Journey to Perfect Health *Part 2*

What a relief it was to find Claire the herbalist!

She was (& probably still is) very knowledgeable about the thyroid function & was impressed with what I had prescribed myself, she had a lovely calming effect on me & made me feel secure in what I was doing. It was so nice to have someone else to lean on (other than Sime), someone who understood me & shared my views on the way we live. We agreed that if at any point she felt that the herbal treatment ceased working, then I would probably have to consider the conventional route. She also opened up communication with my GP & with my agreement, they shared information on my treatment & results, etc. Great!

Claire treated me for 18 months, constantly tweaking the tinctures & although it did work - I just couldn't remain stable. She didn't fail - it was just my body wasn't ready to recover & another thing I didn't see at the time - was that I was under a lot of stress with extended family members. Anyway, Claire started getting concerned when monitoring my pulse - it was just getting out of control & my thyroid readings were getting higher... She spoke to other therapists & came up with a plan - acupuncture! Apparently, this guy had treated others with my condition, so it was worth a try (I must point out at this stage that I used to have a phobia of syringes & needles, the worst person to be having let alone regular blood tests, but to also put myself through the hell of having lots of the little blighters all over my body), but I did it! Unfortunately, apart from making my system calm a little - it didn't really have any impact on my results, so I moved on to Tai Chi & really enjoyed it, but I was getting worse...

Interestingly, we had just moved my Grandmother, who lived 300 miles away, down to live with us. Her sheltered accommodation was closing & it was recommended that she move into residential care, as her health was failing. We just didn't want this to happen - we had space & we felt it was the least we could do. Nan & Grandad were more like parents to me & Sime had known them all his life - they'd always been there for us, caring for the girls while we were working, surprising us with flasks of coffee & cheese toasties when we were working on the markets, just great! When Grandad died in 1994, Nan's health gradually went down hill, but the tough woman that she was - managed on her own until making the move to us in April 2007.

Claire finally said she didn't think she could help me anymore; she was really concerned that I was heading towards a thyroid storm, so I agreed to see my GP & start the medication. I kept part of my promise - saw the GP, received the tablets, but didn't take them! I had got myself into such a state, that I had become petrified of taking the drugs & was convinced that they would kill me! To top it all - Nan was obviously showing signs of dementia & was going through quite aggressive phases, so life was becoming more & more difficult. I ended up giving up my job with social services as I could no longer cope with work, Nan & ill health.Within days of finishing work, my thyroid reached crisis point - the palpitations got so bad I was getting breathless, I was shaking all the time & felt dreadful. Poor Sime, he felt helpless - I was continuing to be stubborn, but after discovering that my pulse was 180 bpm (it should be 68 -72 when resting), he finally put his foot down & whisked me down to the surgery.

I was having a thyroid storm...

*To be continued*

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Diet And Drugs

Our Neighbours

Nettles