Sunday, October 31, 2010

Halloween Soup and Brownies

In honor of Halloween I made an orange soup for dinner (with brownies for dessert). In the spirit of this holiday I will take a break from reporting my health challenges to describe how I cook creatively with 13 food allergy restrictions (my 7 and my husband's 9 with 3 shared allergies). Here's my recipe (which I created just for Halloween):

PUMPKIN/BUTTERNUT SQUASH HALLOWEEN SOUP

Cook in large soup pot with 1/2-1 quart (as needed) Imagine Chicken broth:

1 larged chopped onion
2 cups shredded carrots
2 cups sliced/chopped celery

Add 1 quart pumpkin puree (saved, blended and frozen from last year's pumpkin).

While the vegies and puree are simmering (stir regularly), add:

1 gallon bag or one large bunch of chopped, fresh Kale (I used green Kale from our garden);

1 teaspoon basil, 1 teaspoon sage, 2 teaspoons tumeric, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon Garam Masala, 1 teaspoon cloves (or cardamom), 1 teaspoon onion salt;

Cook till kale is tender, then add 1 quart of Imagine Butternut Squash soup (gluten, dairy, soy, cane sugar, vanilla, nutmeg free). Simmer 10 minutes stirring regularly until soup thickens. Then add:

3 - 5oz cans white meat chicken, flaked (so there are uniformly sized pieces);

Stir and simmer for 1-2 minutes and serve. (Simmer longer for thicker soup.)

My husband rated this soup a 'Hall of Fame' recipe. This recipe made 10 servings (my husband had a second bowl and we froze 7 individual 'petit pan' servings for future meals.) We were both too full for more than a sliver of the brownies I made for dessert. If anyone is interested I'll post the exact amounts of ingredients for this recipe for the Black bean brownies, which are also gluten, dairy, egg, soy, cane sugar, vanilla and nutmeg free. I recall the ingredients included (but would need to look up exact amounts):

BLACK BEAN BROWNIES (w/o amounts of ingredients)

Mix together: Dutch cocoa, quinoa flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, stevia, chopped cashews

Blend for 3 minutes: 1 can black beans (drained and rinsed), Spectrum naturals shortening, Agave

Add blended wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Pour into glass 9x9 pan lined with parchment paper sprayed with outdoor grilling Pam (doesn't contain soy lecithin). Bake 325 degrees for 35 minutes. Cool before removing from pan.

(These brownies are very 'fudgey' with a dark chocolate flavor.)

Friday, October 29, 2010

Resumed 50mcg Levoxyl

Although my doc recommended I resume taking Levoxyl at the 50mcg dose yesterday, I still had tachycardia and mild chest discomfort the previous night. So I also abstained from Levoxyl yesterday. Because I had no palpitations or discomfort yesterday, even when walking updhill, I decided to resume taking 50mcg this morning. I now have slight palpitations and feel comfortably warm.

I also had cold symptoms yesterday and felt cold all day. So I took extra vitamin D at lunch, which decreased my cold symptoms. After taking 6000IU of vitamin D yesterday and sound sleep last night, I have no cold symptoms today. However, I suspect both low levels of vitamin D and less thyroid made me susceptible to respiratory infection. Now that I know what causes my vulnerability, I can easily take more Vitamin D when I experience mild cold symptoms and back off when I feel well and get consistently sound sleep for awhile.

I still have one extra 'half' of the 50mcg tablets. I may take that tomorrow morning if I continue to experience tachycardia tonight, rather than taking another 50mcg tablet. Continued tachycardia would suggest that my blood volume of Levoxyl is still too high. So taking a 25-30mcg portion of Levoxyl will decrease my blood level of Levoxyl to return to 50mcg level.

Getting the perfect dose of Levoxyl is rather challenging. I suspect I would have gradually experienced less hypothyroid symptoms, if I would have just continued the 50mcg dose for another few weeks. However, I became impatient after seeing little improvement after 4-1/2 weeks. So according to my doc's recommendation, I increased the dose to 75mcg. Within 3 days I had overdose symptoms. So I now believe that 50mcg would have been enough if I just waited longer, because 75mcg was too much.

