Getting Off Adrenal Steroids, Recovering from Hypothyroidism, Anxiety and Other Symptoms. Getting My Life Back!

April 15th, 2011: I received my results from the doctor who had, for the 3rd time in four years run a full thyroid panel trying to uncover why I had never recovered from pneumonia that almost killed me in college and had severe exercise intolerance, anxiety, depression etc. TSH was high indicating hypothyroid. Refusing to take medication, as I was always about the natural route, I came to find Janie’s STTM book where she discussed Armour thyroid, among many other valuable things. I put myself on Armour immediately and found instant success in the first few days and was so happy to have “found the answer”.

However, when I tried increasing the dose a week or so later I became dizzy, had high resting heart rate for the first time in my young adult life, and felt nauseous. Clearly something was wrong and after further research I was instructed to run a saliva cortisol test.

June 1st 2011: Saliva cortisol test was run and ten days later the results showed significantly impaired adrenal function in the morning and afternoon and yet high nighttime cortisol. The drug Hydrocortisone was strongly recommended to me. Still being thick-headed and adamant about not taking any drugs I began on Isocort, which caused severe involuntary tremors, panic attacks, anxiety, and overall made me feel worse. HC seemed to be the obvious route, and not wanting to stall my recovery I happily accepted this method in hopes of seeing recovery in the long term.

July 9th, 2011: I began Hydrocortisone, or HC, and the symptoms I experienced on Isocort vanished, it was a miracle! Also, my anxiety and panic attacks which were present before I was diagnosed were largely gone, however I became tired much easier and found even going to the mailbox or climbing stairs to be quite troublesome….I was only 25 at the time!

For the next several months I went through the dance of getting on the correct dose of HC before starting T3 only treatment, which I had to do so I was told, because my RT3 was through the roof. After not being able to tolerate T3 due to high heart rate I was told Florinef would help, especially since my aldosterone was now getting low due to the time on HC already and I was getting very dizzy. After getting to a full tab of Florinef, four months and several blood work panels later, I could finally start ramping up my T3 dosage, which is what my body  needed anyways.

January 3rd, 2012: I began increasing T3 every 5-7 days based on what I was being advised. But after about 3 months I had made it to the top of the dosing threshold, and I still did not feel well. This was getting to feel like trying to push over the Eiffel Tower by hand! What was worse is that in all my time on HC, my sex hormones became far out of whack and Estrogen was high, Testosterone was low, and nothing seemed to be working…I was caught in the trap of supplementing drugs for symptoms that other drugs were causing, the catch 22 I swore I would never let happen.

April 14th, 2012: I read Paul Robinson’s book, found it to be stunningly simple as far as how to treat the dreaded disease of hypothyroid and low cortisol.  It seemed too simple, but at this point, I had nothing to lose, I figure I was worse off at this point than when I had begun almost a year ago.

April 28th, 2012 (5:45 am): I took my first dose of T3 only medication and things began to change radically from here! Hear rate, blood pressure, temperature, all went sky high on my very first day! It felt terrible, however I was guided that I needed to dump as much of the Florinef and HC as I could comfortably do. It was almost every day for the first week I was dropping a tab of Florinef, and in a little over 1 week I had dumped all of those medications, which had took six months of sensitive blood testing and increasing to arrive at.

My body was now making aldosterone on its own, I no longer needed these drugs! HC was next in line. First it was every 4 days, then 3, 2, and then every day I was dropping HC until finally, exactly one month to the day from starting the CT3M, I was steroid free and feeling better than I have in years!

May 27, 2012 (present day): This is now my second full day with no HC, it feels wonderful. I am not tied to this drug to live and my body is happily producing the hormones I need all thanks to the CT3M.

By taking the needed T3 during my own body’s natural circadian rhythm I have provided my own adrenal glands with the necessary resources to produce all the cortisol, aldosterone, DHEA and myriad of other hormones they were made to produce ON THEIR OWN!

I have a way to go yet before I fully regain my health, and I am confident I will, but the difference with this method is that there clearly is an end to the madness.

Some people do desperately need HC and other drugs to survive and I won’t dispute that , but perhaps not as many as we think do if we can learn to give the body what it needs when it needs it.

Anyone who struggles with these disorders needs to read Paul Robinson’s Recovering with T3 book and give the CT3M an honest effort before slugging along with HC or worse, just suffering.

This method does work and I’m living proof, and I do finally feel  ALIVE!

Post Script

I can never thank God and the people he put in my path enough. I’m not rich and don’t make much money at all actually, so I cant send you all a million dollars (don’t you wish! : )

Many of you I will probably never see face to face in this life that I could somehow give you the biggest hug and thank you for the life I got back thanks to your support, encouragement, and experience with this cruel disease.

And so, the best way I can thank you is to just pay it forward. I will live the life I have to the fullest and best of my ability as I never could have had I remained sick. I’m currently studying to be a counsellor and will graduate in two years (I would have graduated two weeks ago with my original cohort but my illness prevented me from participating at that level of academic output).

When I do I will come in contact with tens of thousands of human lives who are suffering, struggling, and in many cases barely hanging on to what they have and are in need of a change, and I’ll never forget what I got from you guys each time I sit down with them.

I will also have the wherewithal to suggest checking hormone levels and nutritional supplements for supposed mental health disorders such as generalized anxiety, depression, bi-polar, autism, aspbergers, and the list goes on of MH issues we have seen in our circles resolve once correcting hormonal imbalances.

So thanks to every last one of you for being a support for me as each one of you contributed to my getting well and in turn helping me change lives as well.

P.S. If I do decide to continue on to get my doctoral degree, I have already decided that my dissertation will be on drastically reducing the number of mental health diagnoses by balancing the thyroid and adrenal hormones within the body 🙂

Though no one can go back and make a brand new start,
anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.”
-Marcus Aurelius