Beginning Steps to Living with Autoimmune Disease

What is an autoimmune disease? Autoimmune disease is basically when your own immune system attacks your own body because it has gotten completely confused and no longer functions like it is supposed to. Apparently there are over 100 autoimmune diseases, so far. The key to living with an autoimmune disease is learning what you can do to protect your body, regulate the immune response, and learn everything you can. However, there are some relatively easy steps to begin to take control of your autoimmune disease and live a healthy life. Here is what I have learned in dealing with my own autoimmune disease (hashimoto's thyroiditis).

1. Read and learn everything you possibly can about your disease and autoimmunity in general. You really have to become pro active in knowing about your disease. Doctors don't know everything and in maintaining a practice it is very difficult for them to truly stay up to date on research. You need to be a partner in your health and take an active approach to your own healing. Don't miss the free autoimmune summit taking place now online.

2.Find a doctor willing to work with you. If your doctor is one of those that thinks they are the end all be all and won't discuss your disease and possible treatment options then find a new doctor. I have gone through 14 doctors in the past 10 years with my disease. I have a wonderful GP now who listens to me and talks with me, not to me. unfortunately she doesn't have much confidence in her own abilities and I admit I am a complicated case, but I consider her a treasure.

3. Take a proactive approach to your diet. Diet definitely has a role in the immune response for many people with AID (autoimmune disease). I highly recommend trying an autoimmune or elimination diet and seeing if you notice a difference in the way that you feel or if your particular antibody numbers get lower. For me, grains raise my antibody levels and I notice I suffer much more if I am exposed to wheat especially. You may not think you have a problem with foods, but you really don't know whether you do or not until you stop the exposure and then re-expose yourself. Things that can cause a problem are grains (especially wheat), dairy, and legumes. This is a big one that most people tend to balk at, but really a few months out of your life eliminating some of your favorite foods to see if it improves the quality of your life is not that big of a deal. I love bread, hot fresh bread dripping with fresh homemade butter...yum! However, I don't tolerate wheat. My pain level goes up, I get a migraine headache, and I suffer for days if I am exposed to wheat. I have the same reaction with corn. So for me, the response is not worth it. The is simply too much to justify that slice of bread or piece of cake. You might not have the problem that I have, but isn't it worth it to find out.

4. Heal your gut. Consider probiotics, fermented foods, and other things that will help to heal your gut. This does go along with the diet above.

5. Detox your liver and your life. Our world is so full of toxins. Chemicals in shampoos, conditioners, cleaning products, clothing, furniture, etc. etc. etc. all work to trigger an immune response and damage our immune system. If we have an autoimmune disease then we don't need any extra help in damaging the immune system, it is already wonky. So, make a conscience effort of ridding your life of all those unnecessary chemicals.

6. Optimize your vitamin levels, especially Vitamin D and your B vitamins. Be cautious of using herbs that stimulate the immune system because you will stimulate the attack on your body.

7. Avoid stimulating your immune system when possible. If you know that someone is sick, avoid them if possible. A typical cold can take me a full 6 months to completely recover from, whereas a normal person can recover in a week or two. I avoid sick people like the plague. If I go to the grocery store, I am meticulous about washing my hands and wiping down the handle on the cart. I try to limit my grocery store trips. I don't go around sick people. If I know someone is sick or might possibly be coming down with something, I stay away. I also try to get all my regular doctor visits done when it is not cold and flu season. You will not find me at the doctor's office during that time if I can possibly help it. I am not saying live in a bubble and go over board being a germaphobe, but there really is no reason to overly stimulate your immune system any more than necessary.

8. Exercise to tolerance. Get up and move around. It does help. I don't mean that you have to start training for a triathlon, but a walk around the block or a morning yoga routine will help keep your body healthy and happy.

To live and thrive with autoimmune disease you have to become proactive to your own health. There is no miracle pill or cure. Some steps to healing are hard, but isn't your health and your life worth whatever it takes to be healthy and happy?

