When I wrote this essay, “Attemptus Interruptus,” about having to postpone conception to deal with Graves’ Disease, autoimmune hyperthyroidism, I had no idea that the woman I referenced in the second-to-last paragraph would face the same disease. I was best friends with S in eighth grade and spent most of the summer of 1987 on her boat, watching her waterski.

Today, S was scheduled to have surgery to remove her thyroid, which was 2-3 times the normal size due to Graves’ Disease.

We hadn’t seen each other since 1994, but we were friends on Facebook, where she saw my birth story, read a reference to thyroid problems, and reached out to ask me about my experience. She had just been diagnosed with Graves’, she said, and she was exploring her options since she wanted to have more children.

I told her I had the same disease. In 2004, I was on anti-thyroid medication for almost 11 months. I’d rejected the standard treatment of radioactive iodine (RAI) to ablate my thyroid. For one thing, my uptake was only 45%, so I’d have to have had double the dose of someone whose thyroid would soak up 90%. But regardless of the rates, I didn’t want to kill such an important gland.

I wanted to get better.

So I spent a ton of money and time on complementary treatments including acupuncture, energy work, lots of supplements, detox protocols, eventually a major diet change (going gluten-free, dairy-free, and soy-free), and some spiritual inquiry as well. I saw an endocrinologist and a naturopath regularly and got blood drawn every month, sometimes more frequently.

When S told me she felt pushed around by her doctor and didn’t want to pursue RAI for a variety of reasons (you can’t try to conceive for 6 months, and you have to stay away from young children for a week and flush the toilet at least two times every time you use it for that week, if I remember correctly), I found an alternative care center near her home for her to check out.

But that much enlarged is a whole other story. I can’t imagine how she’s coping with the symptoms of the disease and with a toddler. I am hoping that things go well today and that she can find the right balance of medication or iodine or whatever to keep her from falling into depression, which can happen when thyroid hormones are too low.

I have to wonder about all the time we spent together engaging in various typical teen and some not-so-healthy behaviors or if anything about the neighborhood we lived in had any role to play in this coincidence. Her cousin, who also lived nearby, wrote me on Facebook asking for natural fertility advice.

It’s bizarre to be reunited with someone by symptoms. This is one of two people who came to my brother’s funeral in 1987 and with whom I spent untold hours at a very formative time in my life. We were never destined to pursue the same academic or career paths, but it did bring a smile to my face when she said that she watched a post-Homecoming Dance video of us when visiting her parents this past Thanksgiving, and boy, did we have big hair!

Having not actually seen anyone from high school in real life since running into her in 1994, and facing a possible 20th high school reunion this year (if anyone organizes it), I’m feeling both very old and, at the same time,  like someone must have just pushed a fast-forward button.

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How has Facebook surprised you?

Here is a health-focused piece cross-posted from my main blog, Crunchy-Chewy Mama. I had been putting more health-focused pieces here and more snippets from life on the alternative mainstream divide over there, but I now that I am writing for The Washington Times Communities at “Reading Ingredients: Tales of a Health-Conscious Mom,” I’m re-evaluating my blog strategy (which includes looking for someone to help me upgrade them all or combine at least these two blogs.)

Here is my tale of a recent illness and how I fought it off the pharma grid.

***

We’ve got 60 degrees here in Metro DC and I think I’m finally getting over a cold that started two weeks ago. I never get sick and stay sick. This was annoying. Not so bad that I had to make the husband stay home or back out on a major event I was planning, but bad enough that I sounded like the woman from “The Nanny” if she had a sinus infection. Not pretty!

We don’t do drugs in our house, so I did my best to self-medicate. This starts with food — lots of nutrient-dense homemade (from pastured chickens) bone broth and a limit on refined carbs. When I look back, the weekend before I got sick I had hot rice cereal for breakfast one day and French toast another day (GF millet bread, but still) and a bunch of rice crackers. That’s way more packaged food than usual. So I cut out what I could but still allowed myself some antioxidant-rich raw cacao.

