My Story

Picture me: I was at the prime age of 38. I had just given birth to my second son and I was ready to take on motherhood. Then I was diagnosed with a thyroid issue known as Hypothyroidism and my life took an unexpected turn.

Everyone has their own, unique journey, and sometimes our stories have similarities that we can bond over. We also all have our challenges and struggles in our lives. Mine was a long and winding road that took a couple of years to solve. I searched for clues from my symptoms, spent hours researching, read books, asked questions to several doctors, put the pieces of the puzzle together that led to me feeling like myself again. My story will tell you how I solved the mystery of how I got my health back. So, I became my very own Health Detective. 

I decided to start doing my own research, probing for information online, reading books, asking doctors about all possible alternatives for treating thyroid problems, and even found a way to get my own blood test online. I went on a website for a company that provides you with a lab order so I didn’t need to go to my own doctor. Knowing my body’s symptoms and the necessary tests, I got the lab work done, and the results were sent in an email. Instead of going to multiple doctors to get additional tests, I saved a lot of time. The company has physicians who interpreted the blood results for me. After that, I went back to my doctor to get prescribed the right dosages with the knowledge from my labs so I could ask smart questions to lead her into giving me the right medicine. 

Being a Mom for the second time, I thought I should feel elated. I knew my hormones were going to be off for sure, but then, everything shifted. Something unexpected changed my life forever. 

My Symptoms

My long, thick, and shiny hair started to fall out. It was like seeing parts of me sprawled out onto the floor. And it wasn’t just on the floor. I was finding it everywhere: in my bed, in the shower, everywhere! Little did I know, this was the first symptom of Hypothyroidism. 

The problem was that I had no clue what was going on! I felt depressed. My emotions were wacky and my back started to ache and burn! I felt like my life, like my hair, was going down the drain. When hormonal imbalance occurs, your moods resemble my sons on a swing. I went from being a ray of sunshine, a pure optimist to a woman I did not  recognize felt unmotivated. 

I started to gain weight and was not even eating a lot, but the pounds kept packing. So, I began to isolate because I didn’t feel confident enough to to meet my friends like I used to. 

My life. The picture that I had envisioned of being a happy, loving and caring Mother. 

What happened to the charming, pretty as a picture, ride that was supposed to be my beautiful journey of Motherhood? I used to be a risk taker, I was always up to try something new. I was doing house renovations, hosting dinners for friends and family and suddenly, everything went dark. My enthusiasm and thirst for life: gone. My motivation: gone. Goals? What are they? My vision flew out the window. This experience blinded me and I just wanted some light in my life. 

I felt an odd feeling that I deserved this, that this was meant for me. I didn’t know I had a disease at the time, but know that hypothyroidism took my life away from me. The only motivation I had to get better and back to feeling myself again was my kids. They deserved a healthy Mom and I had to do anything in my power to figure this out for us.

Unfortunately, my energy levels dropped so low that I could not motivate myself to do the simple tasks to take care of my children: playing games with them, preparing their food, or even driving them to school. All these tasks required enormous willpower and determination to perform when they should be something that I would not give a second thought.

My memory deteriorated so badly that my husband had to put a to-do list on the garage door so I wouldn’t forget all of the daily tasks that I would normally be able to perform. I forgot about the simplest but extremely important things: doctor appointments, parent-teacher conferences, friend’s birthdays, paying bills, etc. All I wanted was to go back to my warm bed to continue sleeping until the moment I have to pick up my children from school. I felt like a truck ran me over. Every. Single. Day. I had to find a solution. So finally, I made an appointment with my doctor to get a diagnosis. 

What Didn’t Work?

Finally, I had a name for my problem: it was Hypothyroidism . My doctor ordered simple blood tests for TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) and T4. and prescribed me a generic drug called Levothyroxine to replace the thyroid hormones that my

body was not naturally producing. It didn’t particularly work for me because it only has T4 and my body doesn’t convert it successfully to Free T3 so I still didn’t feel better. After taking the drug for a few years all the symptoms: my bad memory, the extra weight, muscle aches, and lack of motivation were still there. 

