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New Year, New Me: Health in 2012

January 4, 2012 By sami

This is my pledge: New Year, New Me. I will find health in 2012.

If you’ve been following my health journey at all this past year, you already know that I ‘lost’ most of my summer due to the stress and cost of running around to a number of different doctors and health practitioners after a misdiagnosis of thyroid lymphoma. What started as feeling ‘off’ in May, led me on what turned out to be a wild goose chase (thanks to some grossly under-qualified doctors practicing together).

Though I did eventually discover (thanks to a much more qualified endocrinologist, Dr. Interlandi) was that I had Basedow’s disease: the result of my attempt to self (naturally) medicate my failing thyroid with Kelp…what we all know now that we shouldn’t do. While Dr. Interlandi put my mind at ease and got me on a proper dose of thyroid medication, it still didn’t change the fact that I had gained a great deal of weight (for me), felt like I was running on empty all the time, and couldn’t get rid of various skin issues that I’ve also been dealing with for awhile.

After spending over a thousand dollars on these various doctors, vitamins, supplements and natural remedies, I knew something needed to change this year.

I started lending my savings expertise to 94FM the Fish radio last August and quickly heard my colleague, Doug, talk about how he lost 65 pounds in 16 weeks with Blue Sky MD. He also told of how his wife’s life changed dramatically thanks to their hormone therapy.

Well I have to admit, that’s when I clammed up. I’ve always been wary of pills and ‘therapies’ to help regulate our body; after all, I’ve always believed God designed our bodies to self-regulate. And while He may have, that doesn’t change the fact that we live in an imperfect world with imperfect bodies. Still, our conversation didn’t go much beyond that.

I didn’t think much of it again until I re-connected last month with an online friend who also told me about Blue Sky MD. My guard started to come down a bit as I learned a couple things that peaked my interest:
1. The clinics are all run by actual MDs (yes, that’s medical doctors for those of us barraged by too many abbreviations these days!)
2. Blue Sky MD isn’t solely focused on any one area (weight loss, aesthetics, etc) as much as they focus on total life transformation…which is why they offer weight loss, education, bio-identical hormones, aesthetics and community as part of a patient-centered culture.

When I stopped to consider this, coupled with the fact that I realized I was already taking pills to control my thyroid (with no medical indications of being able to stop anytime soon), I decided to dig deeper. In all my searching for a physician that could help me with my situation, I wanted someone that would see the bigger picture of how my body worked, not just focus on the individual symptoms.

All of a sudden, Blue Sky MD became very appealing to me!

For so long, I’ve been believing that my weight/thyroid/skin issues were all related (most likely due to hormones in my opinion) and praying for someone who not only saw those puzzle pieces as well, but could help me fit them all together.

I’m not saying Blue Sky MD is that place just yet, but I’m sure hoping it will be.

That’s why I’m going in to ask more questions today. A lot of questions. Like “how much does this cost?”, “what exactly do you mean by ‘bio-identical hormones’“, “will I EVER get to stop taking my thyroid medicine?” and “have you tried this stuff????”

To be honest, I’m still very skeptical. But the fact that they have a dedicated “director of patient services” that I can meet with before getting into or signing anything puts me at ease.

So that’s it for now. I just thought you should know. You all rallied around me with such support this past summer that I wanted to be sure to include you on this next step, because if I do decide to go through with this, I’m going to need A LOT MORE SUPPORT!

I’ll let you know how it goes later today. What about you – what are your health goals for 2012?

Filed Under: Health, My Story Tagged With: Blue Sky MD, health, journey, me, new, new year, thyroid, weight

Being Grounded may be the Best Medicine…

October 4, 2011 By sami

I’ve never been what you would call a healthy person.

Sure, I’ve been a professional athlete, performer, pageant queen and professor, but I used to do so amidst injuries, bouts of major illnesses and an even more debilitating desire to please everyone I met.

When a specialist finally diagnosed me with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in my early twenties, many of my maladies started to make sense. For the first time, someone looked at my entire body as a whole instead of compartmentalizing individual symptoms. Once I discovered the unique workings of my own system and how my life choices played into my health, I went from being on my death bed to competing in the Miss North Carolina USA pageant within 3 months!