Experiencing intermittent constipation related to taking vitamin D supplements made me wonder whether 50mcg of Levoxyl would actually resolve my regularity problem. However, after taking 75mcg for 3 days I had diarrhea, which was the other extreme of my problem. So hopefully balancing the vitamin D with enough magnesium and continuing the 50mgc dose of Levoxyl will resolve my regularity problem.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Still Have Overdose Symptoms

After another night of tachycardia making sleep difficult, I decided to totally abstain from Levoxyl until my cardiac related symptoms of Levoxyl overdose disappeared. Feeling my heart beating so hard (and fast) that I can't sleep is scarey to say the least. I had intermittent mild chest pain today along with tachycardia. However, that seemed to decrease as the day passed. I'll know whether I still have tachycardia after I go to bed.

Meanwhile my doc never replied to my email. That's perplexing, because she initially told me to tell her how I was doing after a few days. However, I thought my initial overdose reaction was due to taking more than 75mcg daily, when I took the larger tablet halves with the regular tablets. I believed taking a bit less would even out the total amount in my body. I didn't realize that continuing to take less than 75mcg would increase the levoxyl to the point that I would have nonstop overdose symptoms.

After not hearing from my doc by late this afternoon, I called to leave a voicemail message with her assistant. I told her that I had stopped taking Levoxyl because I had pretty obvious overdose symptoms. I also said I won't resume taking Levoxyl until I was certain I no longer had cardiac related symptoms (tachycardia, chest pain, difficulty breathing, etc.).

24 HOURS LATER: My doc's assistant called me tonight. She relayed my message to my doc who said I should stay on the 50mcg dose. She also told me to resume taking that tomorrow. I suspect her assistant didn't clearly understand my message. I experienced 72 hours of scary tachycardia and chest pain. The first night I hardly slept at all. The second night I feared I would die in my sleep from a heart attack. Last night I took awhile getting to sleep, but slept soundly thereafter. I still had obvious tachycardia today even while sitting still. My heart sped up even more during exercise for the past week. At least I didn't have trouble breathing while walking today. So perhaps the hyperthyroid symptoms from Levoxyl overdose are decreasing now.

Nevertheless, I read that Levoxyl leaves the body very slowly. When I stop taking Levoxyl, it reaches its halflife (half as much thyroid supplement) after a week of not taking that drug. At 75mcg I overdosed. At 50 mcg I had few side effects. So I need to reduce the level of Levoxyl in my blood by 1/3. I suspect that will take 4-5 days of not taking any Levoxyl. I took nothing for the past 2 days after taking 50mcg the previous day. So I'll abstain from Levoxyl 2 more days and pay close attention to my cardiac symptoms (esp. tachycardia and chest pain). If those symptoms disappear after 2 more days I'll try taking 25mcg (one of the 50mcg splits). If I don't react strongly to that, I'll resume taking 50mcg on day 6. I'll also call my doc's assistant to reiterate how seriously I experienced overdose symptoms during the last week I took 75mcg daily. I certainly won't resume taking 50mcg tomorrow, while I still have tachycardia.

Monday, October 25, 2010

75mcg of Levoxyl Is Too Much

While taking approximately (more or less) 75mcg of Levoxyl for the past 10 days, I've experienced intermittent overdose symptoms of tachycardia (which interferred with sleep), slight chest pain, and breathing difficulty when walking uphill. I probably should have cut back sooner, but I thought that increased dose helped regularity. Eventually I realized I still depend on magnesium for regularity, esp. when taking vitamin D.

I emailed my doc last night and took only 50mcg of Levoxyl this morning. However, Levoxyl takes awhile to leave the body. If I still have OD symptoms tonight, I'll take less tomorrow. My doc may advise me to temporarily stop taking Levoxyl. I'll share her reply when I hear from her.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Levoxyl OD Symptoms

After 4 daily doses of 75+ mcg of Levoxyl, this morning I developed obvious overdose symptoms, including diarrhea, abdominal cramping pain, rapid heart beat, difficulty breathing and chest pain. I welcomed the diarrhea after weeks of intermittent constipation and hemorrhoid pain. However diarrhea also exacerbated my hemorrhoids. Then when I walked uphill I began to experience tachycardia, breathing difficulty and chest pain. I'm not overweight and have never experienced chest pain with breathing difficulty. So I immediately realized I had Levoxyl overdose symptoms.

