Hello and thanks for this forum. Yesterday I got my diagnosis of Hashimoto's and ended up here thru links my friends sent me to the blog.
For some time - months, years even - I've been experiencing a sort of fuzzy feeling I couldn't really quantify until an aphasic episode one morning reminded me of my first migraine. (I've only had two full-blown ones, at the beginning of puberty, and I'm 45 now.) Now I'm thinking that this feeling is more of an aura sensation and that perimenopause has been increasing the symptoms, along with my Hashimoto's, and the reading I've been doing is bearing that out.
The problem is that after the brief aphasia episode, I had a different episode a week and a half later where I suddenly felt so spacy I was afraid to drive. My neighbor checked my BP and found my normally-low-ish BP to be 140/90, which is unheard-of for me; my "normal" is more like 115/70! After a trip to Urgent Care and an overnight in the hospital for observation, nobody had any idea what caused the BP spike. I was put on a beta blocker - Atenolol - which made me just shy of comatose and have since stopped taking so I can be conscious during the day. My BP is still higher than *my* normal, but within the OK range 90% of the time, although I'm not sure I trust my own readings just yet, still new at the process of taking my BP.
To complicate things a bit more, I've been seeing a chiropractor for years for headache relief after a car accident maybe 20 years ago. Conventional treatment for the whiplash wasn't working, but I got immediate relief with one adjustment. The headaches recur from time to time, and whenever I'm adjusted, assuming the chiro is able to complete it (I literally need a massage first and don't always have the time), the headaches cease and stay gone for up to a month, sometimes more.
After the aphasia episode, my PCP did finally refer me to a neurologist as the aura sensation wasn't going away. I have a slew of tests yet to get thru, including a doppler and MRA of the arteries in my neck; when I was describing my symptoms to my chiro he suggested that some of the symptoms might also be caused or exacerbated by vertebral artery occlusion, especially since the cervical adjustments had been giving me relief. The neuro would like me to hold off on any more cervical adjustments, as my HMO's position on them is now that they're not recommended due to the risk of vetebral or carotid artery dissection, and until she's conclusively ruled out a TIA as the cause of the aphasia she'd rather not risk it (despite my getting 20 years of adjustments with no problems - but she also is wondering if perhaps there has already BEEN a dissection). The headaches are coming back, though, and if they're in fact related to the migraines and not just leftover whiplash, I'd rather not wait for a full-blown one with the BP spike. I can also still feel my thyroid after the ultrasound last week, as though it's trying to close off my windpipe.
I switched out my fossil of an endocrinologist for a younger and more openminded model LOL who drew tons of blood and was in fact the one who thought to check for the antibodies in the first place. My T3 is super-low, just .01 above the lowest number in the "normal" range, but because of the BP spikes she's reluctant to add T3 to my Levothroid prescription.
I had been self-treating using the supplements and amino acids described in Julia Ross's books The Mood Cure and The Diet Cure, and while I haven't lost any appreciable weight (struggling to get below 145 from a starting weight of 150), my mood has improved immeasurably, I have more energy most days, and I've been able to lose the antidepressants I was on for YEARS. SAM-e and GABA were most helpful to my mood and I haven't even needed to take them for a couple months now. Felt good enough to back off most of those, but for now have started up on some of them, but I'm a bit nervous about Tyrosine.
On the bright side, I can kick my PCP to the curb. I've had my symptoms discounted for years now by a doctor who keeps trying to put me on antidepressants for what she feels is stress and anxiety and chided for not having the energy to really do a full-on exercise program and for my way-out (to her, anyway) diet which is way more Nourishing Traditions than USDA Food Pyramid. ("You eat COCONUT OIL?!?!? But...but...that's SATURATED FAT!!!"
)
Can anyone help me connect the dots?