So you can imagine my surprise, fifteen years later, when it looked like I might be traveling down that same horrific road again.

After a sudden onset of weight gain and generally just feeling a little ‘off’, I begrudgingly went to the doctor. He felt a lump in my throat and proceeded to order a series of blood word & ultrasounds.

A week after taking the images, on my husband’s birthday no less, I received a phone call saying they discovered a mass on my thyroid that would require a biopsy. Thus began the tail-spin that turned out to be my summer. The next week my grandmother passed away, pushing the biopsy even further back and taking my emotions to a new level of distress. The biopsy itself was no picnic, but the news that followed was even worse.

I was told the nodule had cells that resembled lymphoma and either required a second biopsy (YUCK!) and/or removal.

For six weeks I’d put my body, mind and family through Hell.

How could this be happening? And this is just the beginning? I couldn’t take it anymore.

I stopped long enough to look at my husband and step back for some perspective.

Neither of us had felt comfortable with this doctor, and I sure wasn’t going to let him stick another needle in my neck. Something in my gut told me this wasn’t right and that was when I finally began to listen to my body again.

To make a long story short, I did seek out a second opinion. Not only did it turn out that I didn’t have lymphoma, I didn’t have lymphoma! Can you believe it???

As it turns out, I have two conditions that did cause my thyroid to shut down and become abnormally shaped, but that are very treatable and NOT cancer. I once again found a doctor that was willing to look at the bigger picture of my entire body instead of focusing on just one aspect of it.

What I did learn was that I needed to SLOW DOWN. Once again, my health would depend upon getting grounded: being kind to my body and returning to the things that helped me to get healthy in the first place…things like balance, boundaries, and taking time to pursue the gifts & passions God has given me.

As a blogger, writer, media personality, friend, wife and mom, it’s hard to say no to opportunities and people we love (much less find time to go to the bathroom with the door closed), but the health of our family and ourselves depends on it. After all, if we don’t model for our own children how to be grounded, who will?

I consider myself a perpetual learner and have learned so much from other mentors in my life, so I’m curious to know: In your busy everyday life, how do you strive for balance? By replying you will be entered to win one of two prizes! First Prize: $150 to a Local Spa, plus $50 Gift Certificate to the Cerra Boutique.Second Prize: One of Five $100 Gift Certificates to the Cerra Boutique.

I can’t wait to read your thoughts and learn from you too! Good luck!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cerra. The opinions and text are all mine.

Filed Under: giveaway, Health, My Story Tagged With: balance, cerra, grounded, health, medicine, thyroid

Answered Prayers! No Lymphoma or Thyroid Cancer!

July 12, 2011 By sami

I have good news! Our prayers were answered! There is no lymphoma or thyroid cancer in my body!

(That, and I lost 6 pounds from yesterday – or maybe it’s just the difference in doctor’s scales…whatever it is, don’t steal my joy!)

It’s no secret that I was quite downhearted after yesterday. While I completely appreciated my visit with Dr. Forbes, I was upset that I had to undergo another biopsy. He recommended Dr. John Interlandi, who we learned later to be one of the top 50 Endocrinology doctors in the country specializing in thyroid issues.

That helped…a little.

From the minute we stepped in his office, the staff was delightful and warm, which set me at ease. The first thing they did when they took me back (after learning of my encouraging weight loss) was to take more ultrasound pictures. I wasn’t aware that we’d be doing this, but I was up for anything that kept me away from needles that much longer.

By the time the doctor came back to us, more than an hour after getting there, he announced confidently, “You don’t need a biopsy.”

Ricky and I started at each other, absolutely stunned.

He proceeded with the normal intake questions, as well as asking what led me to this point, which led him back to his initial statement, “You don’t have lymphoma. You have an almost textbook case of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. You don’t need a biopsy today.”

Of course we were thrilled!!!! But I was also cautious….

“Why would someone even suggest I had lymphoma, or that I should have surgery to have a mass removed, if it’s this obvious to you???” was all I could muster.

“If he had seen an ultrasound, he would have been able to tell that.”

