Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Add Back Therapy

I cannot believe that I forgot about this blog for 9 months!!  Not Good. Not Good.  Giving myself a small slap on the wrist for that!!

Anyway, for the last 6 months - since January 2015 - I have been following the Add Back Therapy. This is where I take small amounts of both NDT - Natural Desiccated Thyroid (Thyrogold) - and ATD - Anti Thyroid Drugs (Methimazole aka Tapazole) - in order for my body to be receiving the T3 it needs and also getting treatment to control the Graves Anti-bodies still raging around.

Last year when I tried to follow the plan of taking Thyrogold for 2 weeks before increasing, I ended up taking far too much and developing Graves Symptoms again (heart palpitations mostly) and so I stopped and backed off for a few weeks. The T3 had begun pooling in my body which caused my heart to palpitate, because I was taking far too much.

In January 2015 I tried again.  Only this time I followed a different plan. This time I stayed on the lowest dose until symptoms started and then increased the dosage. This worked perfectly.

I stayed on the lowest dose of Thyrogold, which is 150 mg, daily for 3 weeks. When I began to feel bad, especially with pain in my hip joints, I knew it was time to increase, so I upped the daily dose to 300 mg. That was back in February 2015, and 5 months later, I am still on the 300 mg dose since I still dont have any symptoms.

And I feel absolutely wonderful too!!  The best I have been for a very long time.

Whenever I go and see my GP, I do so only to get blood tests and results. I have asked him to test my blood for Graves Anti-bodies, but he refuses to do so. He actually said that an antibody test was ONLY needed for diagnostic purposes and since I was diagnosed 5 years ago, I do not need any further anti body tests!!

The last anti body test results I have, are dated June 2012 when I was being treated by an endocrinologist. She discharged me back to the GP in early 2013 because I was "cured" and yes she actually spoke the word Cured. What she meant was that my TSH was now within the normal range and that was good enough for her.

Can you believe just how uneducated these conventional doctors and specialists are?? 

This is why I am doing the add back therapy. I have to go against convention in order to be treated.

So far my GP has not offered me any Synthroid. If he did, I might fill in the prescription, but would NEVER actually TAKE any of those synthetic meds. The GP however is giving me prescriptions for Methimazole, but I have to pay for these as this drug is NOT covered by my insurance.