When I started to feel an illness on I restarted the flower essences I maybe should have been taking all season long from Perelandra. On Tuesday the 12th, I tried the homeopathic remedy Hepar. Sulph. Calc. and promptly got worse with a sore throat and swollen glands. I think I honestly fell asleep on the floor of my bathroom while my son played with toys in an empty bathtub. A homeopath said it was most likely that this reaction was just pushing the natural course of events forward and that now I just had a cold I might as well let run its course. So I gave up on the homeopathy – none of the indications seemed 100% right on anymore,anyway – and just tried garlic & ginger in hot lemon water in the morning, eating well, getting sleep, staying in bed even if I couldn’t sleep well (instead of getting up to work), and putting some eucalyptus in my shower. I kept meaning to get even just a basic saline nasal spray but didn’t, and we found our humidifier but never got it working.

Well, all that, and a lot of water and a lot of bodywork. My head was killing me with major sinus pressure, so I looked for whatever healing hands had openings. On Wednesday, the day after I felt terrible, I had a chiropractic adjustment and acupuncture. On Saturday morning I had a massage, primarily of craniosacral therapy. On Monday afternoon I had another bodywork session, a combo of craniosacral therapy and lymphatic drainage massage. Each time I handed over my credit card after a session, I did feel better. But it didn’t last to the next day, not as much as I wanted. I still had a lot of nose-blowing and some coughing.

Then, on Wednesday when I’d been sick for a week, my eye looked red in one corner, which I thought was from not sleeping well until the next morning when it was sticky and red all over. This was the day of my event. None of the many homeopathic remedies for conjunctivitis sounded spot-on for my symptoms, but I got so weepy when my friend rang the doorbell while I was trying to have my son nap, that I decided to take pulsatilla. And I found some homeopathic eye drops at CVS, which I think helped, for sure with the redness. The eye was cleared up a day later. (The second eye got it too and also cleared up after a day).

Friday I saw an osteopath who worked a lot on my head in general, my sinuses and even in my mouth and upper palette. I sounded like a different person after that appointment — much less nasal. But the next morning I slept in and still felt like I’d regressed. Maybe shopping for a sofa, meeting friends for coffee and walking a mile in mild winter day were too much. But we did get a new rebounder, which I used twice, hoping that it would help my lymphatic system clear out. And I did fit in a little yoga.

Sunday I had to drag myself out of bed but felt a lot better after starting the morning off with Vitamin C before my lemon/ginger/garlic drink, to which I added turmeric and elderberry. And then I had a full breakfast and set to work on some reorganization of the house, which felt great. I even had a little decaf coffee and some GFCF sugar-free (maple syrup only) chocolate cake my son and I had made as a celebration of my successful event Thursday night (adaptation of this cake recipe but using mashed cherries instead of applesauce and adding cacao and coconut flakes).

Despite this indulgence, I could tell I’d turned the corner Sunday afternoon. It’s now Monday afternoon, and though I still am not ready to go out and do a full run in this gorgeously warm day (or to be too far away from a tissue), I am glad I was able to ride this out and that so far, no one else in the house seems to have any symptoms.

Almost a month ago, I went to the grand re-opening of Holeco Wellness Medi Spa, the first holistic/wellness medispa recognized by Green America as a Green company and listed in their Green Pages. The owner is a wonderful woman who recently spoke at a Holistic Moms meeting. They are in a building that just underwent some lobby renovations, including new glass doors. On my way into the event, where I hoped I might win some fun beauty or energy door prize, I got instead the most ironic of injuries — I walked right into the glass door that I thought was open, cutting my nose bridge with my glasses and giving myself a huge blow that resulted in a mild black eye a few days later.

As someone who has gotten a ton of craniosacral therapy, I knew that this blow was going to be with me for a while. The knowledge that I was setting myself back hurt more than the immediate physical trauma, though that was pretty bad, too. I was so upset that I was not aware enough to prevent this injury. Honestly, a perpendicular piece of glass did sort of look like the door, but I still should have seen that the door was closed before I rammed into it.

