The next step...

I thought I should update since it's been a while again. There has not been much progress in the way of getting my thyroid to work. I ended up being told by Dr. S to go have a full panel thyroid screening done, so that took place this last week. We'll have the results in a week and a half. The Nurse Practitioner I saw was absolutely wonderful, and willing to work with the same type of thyroid replacement (if I need it) that Dr. S said he could work with best so that I wouldn't have to stay on it forever. I am very happy about that.

I also have my next dental revision appointment made for March. I was bummed to know that was the first date that Dr. C had open, so it's going to be a longer wait than I anticipated. The good thing is, he'll be taking care of all the crowns on the right side of my mouth, not just one section, so I'll only need one more appointment for the other side and then I'll be amalgam free. I'm hoping that appointment can come quickly after the first one. If I'm going to feel terrible afterward, I want to get it all done and not have to keep feeling awful in segments. One good thing about having to wait until March is that it will give the thyroid replacement time to work and that might be very helpful to my immune system and I may not feel so badly after the revisions.

I haven't had much time as of late to do any more research on mercury amalgam, but I can still tell you I know it's bad, bad stuff. No one, under any circumstances, should have to have it in their bodies! I just read a book from Dr. Joseph Mercola entitled "Take Control of Your Health". He had some more great information regarding mercury in vaccines and how the lobbyists for the drug companies are unbelievable in their tactics to get the government to allow them to do what they do. It was a good read. I don't agree with all of what he says, but there are several things that I'm in huge agreement on and trying to make those changes for my family and me.

The long road continues....

I apologize for not updating in a while. It's been a busy month, and extra time was no where to be found. Now that I've got a few things off my plate, I have a little more "spare" time to share what's been happening with me as of late.

We are still treating my thyroid with diet. It was going well for a while, but it seems that my morning temps are getting stuck at an average of 96.5 and have been for about two weeks. My doctor hasn't had me change anything, so everything must be going as expected, though.

I saw my doctor just before the 1st of the year, and while palpating my head to adjust it, he noticed that my eustachian tube on the left side was twisted out of proportion, which was causing a lot of my pain on the left side. He adjusted it, and will continue needing to adjust it until it is "trained" to stay untwisted. This probably was the cause of my off-balance feelings and dizziness, because once he did that I've had only minimal of either problem. I can't believe the difference that one little tube has made in the problems I was having!

The next day, I also saw my dentist, and he fitted me for a night guard to help me stop either clenching or grinding my teeth at night. He felt with what symptoms I was explaining to him that my jaw was out of occlusion (proper bite) from doing one or the other, and needed rest. He and I discussed the reasons for the bruxism (grinding or clenching), and came upon the conclusion that it is because of all the work I've had done on my teeth over the last year it has changed the way my jaw rests. If the night guard helps (which it seems to be), there may be a more permanent solution to fixing the occlusion once we finish the last 5 crowns, and that would be to have braces to adjust and settle my bite.

It continues to be a very long road to regaining my health, but it seems like we're closer to it than we have been in a long time. The more mercury I continue to get out of my body the better I am feeling. There's still much ahead, however, so I'm not getting too excited. I now have the go ahead from my doctor to start working on the last five crowns, so I'll be making my next appointment with the dentist soon. In a way I'm looking forward to it, and in another I'm dreading it since it could mean more pain and suffering in new and different ways as my body adjusts to each revision.

More on the thyroid...

We are still in the process of treating my thyroid, and working hard with diet to stabilize it. So far it's going pretty well. I still get fatigued quite often, but it seems to be less than before. The one big thing that I'm still (frustratingly) not able to get rid of is my head and neck pain. Sometimes it is quite excruciating, and becoming a concern to me since my doctor and chiropractor can't seem to settle it down any with their treatments. I'm considering a trip to the dentist since the pain seems to be radiating around my upper left jaw and then heading toward my temple and through to my sinus area. I had a tooth worked on over a year ago (one of the first revisions) that Dr. C told me had an exposed root under the amalgam from decay. He replaced it with composite filling and it seemed to be fine, but things just aren't settling down enough for my comfort and I'm curious if there's a problem. I also have a crowned tooth with amalgam under it sitting right next to the tooth in question. Something could be wrong there as well.

I happened to come across this thyroid function quiz, and thought it was rather interesting. I scored 25 out of 100 - that's actually pretty terrible! I do not know anything about the products offered for sale at this site, however, so I cannot tell you whether they are safe or not.

Another method of testing your thyroid (which is actually the old way before blood tests were available - and actually is a lot more reliable - is the basal body temperature method, and this is one that I am doing. This is not the chart I use, but a good one that I had found online. I use a digital thermometer, so I don't have to wait the 10 minutes, only a minute or less. I try to make sure to take it as soon as I wake up so that I get the most accurate temperature. The "normal" range that your temps should be in are between 97.4 and 98.1. Anything lower could mean thyroid dysfunction. Mine have ranged all the way from 95.0 to 97.1, all below the normal range.

It's so frustrating to me to know that mercury most likely is causing all of these problems for me. Mercury "loves" the thyroid, brain, and liver the most, but of course it has the whole body to wreak havoc in. Again, if you suffer from an ailment that just happened to show up either shortly after mercury exposure or a length of time after, if amalgam is the exposure, consider replacing it/them (with knowledgeable medical and dental personnel). Your body will thank you for it.

A diagnosis within a diagnosis...