I understand how I developed those symptoms. After my doc advised me to increase my 50mcg dose to 75mcg daily, I cut 4 of my 50 mcg tablets in half. However some of those didn't split exactly in half. The first day I took one of the more perfect halves for an additional 25 mcg plus my regular 50mcg tablet (or a 75 mcg total). However, the next two days I took the larger halves of pills which split unevenly. After not noticing much difference with an exactly 75mcg dose, I decided to see if just a bit more caused any symptoms. Obviously my overdose symptoms told me I'd taken more than I needed for 2 days. This morning I took a more evenly split half for closer to 75mcg. However the effect of Levoxyl is cumulative. So my Levoxyl overdose symptoms didn't manifest until today.

So tomorrow morning I plan to take one of the smallest 'crumbs' from the uneven splits for a total of less than 75 mcg, unless I get more symptoms tonight, like insomnia. If I still have OD symptoms tomorrow morning, I'll cut back to my original 50mdg dose to reduce the total accumulation of Levoxyl in my body. Then I will return to 75mcg or less again. If I experience more OD symptoms, I'll tell my doc that 75mcg is too much.

THE NEXT DAY: As planned I took the smallest part of the split pills with my regular 50mcg Levoxyl tablet. I have no symptoms today ... no diarrhea, no rapid heartbeat (after that symptom made sleep difficult last night), no pain. I hope this means I can resume taking exact 75 mcg doses and experience some benefits (like normal regularity, warmer body temp and energy), rather than overdose symptoms.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Increase Levoxyl

After 4-1/2 weeks on Levoxyl (T4 thyroid supplement), I still didn't notice any marked improvement in energy, body heat, but mostly regularity. In fact I've gotten more constipated while taking high dose probiotics with FOS, which I thought would increase intestinal motility. So last night I emailed my doc and asked her when I should expect decreased symptoms, because I haven't improved at this point.

My doc told me today to increase my Levoxyl dosage from 50 mcg to 75 mcg daily. Since I already filled my prescription this month for the 50 mcg dosage, I had to cut some of those pills in half to take 75 mcg each day. I hope that helps. I'm really tired of irregularity despite high dose probiotcs, magnesium, high fiber diet, mucho fluids and absolutely no bad gut bugs to cause constipation. I also decided to cut vitamin D back to 2000 IU daily (from a previous 6000 IU daily when I had a bad cold). Vitamin D uses the magnesium, which could decrease the amount available to affect regularity.

My doc also asked me to tell her how I'm doing early next week. That request makes me wonder whether that extra 25 mcg will make an obvious difference after 4 days. If not, then we may need to test my free T3, which was not tested. Some people have difficulty converting T4 to T3. So supplementary T4 doesn't resolve symptoms. They actually need a T3 supplement. or a combination T3/T4 supplement. I should know after 4-7 days whether 75 mcg of Levoxyl is enough to resolve my symptoms.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Phone Chat with Doc

Yesterday I talked to my doc about my latest stool test results and my current gastrointesinal well being. She was pleased that my test showed no new gut bugs. In response to my questions about the 'parasite taxonomy unavailabled', she explained that the Metametrix test is so sensitive that it can isolate bits of almost anything. So the test could have just identified an insect or part of an insect from any organic produce I eat.

She also encouraged me to continue high dose probiotics to improve my good bacteria levels. She told me to take my HLC Synbiotic Intensive probiotics with FOS before bed or on an empty stomach, rather than with meals, as the package label directed. Accordingly I could absorb more of the probiotic, without interference from stomach acid, which could destroy some probiotic cells.

