doctor tags

I use those phra­ses often. I can’t help it. Because it’s exactly what doc­tors are when it comes to thy­roid treat­ment. It’s APPALLING.

Yes­ter­day, I had the first of two book sig­nings. It was announ­ced in the paper, and I wasn’t sure what the tur­nout would be. I shouldn’t have won­de­red. It was a great tur­nout. Peo­ple are GETTING IT that there is SOMETHING WRONG with their treat­ment. Around me stood seve­ral women, all still on T4 (Synth­roid, Levoxyl, et al), and ALL suf­fe­ring. All but one woman had weight pro­blems. Seve­ral had rising cho­les­te­rol. Some admit­ted to being on anti-depressants. Some obviously had adre­nal fati­gue. And ALL were being told by their doc­tors that their thy­roid treat­ment was now “nor­mal”. Where can I go beat my head against the wall?????? They were eager to get the book and the know­ledge it con­tai­ned to change their lives!

So far, the book has been sent to Nor­way, Ice­land, Bel­gium, UK, Aus­tria, Swe­den, Swi­tzer­land, Ire­land, Aus­tra­lia and Canada, besi­des all over the US. The STTM web­site star­ted the wheel to turn, and the book can only move it fas­ter. And add it to other thy­roid books which had begun to men­tion the truth (Broda Bar­nes being the first) as well as other groups and web­si­tes — we’ll even­tually knock some SENSE and SIGHT in doc­tors, don’t you think?

The Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness book, the bible of correct thy­roid and adre­nal treat­ment, by patients for patients, can be orde­red here.

P.S. I live near one town which ser­ves a popu­la­tion of nearly 35,000 peo­ple, and near another of over 4000 peo­ple, and there are plenty of doc­tors around here. Yet, there is not ONE doc­tor in this area that “gets it”. I sym­pathize with YOU if you are in the same boat.

Some­ti­mes I pon­der: the current move­ment away from Synth­roid & Levoxyl and all other T4-only meds to desic­ca­ted thy­roid like Armour (as well as the unders­tan­ding of the high pre­va­lence of adre­nal fati­gue with thy­roid patients), has been going on for ALL of the 21^st cen­tury. In other words, patients were star­ting to talk about desic­ca­ted thy­roid like Armour by the year 1999, and Yahoo’s Natu­ral Thy­roid Hor­mo­nes group was star­ted in 2002. Other patient groups sprung up around the same time. The lat­ter group is also where the know­ledge about adre­nal fati­gue in thy­roid patients grew, which was further added to on STTM. So.…has there there been any chan­ges in the way thy­roid patients are trea­ted for their hypothy­roid and rela­ted conditions?

The YES

Some­ti­mes I can say a resoun­ding yes! There are many doc­tors around the world who are loo­king at Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness (STTM) and lis­te­ning to what is says. STTM is about the real life chan­ging expe­rience of patients! Some doc­tors tell me outright, either via the Con­tact Me form or by res­pon­ding to my blog posts here, that they are rea­ding it and appro­ving the infor­ma­tion. Or, I find out about other doc­tors second hand by patients who tell me their doc­tor TOLD THE PATIENT to read STTM. The lat­ter defi­ni­tely makes me chuc­kle when so many doc­tors tell patients that infor­ma­tion on the inter­net is DANGEROUS!

I can also say yes when I read the com­ments of patients on various thy­roid patient groups on the inter­net. Because of the infor­ma­tion patients have lear­ned from STTM, which is in turn pas­sed into the groups, patients all over the world are making demands in their doctor’s offi­ces, and some pro­gress is being made all over the world.

And a final yes can be utte­red by me when I see a few but gro­wing num­ber of web­si­tes pro­mote desic­ca­ted thyroid.

The NO

But there are so many situa­tions where I have to say no. 1) When doc­tors on inter­net forums TO THIS DAY con­ti­nue to give lousy advice to thy­roid patients, it’s dishear­te­ning. 2) When patients on thy­roid patient groups TO THIS DAY con­ti­nue to have doc­tors state each and every ridi­cu­lous give me a break com­ment, it’s sad. 3) When a famous female talk show host con­ti­nues to ignore each and every email sent to her for years about the deplo­ra­ble situa­tion across the world with thy­roid patients, as well as seem to misun­ders­tand her OWN thy­roid and poten­tial adre­nal pro­blem, it’s mad­de­ning. 4) And when I can run into patients DAILY when I go to the gro­cery store, or to the gas sta­tion, or to any public place, who are still on Synth­roid or Levoxyl and coping with innu­me­ra­ble symp­toms of a poor treat­ment, not exc­lu­ding adre­nal fati­gue, it’s scandalous.

