CatandCanary

I am having a bad IC flare after a brief bought with a UTI. I have not had any problems since my diagnosis of IC two years ago after a UTI. I went on the IC diet and was fine. Found I just needed to avoid citrus. I am freaking out. I thought this was a thing of the past. Back on the diet. Yea more restrictions. Does anyone dealing with this have suggestions for natural ways to help the discomfort?

Hi loraleena,

I have IC and I have to say it has for the most part gone away after I stopped eating gluten. My doctor did ask me about that and if it had been better. I still seem to go a lot more than normal but the pain is for the most part gone now. I don't know if it helps but I use a heating pad on my back not my front with my knees up and it help a little bit. I have resorted to taking pain pills for it at night, it is much worse when I lay down. I have had the treatments and that realy hurts to. The last time I went to the Dr. with a flar up, he had to give me a pain shot before I could move off the table. I haven't had to go back for a long time now. I know, stress can make it much worse. Try to rest as much as possible. Also I noticed it was a little better when I took Pepsid. I don't know if it is gluten free so look at the lable.
I hope it goes away soon.

Cathy

I have Hashimotos diagnosed by antibodies of 799. I was on Armour now on Cytomel, but might go back to Armour. All the info from everyone else about Armour is correct. Find a doc to prescribe. I urge you to go to Dr. Lowe.com and read all about this. He is my doctor as well as his wife. Having pain all over is definitley a sign of thyroid issues. Dr. Lowe has cured many fibromyalgia patients through his thyroid treatment.

Hi loraleena,

Your number is higher than mine. Are they still that high? What did your doctor say about what was the cause of them to be so high? I will look at Dr. Lowe's web page tonight, thank you for letting me know about it. I want to find as much help as possible. The pain is real hard to take. I don't want to take pain medication because I don't like the way it makes me feel.

Thank you for your help
Cathy

I see that you have Kaiser.

I had Kaiser during my first 3 years of illness. I had no trouble getting Armour from my Endo....however....I only got worse under their care. The main reason....they specialize in disease. They do not care about the cause of disease....nor do they look for the cause.

They treated my thyroid and that was about it. I didnt get better and since no other disease was showing up....there was nothing more for them to do.

They said I might have more autoimmune stuff occurring but would have to wait until it was something that was identifiable in a test. Sometimes it takes awhile to fully develop.

Now...why the heck would I want to wait around to get more disease??

They said once my thyroid had been treated and the levels were normal....it wasnt important if there were still antibodies present.

It may not have been important to them but it was certainly important to me. The best thing I ever did was leave Kasier and start getting some real answers.

Hi Rachel,

Thank you for all this info it is all so hard to understand. It is even harder when you feel so sick. I know you know the feeling. I can't beleive that people out there realy do care. It helps to get as much input as possible somehow it makes feeling like this better.

I know there is an answer and you are one that keeps giving me hope, thank you.

I think you are correct when you say there is something else going when your numbers are so high. I have tried so hard to keep myself healthy from the time I was very young. It is so hard to take when my body just doesn't work for me.

I'm so glad that you are out there.

Thanks again
Cathy

Hashimotos is an autoimmune disease of your Thyroid. Its HypoThyroid but in an autoimmune way. Sometimes it even has symptoms of hyperthyroid - but that is just an acute flareup.

It means the TSH is virtually useless and not useful to dose by. All bets are off when you have Hashis. You have to dose to suppress the TSH as much as possible ( get it to 0) and reduce Antibodies to 0. If you don't do that - the Antibodies will keep attacking your Thyroid and killing it. They will eventually attack so much they cause Thyroid Cancer or just complete Thyroid failure.

Did your Dr test Antibodies again or is this the same test as before ( 757)

More T3 from Armour will not make you worse. It will make you better. Armour will suppress your TSH, get rid of your Antibodies and make you feel well - better than any other med. It is completely natural and as close to bio identical as our own Thyroids as possible. It replaces what your own Thyroid can't do. Some people use a synthetic T4/T3 combo - but most don't seem to get as good results as straight Armour.

Your current med isn't working - as you have Antibodies of 757. What more proof does this Dr need ? Sorry - you need a new Dr.

Hi Geogie,

Thank you for getting back to this so fast. (757) is the last test the same one as before. I have not been asked to repeat the test yet, she requested I do it in 2 to 4 months. At this point I feel let down by my HMO and they did not make it clear about why my Anibodies are so high they said "Your antibodies are positive consistent with the diagnosis of Hashimoto's thyroiditis." I have been on the Levothroid for many months now and that should be taking care of the Antbodies if it is going to. I am waiting for on-line papers from Kaiser to e-mail my doctor directly. They should be here in a few days. I am wondering how I would get some help dealing with Kaiser to get a second opinion and maybe an explaination of why my numbers are so high and what it will take to get them right. I don't realy care for this doctor because she didn't follow up with me on this and just sent me back to the GP. I don't understand why both of them seem to not care enough about this to talk about it in person. I feel something should be done. I am going to call Kaiser right now and ask them to send a note to the doctor asking her why my anibodies are still high even with medication and should I exspect them to go down after lowering my Levothroid or is she just going to let my thyroid die.

Now I'm a little steamed. Sorry.

Thanks for your help, I realy needed it.

Cat

Georgie and Nutralady,

Thank you for all this information, I am going to print this up and take it to the doctor with me the next time I go. I did not know about the T1 and T2, I am going to get the test results in the mail any day now and I will most deffanatly take a look into getting info on where I can buy it, if my doctor will not give it to me. If I don't start feeling better soon I'm not going to wait to long before I call her back and go in. My GP only went over the T3 and T4 nothing else. When I get the results back I will be able to see it in black and white. No more over the phone or from the doctor. I have some property in Mexico that I visit 2 time a year, and if I have to, I will get a doctor there. I'm despret to get help, the state of mind I am in now, I am suprised I can even remember my own name.
Your help has been very appriciated.

Thank you so much.
Cat

Hi everyone,

I received my test results in the mail.

TSH, 3rd Generation 0.042
T4 Free 1.8
Tissue Transglutaminase IGG <3
Tissue Transglutaminase IGA <3
My Glucose Fasting test is 101 Border Line

The doctor recomends to lower the dose of Levothroid and changing to Armour would not be a good thing because Armour has more T3 in it and would make things worse. I am now taking 0.088mg of Levothroid.

Reading the other post on here, it looks like they don't realy look at the TSH when you have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, is that correct? My doctor said I have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis now, what is the differance between having hypothyroid and Hashimoto's or are they the same thing?

Thanks for your help
Cathy