But the thing was the doctor that did the biopsy did so as a result of an ultrasound, and actually performed the biopsy WHILE using an ultrasound machine!!!

Anger does not begin to describe how I felt.

Not only have I spent a lot of time and money (and energy!) going to the initial ENT, who then referred me to a separate hospital for a blood draw, another imaging center for my ultrasound and then yet another endocrinologist for the biopsy – BUT THEY WERE WRONG!!!
(I could have had all these things done in Dr. Interlandi’s office in one visit!)

Let me stop here to caution you on who you decide to trust your health and your body to. I don’t often (if ever) gripe about companies on here just because I have a negative experience, but I feel strongly against letting this happen to anyone else. This debacle started at Cool Springs ENT (who I learned about from Dave Ramsey’s radio show and was intrigued because they said, “You won’t leave until you have a diagnosis!”). Dr. Kryar, who performed the first biopsy, has an office in Columbia, TN, but works in the Cool Springs ENT office one day a week – though the whole time he seemed dissatisfied that he didn’t have his typical office surroundings (SO DON’T AGREE TO PARTNER WITH THIS OFFICE was all I could think!).
*I won’t go into details, but my disappointment with this collective group of doctors and support staff is immense. You can message me if you want more info….

So before today, I was told I had a large nodule on the left side of my thryoid whose cells resembled lymphoma; I could opt to have the mass removed now or undergo a second biopsy to ascertain whether it was Hashimoto’s or lymphoma.

Today, I learned that there are multiple lymphpocytes in my neck, but that is typical of Hashimoto’s. Cancer nodules typically have multiple blood vessels in and around them; mine had one. This nodule was not even touching my thyroid, which obviously meant it can’t be thyroid cancer.

Again, I wondered how and/or why a doctor would even suggest such a severe diagnosis. Dr. Interlandi explained that when there are cells of similar size, it can be indicative of cancer, but that the ultrasound alone should have ruled that out.

So here I am, exhausted yet exhilarated.

Make no mistake, my thyroid is far from healthy. In fact, I can’t count on both hands the number of times the doctor used the phrase “Thyroid Failure”. And don’t even get me started on what happened when I mentioned I had been taking kelp supplements (but you can read about it here – what I thought was helpful could have been deadly!)

I have a feeling it’s still a long road ahead. I’m still going to stick with my elimination diet and lifestyle change and of course keep in close contact with these two wonderful doctors I’ve found this week. I’m sure there are still many blood tests, ultrasounds and adjustments in my near future, but I can handle it.

After all, I’ve got you to ride the wave with

Filed Under: Health, My Story Tagged With: biopsy, cancer, hashimoto's, health, lymphoma, prayer, thyroid, ultrasound

Who Knew? Failing Thyroid + Kelp= Basedow Disease

July 12, 2011 By sami

For as long as I can remember, I’ve heard that kelp is the one supplement that can help improve a failing thyroid. Though I never actually tried it until this year…

Bad move.

Once I started this process of trying to discover what was going on with my health 6 weeks ago, I stopped taking the kelp so that I could start anew with the doctor. Fast forward to today when I was in my new endocrinologist’s office. He was almost done with me when I was asking him if there was anything natural I could do to help my newly diagnosed Hashimoto’s disease. He recommended Selenium, but also cautioned me to stay away from kelp.

That’s when my husband said the doctor literally jumped out of his chair.

“Why didn’t you tell me that before?” He asked, astonished.
“You only asked what I was currently taking; I stopped taking it 6 weeks ago,” I tried to explain.

He explained that the onset of my symptoms that led me on this journey in the first place was most likely the result of Basedow Disease. While it’s true that kelp/iodine can help thyroid function if a person has a healthy thyroid or an iodine deficiency (which most people in the US do not), but it has the exact OPPOSITE effect on people who’s thyroid is failing!

When your thyroid is in failure and you start taking kelp supplements, you literally shut down your thyroid. So let my lesson be a caution to you all:

Consult a physician or a nutrition expert before trying to diagnose yourself, much less treat yourself! What may be helpful to others can be very harmful to you!