So the com­plete ans­wer? Yes and no. The ball has defi­ni­tely been rolling for bet­ter treat­ment. Some doc­tors out there are truly lis­te­ning. Many patients out there are lear­ning and deman­ding change. It’s hap­pe­ning. But baby, we have a LONG WAY TO GO. And the power will be in the hand of patients who ques­tion their treat­ment, find ans­wers via STTM and other web­si­tes and patient forums, and con­ti­nue to demand change from their doc­tors and the entire medi­cal esta­blish­ment. I just hope to see more change soo­ner than later, don’t you?!

p.s. Want to spread the word?? Go HERE to order a t-shirt or bum­per stic­kers. You CAN make a difference!

A friend of mine, Kerry, recently con­fes­sed to me and a few friends that it was time to find a new doc­tor. Her nor­mal one had been a disap­point­ment for her far too many times. Time to move on.

And how she is moving on TOTALLY impres­ses me, and I think all of you rea­ding this should con­si­der this posi­ti­vely asser­tive and self-advocating strategy.

First, she scou­red through her list of doc­tors on her insu­rance plan, and found one that loo­ked pro­mi­sing. She called and spoke to his nurse on the phone. She then told us the follo­wing: I explai­ned that I use Armour and refuse to change meds; I am VERY invol­ved in my health; I watch my Frees care­fully and don’t rely on the TSH at all since the feed­back loop is inte­rrup­ted by meds..etc. With that said, the nurse sta­ted she would check with the doctor.

In other words, my friend Kerry refu­sed to do what all of us have done most of our lives – approach the doc­tor pas­si­vely. She clearly out­li­ned who she is, where her inte­lli­gence is about her body, and that she expects a part­nership, not a demi-god, one-sided dic­ta­torship of what is right and what isn’t right for her health care.

She also sta­ted that if this doc­tor didn’t come through, her next stra­tegy was to write a let­ter about her health needs and how she wants to be very invol­ved in her treat­ment, then fax it to every avai­la­ble doc­tor on her insu­rance list in her area and see if she gets someone calling.

MAJOR, HAND-CLAPPING BRAVO, Kerry!!

THAT, friends, is the way each and every thy­roid patient should approach their health care: can­did as to your beliefs about your treat­ment, and what you want from the doc­tor. And even­tually, your asser­tive approach will pro­duce a doc­tor who is going to be a gem for you! Remem­ber: it’s YOUR body and YOU live in it.

p.s. Without an insu­rance plan? Pull out the Yellow pages! And don’t hesi­tate to use parts of this Dear Doc­tor tem­plate let­ter to help you flesh out and com­pose your words or letter.

***WANT TO MAKE A FASHION STATEMENT ABOUT YOUR THYROID TREATMENT? Go HERE for a thy­roid advo­cacy t-shirt. I dare you to wear it to your doc­tors appoint­ment. (But if you don’t, wear it everywhere else. It does attract questions.)

For 2008, as a hypothy­roid patient: I will:

1) expect that the rela­tionship with my doc­tor will be a TEAM approach to my health care: not just his medi­cal school/continuing education/experience, but also my own impor­tant know­ledge and wis­dom that I have gai­ned (from rea­ding sites like this), plus my sub­jec­tive expe­rience on my medi­ca­tion. My doc­tor does not live in my body or expe­rience my symp­toms; I do.

2) take the time to find a bet­ter doc­tor if my doc­tor refu­ses to res­pect the know­ledge I have gai­ned from rea­ding sites like this, and/or will not lis­ten to my sub­jec­tive expe­rience in my own body!

3) make my symp­toms far more impor­tant than ink spots on a piece of paper called lab results, and will not pas­si­vely allow a doc­tor to treat me ONLY accor­ding to those lab results.

4) give myself impor­tant sup­ple­ments, inc­lu­ding, but not limi­ted to: sele­nium and zinc (helps con­ver­sion of T4 to T3), other mine­rals which may inc­lude mag­ne­sium, etc., plenty of B-vitamins (which are nee­ded as I improve my thy­roid func­tion, besi­des sup­por­ting my adre­nals), Vita­min C (also sup­ports my adre­nals) and more that I feel are sui­ted for my needs.

5) be open to the fact that if Armour or other desic­ca­ted thy­roid pro­ducts don’t seem to be wor­king, I am making one of seve­ral mis­ta­kes in my use of it, and will iden­tify my mis­ta­kes and correct them.

Do you have others as a thy­roid patient? Just res­pond to this post.