Stephanie’s Story

Thy­roid nuked due to Can­cer, was on T4-meds and later T4 plus Cyto­mel – but Armour pro­ved far supe­rior! VERY ins­pi­ring story!

I was dx’d with Papi­llary thy­roid can­cer in March 2000 which was just 4 mos after the birth of my first child. I had a par­tial thy­roi­dec­tomy in March, and then when they dis­co­ve­red it was can­ce­rous, I went back for at total in April 2000 follo­wed by three rounds of RAI (100 mCi’s-5/00, 150 mCi’s-1/01, 250 mCi’s-5/05). I have NO THYROID left.

I was told that it would be easy. They would take my thy­roid out, I would take a little pill for the rest of my life, and that would be it. Easy right? NOT!

I was on anywhere from .137 mcg to .225 mcg Synth­roid over the last 6 years. I went back and forth bet­ween hypo and hyper. Up and down on the dosage amounts. It was so frus­tra­ting! I strug­gled with brain fog, weight gain (des­pite exer­ci­sing 5 – 6 times per week), achy joints and muscle, loss of libido, anger/intolerance for noise and pure lack of moti­va­tion (amount other things — the list is long).

Around the time of mens­trua­tion I would get huge anxiety attacks before and the blues after for one week each. So 2 weeks out of my month were shot with hor­mone issues. It was horri­ble! My Endo said it was “female issues” and told me to talk to my OB/GYN. I did and he presc­ri­bed Zoloft, which I knew that wasn’t the ans­wer either. So after taking one I stop­ped and kept searching. I wan­ted my old life back and it see­med like I would be sick forever.

I asked my Endoc­ri­no­lo­gists about Armour and each would say “It’s not for Thy­roid Can­cer Patients” ( I have had 1 ENT & 2 ENDO’s on this jour­ney). When I would press for rea­sons I got the stan­dard line – there are potency issues and it is not sta­ble. Synth­roid is “The Gold Stan­dard” of hor­mone replacement.

My last Endo tried to scare me that Armour would not keep my TSH sup­pres­sed to .1 and then I would risk a return of can­cer. This made me chuc­kle as I have had pro­blems kee­ping my TSH sup­pres­sed on Synth­roid. I would esti­mate that I have had approx 10 – 12 dosage adjust­ments on T4 only over the 6 years.

In Decem­ber 2004 I began wor­king with a Natu­ro­path. We strug­gled to get my hor­mo­nes balan­ced and were suc­cess­ful in some ways but not all. I got to a cer­tain point and nothing would change no mat­ter how much I exer­ci­sed, chan­ged my diet, or took nutri­tio­nal sup­ple­ments. I had my own blood tests run to check my FT3 & FT4 and it sho­wed that I was hypo des­pite my TSH being “suppressed”.

It was at this point that he recom­men­ded that I seek out Armour. Thus began my jour­ney to find a doc­tor that wouldn’t be against it — not easy by any means. I found a D.O. that prac­ti­ces Alter­na­tive Medi­cine who would presc­ribe it and saw him a month ago. I was on Armour for 1 1/2 weeks and felt won­der­ful. I star­ted to feel my old self coming back. I began to enjoy my chil­dren and laugh with them. Something I hadn’t ever done — they are now 6 yrs and 3 1/2.

Then my worst fears hap­pe­ned – my ND recom­men­ded that I go back on Synth­roid with Cyto­mel due to other health con­cerns rela­ting to my can­cer dx. So I went off Armour for 1 1/2 weeks and on the Synthe­tics. I FELT AWFUL!!! Within 3 days my body ached as did my joints. I could hardly go up and down the stairs in my house w/o extreme pain. I felt so bad that I stood in my kitchen (3 days after star­ting on it) and cried won­de­ring how I could live like this. I con­ti­nued to stay on it for 10 days and then one mor­ning I had just com­ple­ted my wor­kout and rea­li­zed I nee­ded to go downs­tairs to the free­zer. I star­ted down the stairs and I got so dizzy that I fell 3/4 of the way down and got hurt pretty badly. I sat on the stairs and cried, asking God to show me what I should do. An inc­re­di­ble peace came over me and I just felt like I nee­ded to go back on the Armour des­pite my ND’s con­cerns — which no one could vali­date scien­ti­fi­cally and I was tired of “gues­sing” as that is what got me to this point! On that very day, I saw my ND and he chec­ked my ears to dis­co­ver they had filled up with fluid.

I have been on Armour for 1 week now for the second time. My brain fog is already clea­ring and I am star­ting to be a hap­pier per­son. My joints ache a bit but not nearly as bad as they had on the synthe­tic combo. I saw my ND 3 days ago and one of my ears is clear again and the other is much bet­ter. I am plea­sed with my pro­gress in just 1 week. I am loo­king for­ward to what is to come for the first time in 6 years.

So what do I think? ARMOUR all the way!!! “Oink, Oink”

July 2006

I have been on Armour for 6 months now. I have reached my opti­mum dosage amout of 4 grains. My Free T4 is at the top of the range and my FT3 is slightly over. My TSH is sup­pres­sed to .01 which is per­fect for Thy­roid Can­cer patients. So much for my Endo telling me that it was unre­lia­ble in dosage con­sis­tency and would not keep me sup­pres­sed. My Tg (can­cer mar­ker) is down 10 points since January all without radia­tion. I am fee­ling bet­ter than I have in years — pro­bably since my early 20’s and I am now 40. My brain fog is almost com­ple­tely gone, no more aching joints or musc­les and I have lost 20 lbs without die­ting! I cre­dit my impro­ve­ment to Armour, Iodine and the remo­val of my Amal­gam Fillings & a Root Canal tooth. Peo­ple who see me can­not believe how well I look and that it was just one year ago this past May that I under­went RAI for the 3^rd time. I am glad I follo­wed my gut ins­tincts and found a Holis­tic Doc­tor that knew how to treat me. No more Cut / Poi­son / Burn for me!

To read Stephanie’s blog, go here.