I discovered that our bodies need T4 and T3 to function well. My body was having trouble converting T4 to T3. These hormones work together to regulate body temperature, your heart rate, and metabolism which scientifically explained the reason for all of my symptoms. That was the reason why traditionally prescribed medicine like levothyroxine alone didn’t work for me. 

Clues For My Thyroid Problems

1) Dental fillers I had replaced in Peru are dental amalgams made of a combination of metals: silver, tin, copper and others combined with Mercury were consumed by my body from crumbling in and out of my mouth, and by being inhaled through my mouth and nose and from vapors arising from the drilling. Mercury especially is dangerous for the body. 

2) From my body’s inability to absorb iodine from food, I found I needed to take it orally, along with other vitamins that would help my thyroid stabilize. 

3) Hot tubs for long periods of time made me susceptible to high amounts of chlorine that affected my thyroid. 

4) Plastic water bottles with BPA chemical substances disrupted my endocrine system making my thyroid ineffectual. 

5) Pesticides, chemicals, antibiotics, growth hormones and gluten in food are linked to endocrine disruption and can cause other diseases. 

6) Emotional baggage from relationships and stressors from helping my aging parents made my Thyroid go back and forth from hypo to hyper. 

A Holistic Solution That Works! 

In my research I found a holistic doctor who helped me discover that there were other natural medications for thyroid compounds available. These miraculous medications derive from the thyroid gland of pigs, providing thyroid hormones to individuals with low production in their own thyroid gland. These dried and powdered pork thyroid glands can be found in drugs such as: Armour, NP Thyroid, Nature-Thyroid, and WP Thyroid made by compounding pharmacies. 

I went from a Natural medicine: Thyroid Armour to Nature-Thyroid because the company that produced Armour changed the composition by adding additional fillers that blocked the main ingredient. Nature-Thyroid didn’t work either for me because even though it has T4 and T3, it didn’t raise my free T3. That led me to seek a different medicine so that I could feel like myself again. But life had a different plan for me. 

A traumatic event happened in my life. My sisters told me that my dad was going to die and I had to fly Lima. That is when I researched additional healing techniques (energy therapies, meditation, and yoga) to get in control of my emotions and stress. This helped me to stabilize my thyroid again. It was so amazing to me that through my own detective work I was able to stabilize my thyroid and be able to travel to Peru to say my last goodbye to my dying father. I hadn’t finished my job yet. My desire to increase my Free T3 to feel 100% myself brought me back to the doctor’s office. 

I was offered one more option to raise my free T3 and it was to go back to levothyroxine, but this time it was made by a compound pharmacy, without fillers, to be added with T3 medication. This was a long process. First, I started with a lower dose for T4 and T3 which was raised little by little each week. After finding the correct dose for both medicines (T4 and T3) finally my doctor combined both medicines in one capsule that is adjusted according to my blood tests every 3-6 month. 

I am happy to say that my numbers have balanced for the last 4 years! My free T3 is finally in the upper normal range. The best news is that I lost the extra weight I gained. My hair regained its thick and shiny texture, my memory and energy returned to normal, and the backaches disappeared. My excitement and motivation came back so I set new goals for myself. Most important of all: I felt happy again! 

In this blog, I will talk about all the different aspects that helped me on my journey to balance my thyroid. This blog will include topics like: Additional Thyroid issues, nutrition, exercise, blood tests, vitamins, supplements, bioidentical hormones and finally anti aging regimens etc 

Think of the thyroid as an instrument in the body’s orchestra. If one instrument is off, then the whole piece of music is off key. My body needed a major tune up to sing my song beautifully.

My goal is to help people on their way to discover how to treat this complicated disease in ways that worked for me and to give them hope that they can live a normal and productive life. Let’s continue our journey together, towards a happy and better-balanced thyroid.