Blessings, Kat

Free Autoimmune Summit Online Now

The Autoimmune Summit is free online now here. Each day is full of several talks from doctors and experts about causes and healing with autoimmune disease. Autoimmune diseases are on the rise. I myself suffer from Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. The one thing that I never understood was that having one autoimmune disease greatly increases your risk of developing other autoimmune diseases. There is loads of great information about controlling the immune response, things that will trigger an immune flair up, etc. Blessings, Kat

September 2014 update

Well, the health issue isn't much better. However, my thyroid numbers are now so bad that the endocrinologist finally agreed that I have a problem. My thyroid has grown in size and I will be having another ultrasound in the next month or so. She put me on synthetic thyroid and I am not tolerating it well. About an hour or so after I take it I then have a headache that lasts all day. I also tend to have some nausea, but not sure if that is the medication or the headache. We will see how things go with my next appointment as to whether she will remain my doctor. Most likely not because she is a TSH only doc. I am still trying to keep things together around here. I had been making some pretty decent progress on the before winter to do list, but now I am considerably much slower. There is a lot to do. The problem is that I have so little energy, my heart rate increases easily leading to heart palpitations which make me dizzy, I run out of breath very quickly, and then there are the headaches. Just feeding the livestock can be very difficult and wipe me out for about an hour or so. So, in this post I thought I would put a few thoughts on how to cope when you simply don't see how you can keep coping. Like I have said before the best thing I ever did while I was well was to make things pretty efficient. Even so, I now see some ways that I can improve on that. For instance, previously all the hay was put into one barn and this meant that twice a day I had to move hay from one side of the farm to the other. So, we have put a pallet in each rabbit colony so that the rabbit can use the floor space under the pallet and the hay is stacked on top. They actually seem to like this and it means that all that needs doing is to pull from the loose square bale on the top of the stack. We are also going to get small metal trashcans and put the feed for the rabbits that are in the middle colony in the middle colony with them. We have put more hay racks in the goat barn so that if I am having a bad day then I only have to put hay out once a day. I am really weak these days and my balance is really off, so the less I have to be mobbed by goats shoving and pushing the safer it will be for me. We are trying to come up with some way that I can pour their grain from the feed room. The problem is that they either knock over their feed trough or knock buckets down. This means that I have to go into the barn and pick all of that up with crazy goats running around and knocking me over. The garden is slowly being closed up for the winter. I won't have a winter garden this year. I am tired of hunting for eggs so we are adding onto the chicken coop and will put a metal trashcan in there to store feed. We have it so that we can water from outside the coop as well. Then the chickens will be locked up at least most of the day and let out in the afternoon to free range. I just have no energy to go looking for eggs everyday. As soon as I find a place the hens get tired of me taking their stash so then they go find another place and the hunt is on again. The goats will be dry lotted this winter so that I don't have to move them around or chase them down. Everybody will be deep bedded. Flylady was a blessing. Most of the excess junk is gone from the house which makes it easier to keep tidy. The children keep their own rooms and bathroom clean. Even though I can't keep to the deep clean schedule that she has right now, I can manage to get at least 2 rooms a month deep cleaned and keep everything else on a normal cleaning schedule. Like I said we are still looking for some other ways to make things a little easier on me right now so that I can keep things somewhat going. I have faith that things will get better for me and I don't want to just give up what we have worked so hard to build up. However, the struggle to keep it going is really tough. There are days that just the morning feeding chores has me in tears. So my best advice at this time is to take the time to do some organization and streamlining around your home and homestead because you never know when chronic illness might raise its ugly head and render you unable to do what you do now. A year ago, I was building fences, taking care of the house and livestock, making cheese, canning, taking care of the garden, and splitting wood for winter. Now, I do good to feed the livestock and my family and do schoolwork with the children. Hopefully, I will have better news! Blessings, Kat

