Hello, Ma'am

I am lucky enough (so far) to have  PCP (primary care physician) who might be open minded.  He is also quite the character and fairly hilarious. (He said "Hello Ma'am" upon entering the room.  Reminder: I'm 21 and he's a wee bit crazy in the best, non-Hypothyroid way).

So when I went in today to tell him I wanted to work on getting to a natural solution for my low functioning thyroid, and also figure out if I have low adrenal function (I promise to talk about this in a future post) I was fairly nervous that he would laugh in my face, but also confident that he wouldn't.

And he didn't, although he grimaced about the fairly large stack of papers I brought him, and asked me where the spark notes were. 

So, after being on Levothyroxine and Synthroid for nearly 3 years, I will start by changing to Armour Thyroid, a "natural, porcine-derived thyroid hormone replacement containing both T4 and T3" (www.armourthyroid.com).  In four weeks I will participate in what my doctor referred to as a "blood letting" and will test my TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone), T3 Free (Free Tridothyronine), T4 Free (Thyroxine Free), Testosterone Free and Total, FSH/LH, Cortisol (A.M.), and DHEA-S (Dehydroepiandrosterone Sulfate).  Blood letting it seems.

Now, those of us with Hypothyroidism will recognize the first three hormones quite immediately, the following are being tested for reasons contributing to my Hypothyroidism, but I have failed to write that post yet.  First, I wanted to be able to get some information out here, track what is going on with me today, and now I have to study my pants off for finals next week.

Thanks for reading!