So after I bled all over the ground, went up to the open house and got some ice (and got looked at by a nurse), I drove home as soon as I felt it was safe to do so. When I got home, I immediately took Emergency Trauma Solution and then later Arnica. This was a Tuesday, and on Friday I had a previously-scheduled craniosacral appointment. The therapist said there was quite a bit of trauma, and he recommended Traumeel cream and anything to help with lymphatic drainage.

The next Tuesday, a week after the incident, I saw an acupuncturist and chiropractor who, before he did acupuncture, used an activator on my sinuses, which kind of freaked me out. But some stuffiness cleared up right away, and when I saw the craniosacral therapist again on Friday, he said I seemed much better than he would have expected. He gave props to the acupuncturist. Two weeks later, I saw him again, and he said that the intense jarring of energy actually let him work more deeply into my birth strain than he’s been able to before.

So even though I really hadn’t planned to spend that much money on treatment and time without exercising (even after three weeks, I still felt the injury in my nose when I first went jogging), I am trying to believe that there is/was/will be something good to come out of this injury, as the spa owner suggested when she kindly called me the day after the injury to check up on me!

“This is why health care costs are so high,” hissed my endocrinologist when she looked at the results of the labwork my holistic physician had ordered. To her, the additional blood tests were a waste of time and money. But the information – a full, more complete picture of my thyroid levels and antibody levels– helped me to get better. And whose fault is it that the tests cost a lot in the first place?

At the time, I was dealing with autoimmune thyroiditis. I sought help from alternative health care providers in addition to the endocrinologist. She spent a short amount of time with me, mostly hunched over her prescription pad figuring out how to alter the dosage of my medicine. By contrast, the holistic physician spent close to an hour talking to me to explain in great detail – even drawing me graphs – how the chemicals in my body were working together – or not working so great, as the case was. With his help, I came to understand what was going on in my body, which helped me to heal.

So what is a waste of money? Time to talk with a patient? Time spent to investigate lifestyle choices that might make a huge impact?

Without the advice of a nutritionist, I might have never figured out that I had both casein intolerance and gluten sensitivity on its way to celiac disease, both problems undetected by gastroenterologists, none of whom suggested I cut back on processed food, either. And both problems long in the making that could have been part of my developing thyroid disorders — Graves’ Disease (autoimmune hyperthyroidism) and Hashimoto’s Disease (autoimmune hypothyroidism).

Without the help of acupuncture and craniosacral therapy, I don’t think I could have learned how to make the kinds of inner shifts toward a calmer mind that I believe were critical to my disease going in remission and my fertility returning such that I was able to have a healthy pregnancy.

The holistic physician helped me utilize the standard medication I needed but also taught me how to rebuild my whole body health such that my body could help heal itself. He – a trained MD – and another practitioner trained in BioSET allergy elimination and other energy healing modalities both came to the same conclusions about herbs and supplements that would support my thyroid and my adrenals.

To these folks I am grateful. To them – and to other alternative healers – I paid hundreds and hundreds of dollars out of pocket. The endocrinologist’s fees were covered by insurance. All the labwork was covered at the time, but now that my consultant husband is self-employed and self-insured, I have no coverage for anything thyroid-related. None.

So far, I haven’t needed coverage. I am many times healthier now than I was before I figured out how sick I was five years ago. I get discounted tests from a holistic MD, and we (currently, luckily) have the ability to afford healthy, organic food and alternative health therapies (whenever I can get childcare to schedule them, that is).

But why is true healing available only to the privileged? Can we please get away from a medical culture that sees dollar signs in prescriptions for drugs that might not be necessary if we looked further into the whole picture of a person?

Adapted from a post that originally appeared at DC Metro Moms Blog.

“But he showed remorse,” said my kind friend when I called her crying to apologize that my son had bitten hers at school. “What more could you want?”

Um, for him to not do it at all?

Really, what I want is for my son not to feel that kind of out-of-control anger. I know he’s three and a half and that some socially inappropriate behavior is, well, developmentally appropriate. But I also know that when he went through a similar phase two years ago, some body work and energy work really seemed to help.

