Going off the drugs and on the defense!

It's been almost 3 months since my last post. Things have been pretty busy in my life with work and figuring out my move and when I'm supposed to be over all of this.  I promise this will be a short update, but will update you all soon enough with a longer one.

I spent 5 months on antibiotics. 1 week shy of 5 months to be exact.  And through it all I made a decision which for the past few weeks I have been sticking to my guns and will continue on unless things drastically changed.  I went off of all my medications and for good reason.  I felt like I was poisoning my body and I felt like nothing was getting any better, only continually worse.  I've posted about the Herx reactions before but that is not what I'm referring to when I'm talking about getting worse.  Symptoms that only started when I started on thyroid medication and antibiotics were exasperated the more I continued on with all of these medications. Don't get me wrong, I still take stuff to help me sleep, but I've started changing things in my diet and my overall health.

It first started with a trip to the dentist to get some overdue cosmetic work done.  It was a little procedure I wanted to get done (it was free) before I was planning on leaving in August, what I found out was that long story short after a dental exam, within a 4 1/2 month period I went from having no tooth decay or cavities ( or any since I was 18) to have 10 teeth with dental decay and most of them needed to be filled. It was sort of a wake up call to me with everything I was taking.  Not only was this medication not really making me feel healthy but it was probably causing more health problems in other areas of my body that I was not aware of.  Fortunately for my sake I have dental insurance and wonderful parents, but the damage that was done was enough for me to think real hard about what I needed to do, so I decided to go off of everything, including my thyroid medications.  And let me tell you, I feel great. not 100%, but I'm getting there.

I started taking some yoga classes to get back into shape, which I'm going to continue for the next couple of months, and my heart palpitations are slowly easing off, not to the point where I can fall asleep on my own yet, but I think due to the stress of my body and the thyroid medication, it sent my body into adrenal fatigue and it's been in fight or flight mode for almost 2 years.  I'm finally starting to be able to relax, not feel as much on edge, and I've even noticed my blood pressure that even though has always been in the "normal" range for people, usually 120/80, it has finally gone down to what is normal for me 112/60.  These little things might not seem like a lot, but for me they are huge leaps. After 5 weeks of being completely off my thyroid meds, I'll get my blood checked and if for some reason my levels aren't normal I will be going to see an endocrinologist, someone who specializes in that sort of stuff.

I'm working over 30 hours a week at my job, I got a great review after my first 90 days, even a little raise ( and my little, I my mean minuscule) but I'm loving my job and I'm continuing to be trained in new areas all the time. It's really one of the only places I can go and focus on my work and not on the craziness of life, it's actually a stress free environment. I wish I could say the same about the rest of my life, but it's getting there.  Another few weeks and we'll see how I'm doing.  I even started going to see an acupuncturist and I feel good and relaxed after each session.  Before I know it, fall will be here and I'll be moving on to a new life, maybe not completely healed of this disease of surviving it and not letting it control my life.