My Endocrinologist is a weinie....

I just got back from a visit to my endo. He's so fracking useless.
Past conversations have gone as such: "how are you feeling?" Doc, i feel like crap, I'm exhausted, I can't lose weight, my skin is dry, my periods are crazy, I have palpitations at night, my hair is falling out, as are my eye brows. What can we do about this? "nothing, you have Hashimoto's so it's normal for you to feel like this." End of conversation.

Today's visit was pathetic. He examined my thyroid by feeling my neck like a scared little boy copping his first feel of a nipple. Barely skimming the skin. Um, Doc, my thyroid is INSIDE OF MY NECK, not on the surface. I think you need a bit more pressure to feel anything.

As useless as he is as a doctor, he is a good relay for my lab results. My numbers are great right now. I had to twist his arm to get him to write a scrip for a thyroid antibody test. He told me it was useless - "You have Hashimoto's, it's not going away. Although, your numbers were very high the last time they were tested."

He would not, or could not, answer me when I asked if I was feeling better AND the antibody numbers were lower then there might be a connection between the two things. I suppose he really doesn't know. Which is sad. As my Aunt says "well, honey, not every doctor graduated at the head of the class. Someone had to be the worst student."

He was not interested in the changes I've made, the weight that I've lost, the fish oil, the vitamin D3, the selenium, the manganese, the magnesium, eliminating gluten, paleo or anything. All he said was "your numbers are good", in a non-committal, non-enthusiastic voice. He did not say "wow, your numbers are vastly better" (TSH, 3rd generation has gone from 15.22 / in 2008 down to 6.47 in 2009 after starting the selenium/manganese down to 3.65 at this most recent blood work.)

AND, AND AND... this blood work is actually from a couple of months ago, before I went fairly strict paleo in early September 2010. (I've been putting off going to see him since he's so useless. I just get depressed when I see him) Since he wrote out a scrip for all new blood work, I'm going to go soon and see if there's an even bigger improvement.

Signing off and headed to do some work in the studio. (I took the whole day off to recoup mentally after the visit to Dr. Useless.)

Robb Wolf says.....

So, I've been driving the big guy crazy lately by starting virtually every sentence with "Robb Wolf says..." I really can't say enough about the guy.

I've subscribed to his blog for a long time but never downloaded his podcasts before. (I do most of my computing at work and my PC there is made of wood. Really. There's no sound card, videos won't play etc. It's just a block of wood that's good only for spreadsheets and hurling invectives at.) In the weeks before we left for Olympia, I downloaded ALL of the podcasts and I've been slowly making my way through them one at a time. (10 hours total on the plane to Vegas = lots of Robb Wolf/Andy Deas time)

I've been applying a lot of the suggestions that he makes and I'm starting to see results. Just before we left for Olympia, I added Vitamin D to my regiment. In the 15 days since starting that, I've lost about 3 pounds. Now, some of that is due to stepping up my workouts again. However, my workouts have been as good as possible considering how absolutely crap I feel most of the time. Since starting the Vitamin D, I've felt better than I have in a long time, hence I've been able to step it up. Losing weight has been a supreme struggle for me since the splenectomy surgery and all the prenisone I was on while I was sick. (2002 through 2004) I gained over 35 lbs while I was going through all the treatments - partially from the medications and partially from not being allowed to workout because I could have literally died from it. Plus, I have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis which makes weight loss a heart breaking struggle. On top of that, I suspect there's some other autoimmune thing going on or some type of "energy deficit" illness (mitochondria malfunction or some such happiness) It's like I have a very limited energy budget and I can spend it training or functioning in life, but I can not do both. (which is why when we travel, I am usually incapacitated from blowing my energy load on the actual travel and have nothing left when I get to the event! Sucks!)

The first time I put *all* my new tools in effect was in June when we traveled to Atlanta. I took along 80% of my own food, expecting to supplement it with stuff that I knew I could get in town. I took a ton of fish oil each day and creatine (Just plain, unflavored creatine monohydrate) I made sure I had a lot of healthy fats (coconut, avocado) and I came though that event like a champ. The big guy was shocked. Not only did I have energy but I didn't get all weird and emotionally withdrawn like I usually do. In other words, I was fun to be around.