And I know that as someone who suffered from undiagnosed depression all through my childhood, it’s no fun to feel unhappy inside. Although medication helped through a few dark periods in my adulthood, it’s become crystal clear to me that what has made the most profound difference has been a combination of non-drug remedies: a gluten-free, casein-free diet; regular exercise and yoga; and body work and energy work, including acupuncture, chiropractic and craniosacral therapy (CST).

So when my son had a biting episode a few weeks back for the first time (a 12-hour playdate is a rough thing for overtired cousins inhabiting a small space on a rainy cold day), I made an appointment with the acupuncturist who saw us when he had an ear infection months ago. While I waited the three weeks before that opening, I also got him in for CST work, which I though was probably more useful for him (lasting a full hour) but is twice as expensive as the acupuncturist who works with kids.

The acupuncture was scheduled for Friday at the end of the first week of school. E seemed to enjoy school fine and had none of the crying some other kids did upon leaving their moms for the first time. But on Tuesday, the second day, he did bite the arm of his friend, G, in what was probably a tussle over a toy. “It might have been provoked,” the teacher said, having not seen the lead-up. But I was deeply troubled.

My kid is nice. He’s usually patient and kind. When he does physical stuff, something seems like it’s just not right inside. That’s an awful feeling, and I don’t want him to have it. To me, the biting is a symptom. Maybe he’s feeding off of my stress. Maybe it’s partly the change of season, as the acupuncturist suggested. Maybe it’s that we’ve been trying some dairy in his diet, and maybe it doesn’t agree with him any more than it does with me.

What I do know is that he and I both had a nice day Friday and a pretty mellow weekend after a week of volatility and meltdowns. All the doctor did was use a little roller on a few spots and then put little acupressure stickers on his ears, hands and feet. Thinking we might try needles on him next time, she did a demo on me with a quick insertion to two points that address the kidney meridian and fear. “You’ll have a good day, too,” she nodded to me.

And I did. Within a few hours, the sense of urgency and crisis was gone. My son and I had a lovely time together. We’ll see if he can hold onto that calm through today, the first day of the second week of school.

I haven’t been pro-vaccine for a long time, since I got the flu vaccine in my 20s and felt terrible.

Now that we’re facing a potentially bad flu year, there is a lot of talk about vaccines for flu and specifically for H1N1/Swine Flu. I’m hoping that the alternative folks are right that the best way to avoid getting seriously ill is by avoiding refined foods — especially sugar and flour — and generally eating a healthy diet, along with giving our bodies assistance in fighting things naturally by getting chiropractic work, acupuncture or craniosacral therapy.

But we don’t always get the sleep, exercise, or nutrition that we need, so I’ve ordered from Perelandra the 2009-2010 Flu Season Balancing Solution from the Microbial Balancing Program and also FSBS+, which is supposed to address pandemic strains of the flu. These bottles are $10-15 and from a farm local here in Virginia. I know some folks are hoping their homeopaths can make a homeopathic version of the standard vaccine.

I hope that we can do okay, as we did last winter on health and wellness except for the week after the Holistic Moms chapter launch (and the Inauguration, which was an exciting but very long day). The following week, my son came down with an ear infection that I’m pretty sure was his system’s response to his mom’s stress. That lasted over a week but cleared without drugs. We were still nursing at the time, though, and this year, he won’t have that protection.

This season, I hope we can find the inner balance we need and can count on the Perelandra solutions (the above, as well as the Immune and Lymphatic solutions) to stay healthy.

I just spent $132 at the Vitamin Shoppe. Wow. My husband has an eardrum that has been ruptured for over 48 hours and still hurts a lot. I bought some tea, colloidal silver supplement and nasal spray, grapefruit seed extract ear drops and nasal spray, some probiotic (on sale), calendula tincture (seemed like a good idea) and some more homepathic remedies (including something that my son grabbed because it came with a little Curious George pouch – even the alternative stuff markets to kids! He’s been sick, too, so I cut him some slack, especially after he agreeably put several items back on the shelves and since he’d been whining a whole lot before we got into the car).