Unfortunately I forgot to ask her about taking a TPOAb and/or T3 blood tests for Hasimoto's antibodies and T3 levels. However she did advise me to retest my thyroid levels in November or December. Since my HMO only tests TSH, I'll need another blood test order from my doc. So she can add those additional tests then.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Latest Stool Test Results

I received my Metametrix Lab DNA Microbial Ecology stool test results yesterday. The good news is I have NO NEW GUT BUGS!! The bad news is I STILL have that "parasite taxonomy unavailable". The results also said: A taxonomy unavailable finding likely indicates an ingested protozoan and not a human parasite. It does not indicate treatment unless patient symptoms and other inflammatory markers are consistent with parasitic infection." My 2006 test results explained 'taxonomy unavailable' as: "Glfx will detect DNA from all commonly reported organisms in microscopic parasitology. In addition, any dNA present from yeast/fungi or protozoa will also be detected. These are reported as positive, taxonomy unavailable."

That 'taxonomy unavailable' (TU) bug first appeared in my May 2009 test results (along with my C-diff diagnosis.) At that time my ND dismissed the TU bug as 'probably something I ate before the test. However, that TU parasite result continued to appear on every stool test since May 2009 (1/10, 5/10 and 9/10). If the TU bug really came from something I accidentally consumed, I would have to continue eating those bugs since May 2009. Obviously I need to ask my current doc about that TU bug.

I'm also concerned about my low levels of facultative anaerobes (good bacteria). My lactobaccillus and bifidobacter levels are much lower than they were in January of this year. Granted, I took antiparasitic drugs for almost 3 months to kill the D-frag parasite. However I also took probiotics during and after each drug treatment. Nevertheless, I did begin taking a new probiotic during and after my last drug treatment. I thought that probiotic would be better absorbed and more effective. It had 50 live cells per capsule, which I took on an empty stomach first thing in the morning and just before bed.

However, my good bacteria levels were higher when I was taking a different probiotic (with FOS, which causes bloating and gas) just before meals. I'm really confused now. So yesterday I purchased another 7 day probiotic (with FOS) treatment with the product I previously took. I also called their company to ask why they suggested I take that probiotic before meals, rather than when I first get up (at least 30-60 minutes before meals). They explained that food helps neutralize stomach acid. So less of the good bacteria are destroyed by stomach acid. That's logical.

Nevertheless, I already have low stomach acid and must take acid supplements at the beginning of meals. If those acid supplements destroyed the probiotics, my previous test results for lactobacillus and bifidobacter should have been lower. Instead my most recent results were low. Also those results came from a stool test taken a month after I ended antiparasitic treatment. Other tests were taken several months after treatments had ended. So maybe my current good bacteria levels are higher than they were when I took that latest test.

I have an appointment for a phone consultation with my naturopath. I hope she knows more about those TU bugs and why my good bacteria levels were so low. I also intend to ask her when she wants me to retest my blood levels for vitamin D, CBC (which includes white blood cells and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration), TSH and Free T4. Although I've felt slightly warmer and more energetic (possibly due to less anemia and recovering from a badcold), I haven't noticed obvious improvement from thyroid supplementation. Fortunately, I no longer have irregularity. However, I do have more cramping abdominal pain. I wonder if the TU critter is causing my abdominal cramping pain??

Sunday, October 3, 2010

No Obvious Improvement

After 3 weeks of taking Levoxyl (50 mg daily), I haven't noticed any really obvious improvements in regularity. I still need the same amounts of all my supplements (magnesium, vitamins B, C, D, E, HCl and probiotics) plus lots of fiber and fluids for any degree of 'regularity'. However I also now have slight bloating and fecal urgency (feeling like I have to 'go' all the time). I thought after 3 weeks of thyroid supplement I would have less impaired regularity symptoms, not more. I've read that Levothyroxine slowly builds up in the body. So improvement symptoms slowly appear. However, I expected to get better, not worse, regularity-wise.

I still feel warmer and more energetic (possibly due to improved thyroid function), but I didn't mind feeling tired and needing more clothing layers as much as I disliked irregularity symptoms. I also suspect that my current intestinal symptoms mean I have another gut bug infection. My doc said my stool test results won't arrive for another week. So I won't know whether these symptoms mean I need more Levothyroxine or another drug to kill new gut bugs. Right now I feel hopeless about ever feeling healthy again.