I've been keeping up these original changes and have been slowly weeding any other problem areas. I've cut my milk intake down to about 1/4 of a cup or less per day. (I'm only having 1 cup of coffee per day and it's gotta be with milk. Or someone will die and it won't be me. Murder would ensue) I still have great difficulty accepting that I have to give up my home made, slow fermented sourdough bread. I've laid off of it for a few weeks though and I can't say that I *feel* better, but I'll give it some more time. Other than that, the only grains I'd been eating was rice, maybe every 2 weeks. (I laid off pasta,etc about a year ago) I do know that I usually feel ok if I have my own bread once or twice a week and NO OTHER GRAINS AT ALL. If I have my bread and some rice and a hot bog in a bun and some ice cream and....BLAM, it's a big autoimmune explosion. Sore joints, swollen knuckles, exhaustion, etc. It makes it easier to avoid all that stuff when it comes with built in aversion therapy. (Not to mention, when Robb Wolf says... "it's a gut irritant" it sounds really disgusting and so becomes even easier to avoid!)

So, It's a work in progress. I'll keep updating here as changes are made and will try to figure out what is working or not.

One more thing, I'd be remiss if I didn't add in here the other people who I quote to varying degrees. I some times have been know to say

• "Mark Sisson says" (despite the naysayers on his 80/20 rule, if it hadn't been for him, Primal would have seemed too overwhelming and I wouldn't have started it. Once I saw that it made me feel better, I was able to put 80/20 behind and make it more like 99/1)
• "Melicious says" (For her sheer gumption and stick-to-it-tiveness and determination and inspiration. For when I need to hear that yes, this can be hard and yes, it can be ok to whine and cry. But do it anyway. Because I am worth it. Roar!!!!) (and because we have the same taste in boots.) (And music) (and I am a goofy fan girl for Roller Derby gals!)
• "the folks at Whole9 say" (It was the Whole9 folks who gave me the idea to bring all my own food to Atlanta and stick to my guns while doing it)

First Post & Introduction

Welcome Oh Intrepid Readers! Welcome to my blog. Here I will write about lifting weights and the glories of food. I try to eat as primally as possible, with a smidgen of Nourishing Traditions thrown in. I strive really hard to eat things that my Grandmother would recognize as food - and I try to take it further than that: What would Ayla eat? W.W.A.E? Yes, I know she's fictional, but somehow asking myself that when someone is trying to present me with a bag of cheetos or a box of Dunkin' Donuts, which I call Dunkin' Death®, it helps me resist a little better. I picture Ayla wrinkling up her little primal nose and backing away, reaching for her spear so she can poke the offending, non-food item away.
With that being said - I am NOT perfect, I am not the food police, I like chocolate, I like bourbon, I like ice cream and if it's your birthday, I will most likely have a small piece of your cake. I'm also half Japanese, so I will have rice on occasion. I bake my own slow fermented sour dough bread and I am planning to build my own earth oven in the yard and I will be eating my bread, even if Ayla most likely didn't eat bread. I figure if I resist the Dunkin' Death® and the cheetos on a regular basis i can eat a moderate portion of home made, high quality, lovingly made non-primal food and it won't kill me. So, when I talk about baking bread or eating the dessert that I am probably going to have when I go to Las Vegas for Olympia weekend, please do not send me hate mail.
I'm also going to talk about my struggles with Hashimoto's thyroiditis and Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura. The Hashimoto's is really the thorn in my life. You know how some people who are overweight will whine : "But it's my thyroid!" Well, it really is my thyroid. I have the tests to prove it. That doesn't make it any easier to deal with working my butt off, lifting heavy, eating clean, getting plenty of sleep and not losing any weight at all. I am experimenting on what works for me and I am finally getting my weigh/body fat to move in the right direction. When I tell you that I've lost about 9 pounds so far this year and I am thrilled, I'm sure you'll scoff at me, unless you've danced with this illness yourself.

That's all for now. Signing off to go batten down the hatches for Hurricane Earl!
Peace,
Strongest Girl