I have a bit of time today and thought I would go over my symptoms list again from July and see what may have changed since then. Within just the short amount of time I've been doing the oil pulling (or swishing), I have also seen a couple more symptoms go...enough for my doctor to be able to finally see the current diagnosis and treat much of the remaining symptoms and get me healthy enough to finish the dental revision.

This is the list from July:
-frequent irritability (feels like finger nails across a chalkboard x3)
-sensory overload (''feel'' words/sounds/sensitive to touch)
-occasional feeling of suffocation/chest soreness
-vision disturbances (wobbly-like looking in a fish bowl)
-dizzy spells(vertigo?)
-chronic fatigue
-frequent anxiousness
-frequent chills/cold
-fatigue, tire easily
-neck sensitivity
-occasional indigestion
-occasional nausea
-poor memory
-brain fog
-inability to concentrate
-occasional palpitations
-lack of confidence
-don’t like to be alone
-mood swings
-headaches
-indecision
-unpredictable mensus/pms
-motion sickness
-skin eruptions
-bad breath
-occasional extreme thirst, dry throat
-zinc deficiency
-anemia

This is the list now:
-severe head and neck pain/achiness
-unexplained weight gain
-muscle aches/pain
-vision disturbances (off-balance feeling)
-dizzy spells(vertigo?)
-chronic fatigue
-hair loss
-occasional irritability (feels like finger nails across a chalkboard x3)
-occasional sensory overload (''feel'' words/sounds/sensitive to touch)
-frequent chills/cold (body temp below normal)
-neck sensitivity
-occasional indigestion
-occasional nausea
-poor memory
-brain fog/inability to concentrate
-mood swings
-motion sickness
-skin eruptions
-bad breath
-occasional extreme thirst, dry throat
-zinc deficiency
-anemia

For many of you who suffer with hypothyroidism, you may notice quite a few of my "new" symptoms as some of your own. My doctor has diagnosed me with hypothyroidism and has started treating me with nutritional foods to aggressively get my thyroid working properly again. There is a way to do it naturally, and since I have been having so many issues with reacting to medications, we chose to go this route. He has me taking kelp, miso, and 2 herbal foods called sunrise and electrosport. He said that within 2-3 months my thyroid should stabilize.

I have not discussed yet how mercury plays a role in screwing up the thyroid, and I just recently found this great article on it. http://tuberose.com/Thyroid.html
This article also mentions fluoride and how that has caused hypothyroidism as well. It's a very interesting read. If you want to know more besides that article, just google "thyroid mercury".

Mercury ban in cosmetics...

I apologize for not posting in a while. It's the Christmas season and I've been kept pretty busy, but I wanted to share this information I just saw come up for Minnesota. Yea!!!

http://wcco.com/local/mascara.mercury.ban.2.610516.html

I'll update as soon as I can.

Seems to be working...

Today is day 3 of doing the oil pulling, or swishing. I have to admit, the first day it felt pretty gross swishing it around, tasted terrible, and I had problems keeping it in my mouth because my sinuses were starting to drain down the back of my throat and I was gagging. The second day went much better, and I didn't start gagging and spitting up junk until after I was done. It also didn't taste as bad, and didn't seem to be as difficult to do. Today was a breeze and I almost forgot to go and spit it out at the twenty minute mark. I'm still not expecting much yet in the way of relief, but every little positive step seems like good improvement. I have been noticing small windows of energy the last two days sandwiched in between extreme fatigue and brain-fog, and the headache seems to be less painful. Overall my thought process is starting to become more positive, and I'm feeling more confident about things.

I have been digging around the website I previously mentioned (earthclinic.com), and finding a lot of interesting information. Some of it seems pretty far out there, but the body is an amazing creation, and natural means for health just seems more wise to me than using man-made chemicals that can do more harm than good. Have you ever noticed that the side effects listed on your prescription (or on t.v. commercials for medication) are more than what the medicine is used for? Worse off for me is that I haven't seemed to do well with any prescription meds at all over these last 2 1/2 years. The nasonex was just another reason to make me understand that with getting more side effects than what it was supposed to be helping with.

One remedy (on the website) I've decided to incorporate (again) is molasses. Molasses is great for anemia. Dr. S had me taking it a number of years ago for my anemia, but I stopped doing it for some odd reason I can't remember. It was really good to see the health benefits of this simple food, and to know that it is commonly used and has helped many people. I'm hoping that it will pull me out of the extreme fatigue/brain-fog funk and make me feel a little more human most days. I am intrigued by the apple cider vinegar method, but probably won't try that until I see how the oil pulling works.

Help with toxicity...

Today I was looking up ways to non-medicinally help with my sinusitis. I came across this site and asked Dr. S about it. He knows it as "swishing", and highly recommends it. http://www.earthclinic.com/Remedies/oil_pulling.html

Sparky also found this one:http://www.oilpulling.com/

Dr. S wants me to try it, so I'm pretty up on it. I read most of the testimonials this afternoon on the one website and found it to be very encouraging, with only a few people finding no relief. I will be starting this "program" tomorrow, and expecting to have quite a few bad days before I feel anything good since I know it has a lot of toxins to pull out.

Okay, you're asking about my remaining amalgams and what this will do to them. It's probably not the best thing to do while they're still there, but I'm willing to do anything non-medicinal if I will feel better for the holidays! The amalgams also are hidden under the crowns, so the only problem I would have is the mercury being pulled through my body, and at this point, I think with all I've been through I can handle that!