetite-better!
blood pressure-better
brain fog-better
tingling/numbness-gone
dizziness-gone
fatigue-better
headaches-better

As you can see from this recent list, almost all of my Adre­nal symp­toms are gone or are much bet­ter! If you still have some symp­toms that have not gone away with Armour, do your­self a favor and get your Adre­nals tes­ted! Don’t suf­fer in denial and fear like I did.…..Yes, it was not an easy road to opti­mize on HC but, it is worth it! You deserve health and hap­pi­ness, just like I do.….

Dana 12 – 06