Ursa Major's Blog

I finally discovered that I can have a blog here (yes, sometimes I can be pretty dense, I guess ). So, I decided to give it a try.

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Why am I up in the middle of the night? For several reasons. One is, that I am a night owl, always have been, and always will be. Secondly, I am feeling terrible, with stomach cramps that will give me trouble sleeping. And thirdly, night time is the one time when I can be alone, without anybody coming to interrupt what I am doing.

Today (or rather, yesterday) was a very stressful day. I slept very poorly (and very little) last night, but had to get up early (for me early, anyway), at 8:30 AM, to get ready to go to my chiropractic appointment. Normally I see Darryl (my fabulous chiropractor) on Tuesday afternoons, but was too sick on Tuesday to go and had to change my appointment to today.

So, I dragged myself out of bed. Sat in the bathroom for half an hour with terrible diarrhea and stomach cramps. Good thing that the kids and husband were gone off to work and school, so I didn't have to suppress the moans. Darn, do I ever hate feeling this way. Plus, then I had to rush to have a shower and get ready. Had to sit on toilet again, and was seriously late for my appointment (okay, 15 minutes, I hate being late).

Darryl was very sympathetic (as always when I feel bad), and did his best to fix me up. I hope it helps.

I tried to do some shopping, but had to leave the store half way through, as I couldn't manage to keep going, I kept being doubled over with pain, and was feeling too weak. So, I have half of the things I wanted, rats. I guess I'll have to try again tomorrow.

After getting home I called my naturopathic doctor to check what time my appointment was, as I knew I had an appointment, but forgot the time. I was told I had no appointment. I was shocked! I KNOW I booked an appointment last time I was there, which was exactly two weeks ago.

After that appointment Dr. Ellis wrote out the little appointment card, saying, "is Dec. 14th okay?", and then handed it to me. Then he charged me for those expensive pills that made me this sick. He obviously forgot to put the appointment into the book. I am SO mad!

The receptionist was completely unsympathetic, and just kept saying that I DO NOT have an appointment, and that he can see me on Monday at the earliest. And I was just holding together because I thought that today I could see him, and he might be able to help me.

An hour later my husband called and I told him what happened, and how sick I was. And since I know I wouldn't be able to see my MD on short notice, either, I was stuck with no doctor until Monday. He suggested I go to the hospital emergency. But there is no way I will EVER go there again, unless I am seriously hurt, not after the way they treated me there last year. Who needs it, I'd rather try to deal on my own than being treated with disrespect and being treated like a joke.

I was so hopeful that Dr. Ellis would be able to treat my adrenal burnout and low thyroid. I should have known better than agree to take herbal supplements. I've tried lots of herbals before for the fibromyalgia, because they helped other people. But herbs inevitably make me worse, because they are super high in salicylates.

The symptoms slowly sneaked up on me, and I didn't recognize the cause. First the constant stuffy nose, and suddenly not being able to sleep without using Dristan nearly every night. Then my lips starting to get terribly dry, flaking and cracking, no matter how much cream, chapstick or vaseline I'd put on them all day long. Nothing I did could fix them, and I had NEVER had that problem before.

Then I started breaking out with little red pus-filled pimples all over my nose and chin. Next my right nostril started to be completely filled with this awful crust, which I kept removing so I could breathe and blow my nose, and treated with all kinds of creams, including one specifically for the inside of the nose. It was only getting worse. And then I started having ugly bumps all over my nose, sores in my ears and scabs on my scalp. Yikes!

Two weeks ago Dr. Ellis told me to double the dose of the adrenal and thyroid meds, because my temperatures weren't going up. That's when those problems were getting worse. I still didn't catch on. My temperatures were dropping! So, on Sunday (the 10th) I tripled the dose of the thyroid meds (which Dr. Ellis said should be done if doubling wouldn't have an effect). Meaning that I started with three a day, two weeks ago went to six, and on Sunday started taking three thyroid pills, two adrenal pills, two calcium/magnesium/vitamin D pill, and one multi-vitamin pill three times a day.

I HATE taking pills. That was a lot of pills! Now I got a terrible stomach ache after each time I took my pills, even though I always ate something right afterwards. I should have been smart and stopped, but didn't.

After doubling the pills my temps dropped a lot, and slowly went lower. After going to nine thyroid pills, my temps dropped sharply by the next day, to where my temps were so low, that the average temperature for the day was below 35 degrees Celsius. I still kept taking them that day, even though I was half asleep all day, and dragged myself around with having no energy at all.

By now I was itchy all over, had frequent migraines, joint pain, my hips and feet were aching so badly that I kept taking codeine at night to be able to sleep (something I haven't had to do for a year), and had diarrhea. I FINALLY got it (wow, talk about dense) and stopped taking everything.

My temperatures started going up again the next day, but I've had chronic diarrhea since, and terrible stomach cramps. Today one temperature reading (in the middle of the afternoon) was only 34.6 degrees Celsius, which is in the mild hypothermia range. Yuck.

Tonight hubby and I were supposed to go to somebody else's house for bible study (usually it is at our house), and I had looked forward to that. But I couldn't go, and went to bed instead.

The good news is, that in the three days I've gone without any supplements, my lips have gone back to normal, my nose is clearing up, I can breathe better, the rashes are going away, and my joints have stopped aching. If only my stomach would stop cramping, and the diarrhea would stop!

And of course, we are back at square one with the adrenal and thyroid problem. Plus, my stomach and bowels feel as bad as before I started on the gluten-free diet. It was a HERBAL bowel cleanse that put me over the edge into full-blown celiac disease last year in May. You would think I would have learned my lesson and stayed away from herbs! Darn, why do I always have to learn things the super hard way.

I will insist that I be treated from now on with nothing but PURE adrenal gland and thyroid gland extract, as well as iodine (it appears I am deficient in iodine), without any added herbs. They may be helpful for others, but are poison to me.