Filed Under: health, Health Tagged With: basedow, disease, health, kelp, supplement, thyroid

Another Day, Another Doctor

July 11, 2011 By sami

I have to admit, I was a little worried about sharing my health story on here. I mean really, would people that normally visit this blog for Old Navy codes and Michael’s coupons really care about my internal struggles?

But you do. And I’m humbled.

I’ve always been passionate about mentoring others; not because I claim to know everything (or anything at all), but because I believe God gives us information to pass on – not keep to ourselves. It’s my belief that my own transparency will challenge others and move them to make decisions they might not otherwise have considered. That same sentiment holds true today: I don’t know really know why this is all happening or even what to do tomorrow, but I know that in my sharing, I will learn so much from each of you in the process.

That, and the fact that I hate to talk on the phone, so writing in the anonymity of my home seemed like a better option

Because so many of you have been such faithful friends in the first leg of this journey, I wanted to keep you updated on my progress, or rather, this process.

Another day brought yet another doctor into the mix- Dr. Forbes from Nashville Integrated Medicine. Because of my complicated health history, I wanted to find an M.D. that would be focused on my current issue without being so tunnel-visioned that they failed to recognize the path that brought me here. Not only is Dr. Forbes an M.D., but is also president of the American Holistic Medical Association, so I felt confident that he would bring the perfect balance of Eastern & Western medicine to my situation. That, and his office was willing to work me in so quickly

Unfortunately, neither of the previous doctor’s offices I’ve been working with followed through and faxed my reports/labs to Dr. Forbes, so I started out at a slight disadvantage. However, even without getting to look at my labs, he agreed that the difference between Hashimoto’s and Lymphoma is VAST and something not to be toyed with. He said that in order to truly assess my situation, they’d need to collect more tissue samples meaning – you guessed it – a second biopsy.

Luckily (if you can use that word in this situation), we found another Endocrinologist who specializes in Thyroid issues who also comes highly recommended that can perform the procedure at 1pm tomorrow.

But back to my hours spent at the doctor today.

Regardless of what this mass turns out to be, Dr. Forbes agrees there is a pattern in my life that has to stop. He did draw blood to see if my TSH levels have changed over the past 6 weeks on the new medicine. He also put me on an elimination diet – meaning no gluten, no sugar, no dairy, no caffeine, no corn syrup and limited meat – at least until further notice.

Yes, for those of you keeping score at home, that means no birthday cake. As I’m about to leave for the Savvy Blogging Summit in Colorado on Thursday and just days before my birthday, I’m put back on an eating plan that seems almost impossible, much less considering my upcoming week (insert sad, puppy dog eyes here).

As I left today, I actually thought to myself, “That’s ok, I’ll just start the diet after my birthday.” But no sooner did I think that then I realized that it was exactly that kind of thinking that probably led me to this point.

There is never a good time to change…and change is never easy, but it is necessary.

Perhaps more than anything else today, I learned one very important lesson from Dr. Forbes: I have to be content with being, not doing.

Even though we were together less than two hours, he recognized that I have a to-do list that I will never be able to complete. What he meant by that was that I’m a “Creative Refiner” – I will never be at a loss for ideas or activities for as long as I live. So instead of being haunted by this never-ending push to ‘do’, I should find solace in the fact that my ‘to-do’ list will never end and as a result, should stop feeling guilty for not ever being able to complete it.

Needless to say, I’ll be doing a lot of ‘being’ over the coming days and weeks…as well as a lot of thinking.

On the way home, I heard three songs in a row that had such an impact on me:
*”Let it Go” by Francesca Batistelli
*”Stronger” by Mandisa
*”All Along” by Remedy Drive
It was like my own personal “You can beat this” mix tape! (Yes, I said mix tape. I still have a bunch of awesome one’s in my garage if anyone can give me advice on how to convert them to a format that would actually allow me to listen to those great 90′s tunes again!)

So here I am again – tired at the end of the day, yet unable to sleep because of all that is running through my mind. I know that many have traveled this road before me, and many will likely follow. But I hope that because I’m willing to share my journey, others will benefit in their own.

