Hello!
Not new to CZ but recently studying the Hypo/AF threads. The reason being several health problems have come up w/i the last 3 months.
Background: 43 y.o., female, 105 lbs, 5'3". In relationship for 16 yrs w/wonderful man and 2 beautiful, smart, athletic girls (12 and 6 yrs old).
Normally healthy and take multi vit/min, D3 during Fall/Winter months, diet not ideal but try to eat healthy 70% of the time and stay active. Stopped smoking tobacco cigs 1 1/2 ago but still on e-cig.

Have had digestive issues off/on for about 2 years and thought it might be gallbladder due to symptoms. Never had any tests and want to heal instead of have it removed. I changed diet to include healthy oils, drink ACV and take Milk Thistle which all seem to help. Never did a flush.

In May, I had a weird thing happen. I had a cyst develop on my right cheek that grew to the size of a golf ball in 24 hours. Went to MD and was put on Clindamycin. Told to use heat and try and drain it. It got worse and was spreading from under right eye to chin so I went back and had the MD drain it. He put me on Doxy and gave me a steroid shot in the butt (don't remember the name of it) to avoid cellulitis. It healed up fine and I went about my life. Then in July I began to have weird symptoms.
Increased PMS
Throbbing in left ovary and heavy period and long (8 days-never had that before)
Insommnia
Difficulty getting up in morning (been getting up at 4:30am for 23 yrs to go to work)
Heaviness in arms, neck and back pain
Leg cramps at night
Lump in throat
Exhaustion
Heart racing at night, feel jittery
Feel out of breath when sitting or lying down
Worsening abdominal pain (bloating, acid reflux, heartburn all unusual for me)
Eye floaters
Tinnitus
Start to fall asleep and have a "zap" that wakes me up
Sensitive to light and sound


Con't to worsen and became more frequent in August. Decided to take one drop Lugol's in water twice weekly (Sunday and Wednesday) w/Selenium in morning and 2g VitC in afternoons for a month. After two doses, the lump went away and ovary pain did not come back so I con't the twice weekly dose. The other symptoms are still there. Then two weeks before Labor Day, I would get up in the morning still tired and feel nausea and dry heave, increased anxiety feeling/flushed and heart racing in the afternoon. Started removing wheat, corn and Sugar from diet-helped the digestive problems. Then started getting dizzy when standing up, black spots when I bend over and pain in legs all the time.

I wonder if the steroid shot triggered something and maybe my adrenals are low.

I've gone to this forum and others, STTM website and felt I was showing symtoms of hypo/AF. Went to MD on Sept. 3rd with a list of symptoms. He took blood and urine for tests. Told me he'd check B12, iron, thyroid and wrote me for Bentyl and Zantac for digestion which I never filled or took. On the 6th, I got my labs back. He only checked TSH 1.17 and B12 550/Folate 16.3. Everything in normal range BUT sodium is high. Nothing regarding adrenals. I'm disappointed because I thought he was going to run a full thyroid panel and check everything. My mother had endometriosis and hyperthyroid in her 40's. Full hysterectomy and radioactive Iodine w/years of Synthroid. My doctor knows this because he treats our family, my parents, my sister and her family for the last 7 years. I'm afraid to go back and ask my doctor to dig more deeply and do more tests but I guess it's worth a try.

There is a good Integrative Medicine clinic in town but they charge $300-350 per visit and all lab work is out of pocket too. Hard to afford that. I live in Kansas City area so surely there's a doctor that I can use and still have insurance coverage.

Anyway, sorry for length of post and just wanted to get advice. This is very scary for me because I'm used to being well and enjoying my life and now every day seems to be a struggle just to get through and take care of my family, house and work.

Thanks for letting me share!