New doctor!!!

Today I had my first visit with my new doctor. I think this will work out, but partly because I don't really need much at this point.

He's an MD and also has a naturopath he works with at his office. He has lots of different tools - hyperbaric oxygen, neural therapy, ART, rife, etc. He prefers alternative modalities to conventional medical treatment. The conventional stuff, like thyroid, is covered by insurance.

I filled out the typical information about my history. I spoke to the nurse first, then he came in, read through it all and we talked. I told him my two issues were needing thyroid meds and needing 5HTP to sleep, which makes me believe there's some kind of residual hormonal problem. When I don't take the 5HTP, I don't sleep.

He is starting me on Nature's Thyroid. He was going to start me on Armour, but I asked for the other since the two people I know who take Armour BOTH have trouble with the new formulation. He wants me to start on it and as it builds up in my system to wean off my other thyroid meds starting with Cytomel, which shouldn't be too hard since I only take 5 mcg of it.

He also doesn't like supplementing with 5HTP alone, which is what I currently take for sleep. He says it makes it so the body gets used to having it from an external source and stops making it on its own. He has an amino acid program he uses to get the body back in balance. You start it in three stages, so I'm starting the first stage tonight, then it lasts for six months. Interestingly, it does have 5HTP, so I guess I don't need to take mine. It's very similar to what I was taking, but has two other amino acids in it. www.neuroreplete.com

I go back in a week for a follow-up on the amino acids.

He took blood to test my thyroid for antibodies since I've never been tested for that as far as I know. He also did a LYME TEST!!! He used Quest, but we'll see, this should be interesting. I'm not going to pay for IGeneX, which is what he uses if Quest comes back negative because I don't see the point in retesting. The Western Blot proves exposure, but not level of illness. We know from my 8 + bands on my previous WB that I've been exposed. Since I'm symptom-free, I don't need treatment. But, it was no out of pocket for me for Quest, so I had no problem agreeing to it since they were taking blood anyway .... except I don't really want to know if Lyme is still there. Dr. W in Germany says it can still be there, it's just no longer stressing the body so it doesn't matter that it's there, much in the same way we still carry the chicken pox virus or some other illness with no symptoms.

Normally, he has patients set up an appt. with the naturopath to go over all his recommendations and possible treatments. He gave me a booklet with the ones he recommends for me. I know what all these treatments are, so I'm going to see if next time I can just find out what his ideas are as far as prioritizing. I can't say I'm going to do them all or any of them aside from taking basal temps for thyroid. I'm just feeling too well to shell out the dough for unnecessary treatment.

He says he pretty much does what the patient wants .... the patient meets with the naturopath to go over his recommendations and get any questions answered, then the patient decides what to have done. This is really exactly what I need for a PCP - one who understands a bit about Lyme (he does have a Lyme protocol), one who accepts that I treat with the Bionic 880 (he asked if it was biophotons, so he's even a bit familiar with it), and one who isn't ridiculing me like the last doctor I fired.

If I think of more, I'll add it later .... going to go watch House now. :) Have a great evening! Thanks for reading!