Until tomorrow…

Filed Under: Health, My Story Tagged With: another, doctor, health, holistic, integrated, medicine, nashville, thyroid

An Unknown Chapter: My Thyroid Health

July 11, 2011 By sami

Photo courtesy of Boho Bella Photography

I don’t often upchuck what’s happening currently in my personal life on here. After all, I realize most of you come here looking for ways to do what you love, just on a smaller budget. But in an effort to keep my voice authentic, I felt it only fitting to share a little bit about this unknown chapter in my life as it pertains to my thyroid health.

If you don’t know me, then you may not know that I’ve never been what you consider a ‘healthy’ person from a doctor’s perspective. Growing up, I dealt with a number of issues, many of which were only compounded by my exceedingly heavy schedule and overachieving nature (yes, I was this way even as a small child!). It only seemed natural that when you train hard for tennis matches, showchoir competitions and academic tests all at the same time, your body is eventually going to give. During my teenage years, this usually manifested as severe bronchitis, mono, or the like.

After my junior year at Emory University, my body shut down.
Literally.
In fact, the doctor treating me, without knowing exactly what was causing my ailment, shared with my family that it might be fatal….not the brightest individual we’ve ever dealt with when it comes to compassion.

Anyway, after two years of extreme suffering and glaring mis-diagnoses, I was eventually diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. After receiving treatment at the Cheney Clinic in North Carolina and putting it into practice for three months, my health (& life) completely turned around…to the point where I competed in the Miss North Carolina USA pageant at that point!

I’ve remained relatively symptom free since then, albeit it’s safe to say my immune system is not as strong as most. I was cautioned that I might not ever be able to conceive children, much less carry them to full term; yet here I am with two, beautiful, healthy children!

I am truly blessed.

That’s not to say those pregnancies & deliveries didn’t take a toll on my health. Both were very difficult and it was when I became pregnant with my first child that I was put on thyroid medication for the first time. I was diagnosed with HypoThyroidism, which really didn’t come as a surprise. While my TSH levels had always returned as normal from lab work, I had always been cautioned that CFS patients often receive false negatives on those tests.

Thus started my thyroid journey. As someone who hated to be on any sort of ongoing medication, I desperately searched for ways to get off. However, instead of improving, I’ve had to continually increase my dose over the years: with my 2nd pregnancy, again three years ago and now just last month…with a dose that is over 4 times my initial prescription.

It was two months ago when I can remember feeling “off”. I can’t pinpoint any one thing that was wrong, but I suddenly gained about 10 pounds though my routine didn’t change drastically. I couldn’t trust my body (or my brain) in the ways I normally could, so I decided it was time to go get my levels checked again.

It was this new ENT that sent me for an ultrasound of my thyroid, which I didn’t take to be a good sign. I then found out on June 2 (my husband’s birthday), that they discovered a large nodule on the left side of my thyroid that would require a biopsy. Because of my grandmother’s death, we had to push that procedure back to the end of June.

I finally got a call last Wednesday night after business hours from the doctor’s assistant asking if he could speak with me.

Again, not a good sign.

He got on the phone and proceeded to tell me the results of my biopsy….or rather, the non-results. He confessed he’s only seen this one other time in the past five years and was sorry to say they couldn’t give me a definite answer. While he predicted the lump was only a result of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis (a condition he believes I have and that I still don’t really understand as of yet), the cells ‘resembled’ lymphoma. I could either have the lump removed or undergo a second biopsy, of which he recommended the latter.

Having not especially enjoyed the first biopsy, especially since I wasn’t given any anesthesia as they poked four needles into my throat and dug around, I wasn’t thrilled about the thought of repeating that process. Even if I elected to just take the lump out without another biopsy, I knew we wouldn’t be addressing the root issue that caused the mass in the first place. If the lump stayed in, even if we determined it wasn’t lymphoma, it would have to be monitored every three months for the next year.

Still not the news I was looking for.

So here I am, not knowing what the next step is, yet staying optimistic for what the future holds. Regardless of what happens with this nodule, I know I’ll be needing to make some lifestyle choices so that it doesn’t happen again.

For now, I’m gathering as much information as I can and looking for good advice from trusted sources. I know this is just the beginning of the journey, and that I have to act fast, but I’m ready to fight.

I have a lot worth fighting for