When I first went on my Save-My-Adrenals-and-Thyroid health kick starting in early 2004, I spent that kind of coin on capsules often. A lot was at the Vitamin Shoppe, where you get little coupons every so often if you spend a lot, and I also shopped at Village Green Apothecary in Bethesda, where they carry brands usually only practitioners have but at a better price. Since my thyroid has stabilized and my nutrition is so much improved, I haven’t been as much of a supplement junkie. And certainly in this economy with a one-income family, I’m usually more reserved before throwing $25 bottles of dried mushrooms into my basket (my sister-in-law swears that one helped her). But since the hubby isn’t of a mind to get energy work and is still in a lot of pain, he told me to get “whatever looks good.” After a week at home with my sick son, who was on a nursing binge to fight his fever (which also turned into an ear infection), I was ready to jack up the credit card for our health at the supplement store (and I already have with craniosacral therapy and an acupunturist who used some cute little tools on my boy to open his meridians and did a few needles on me when I mentioned his clinginess. It always comes back to me!)

Considering a possible run for reconception, I’m also thinking that it’s probably time for me to actually see a doctor — a holistic-minded one for sure, and preferably one who starts with some energy work, but someone who can make sure I’m in a safe place to possibly go forward with trying for a bigger family. That will cost a pretty penny, too, I’m sure!

My neck and shoulders used to hurt all the time. Long before I was diagnosed with Graves’ disease (autoimmune hyperthyroidism) or celiac disease, my health problems manifested in a more physical way. I’ve had some issues on and off since my son was born, especially when I was wearing him in a sling all day, but nothing was like my recent right-should spasm. I think we can blame this one in large part on one weekend of car trouble followed by another of plane travel (including wearing my 30-lb. toddler in the Ergo) and unfamiliar (and harder beds). Of course the lack of a regular home yoga practice followed by a few classes in a row in short succession might have something to do with it, too!

So I called the acupuncture center I used to go to. I love that they provide a back massage before doing the needles on the back side and then have you flip over so they can do some more massage (especially with the sinuses, but whatever part of the body needs it, too) before placing needles on the front. This is a two-hour ordeal but costs less than most 60-minute massages in my area.

I figured this time that they would want to use the suction cups because my shoulder was a rock. Cupping is supposed to help release tension and free up energy. It essentially feels like a bunch of extra people squeezing your muscles at once. The cups go to work while the therapist is massaging another area.

When I was seeing these folks back four years ago as part of my effort to heal my thyroid and regain my fertility, I was also getting treatments in an oxygen sauna. The sauna woman said I should not be bruising so much, and she claimed that one woman came in after getting cosmetic surgery for the express purpose of minimizing her bruising, and it did. As I got more regular acupuncture treatments and also got more oxygen sauna treatments, the bruising did indeed become much less severe and shorter-lived.

I saw these folks a few times a month when my son was a year old. My thyroid was threatening to go low, and I was exhausted from all the night nursing (and nursing around the clock!). When I made this most recent appointment, it had been many months since I’d been to the acupuncture clinic and maybe months since I’d had any bodywork of any kind (at least several weeks). With a lot of projects in the air and my toddler no longer napping, time has been a hot commodity! But I’ve felt pretty good physically, until the shoulder flared up. Or so I thought. My body has probably been storing up toxins from my late bedtimes and other unhealthy habits, so it was perhaps only a matter of time until something screamed at me to get me to pay attention.

The treatment felt good. The morning after the presidential election and its late-night results, it was easy to fall into a deep sleep once the needles were in. I asked both the assistant who did the bulk of the massage and the doctor who did some more before inserting the needles about the bruising and what it meant. They both said that someone in good health and with good energy will hardly bruise at all. People whose energy is weak or who are ill are the ones with the more purple, longer-lasting marks. The ones pictured here are much lighter than some rounds I’ve had, but they certainly followed me out of the office, and they’re still there 36 hours later. The pain is not completely gone but is dramatically milder; I don’t feel like that section of my body is ruling the rest of me as I did a few days ago.

The doctor put an herbal patch on my shoulder and told me to stretch more by pulling my arm across my body with the other arm. She could have also written a prescription for my son to resume sleeping through the night so that I don’t join him on his hard futon!