August 2014

Well, it has been a nightmare of a summer. We have been in and out of the hospital with my mom since May. She has Stage IV COPD and we were going in and out of respiratory failure all summer long. To make matters worse I am having thyroid issues again and again am having to battle doctors to get the right diagnosis and treatment. Still not there and still battling doctors. I am off all thyroid hormone while we run test after test after test. Right now things point to autoimmune or cancer. I have another doctor appt. next week so we will see if I can get her to run a more comprehensive panel for a more clear picture of what is going on. Needless to say life right now is a struggle. Each day I am able to function just a little less. I am beginning to think we might need to start thinking about getting rid of the livestock because I am simply unable to take care of the farm chores like I used to. We are waiting to see what the doctors will say and do about my thyroid issue. I haven't done any canning as that is so time consuming and just takes more energy than I have. I have put a lot in the freezer and even dehydrated some. The summer produce has done pretty well despite the fact that I have been home so very little this summer. It has been tough on Petunia since she has basically had to take my place and run the house and farm as best she can. She has done a wonderful job and I am so proud of her. The little one Pooter has made sure to give her a hard time about everything. The one thing I am thankful for is the amount of organization that I have done for everything over the past year. The house is on a schedule and when that schedule is followed it makes it pretty easy for it to be kept up. The farm chores are on a schedule and makes it easier for Petunia to step in and help. The schedule allows me to function despite the brain fog. Routine is absolutely necessary for me these days as my brain simply can't think. I am just barely making it from day to day. I pray that I will be able to get a doctor to help. My old ENT that removed half my thyroid 11 years ago is the one that said there is a problem. He referred me to an endo who ran only a partial panel and said there is no problem. I am headed back to my GP with the results of both those lab tests and hopefully she will see the problem that I see and my ENT saw. If not then I am headed out of town to another ENT that mine recommended. His words were if I couldn't get results here then I needed to go see this other ENT because he is brilliant with thyroid problems. He fixes what other doctors miss. He is 2 hours away though and hard to get an appt. to see. I have one in September, depending on what my GP says next week. If there is any advice I can give to anyone on this homesteading journey is to have everything as organized and scheduled and efficient as possible because you simply don't know what life might throw at you. Like I said, each day I am a little less able to function and just getting out of bed is a real chore. I have a good couple of hours in the morning when I feel ok and then the rest of the day goes downhill from there. Having things on schedule and organized means that I can easily tell the kids and hubby what they can do to help and when I am not here they can look at the schedule and see what needs to be done. Even though Mom is out of the hospital she still requires a good deal of my time, so I have to dedicate some of my energy to taking care of her. So that is what life is like right now here around the farm. Not much going on as right now we are struggling to just maintain some semblance of normal. I can't decide yet whether I will plant a fall garden. We are still getting some stuff out of the summer garden and to tell you the truth I just don't have much energy for gardening. However, we need the food more than ever because of the extra expenses of doctors and lab tests. So I am still trying to decide what to do about that. Hope you all have had a great summer. Please keep our family in your prayers as we struggle through this difficult time. Blessings, Kat

Thyroid Health Update

I have been doing better since i started treating my chronic fatigue by addressing my thyroid issues and my adrenal issues. I think I pretty much have the thyroid on the way to being under control. However, my adrenal fatigue is definitely taking some time. I still have difficulty sleeping through the night. One thing that I have noticed is that I have to be very conscientious about how I eat and what I eat. I spent the afternoon at a friend's house last week and we decided to have pizza that evening and let the children play longer since none of them wanted to stop and we girl's were enjoying ourselves talking. However, I paid for eating all that bread as the next day I felt so lethargic. It took me two days to fully recover. I have also noticed that my system doesn't handle 3 normal meals a day well anymore and I do much better on 6 small meals. If I miss the small meals and resort back to a normal meal then I pay for that as well in excess fatigue. The large rise in blood glucose levels puts excess strain on my adrenal glands and when you are trying to de-stress your adrenal glands then that is something that you really need to watch. 6 small meals a day keeps a much more steady blood glucose level, therefore limiting the stress on the adrenal glands to compensate. However, I feel better and more like a human being rather than a zombie simply going through the day. It is nice to feel that way. One thing that I have noticed is how much nutrition and what you eat plays such a huge role in how you feel. No wonder there are so many complaints in society today about not feeling well, hurting more and no energy. The fix though isn't an energy drink or a pill. It isn't quick. It means that you really need to be in tune to your body and what goes in it and how. Maybe it is a good thing that modern day medicine failed me. Now, I see that it is a whole body approach to getting well and being well and there is no magic fix or pill that I could take that would work long term. Anyway, I am wholeheartedly glad that I decided to do the research and take matters into my own hands. So far so good. Blessings, Kat

Thyroid Health Day 5

I have had a great couple of days with loads of energy. I really believe I have found the keys to my health issues and am beginning to see what good health feels like. Day before yesterday a friend and I took our children on a little road trip and I was completely worn out by it. Then yesterday I worked in the garden, cleaned the rabbit grow out cages, cleaned the stalls and re-bedded them, cooked, cleaned up the house and did some laundry along with a few other odds and ends here and there. I was tired last night but that is to be expected at the end of a busy day. However, I wasn't in tears kinda tired all through out the day. I really can't believe that good health was in such easy reach for me and yet I couldn't find a doctor willing to help me simply because my blood tests fell in the "normal" range. I think that has a lot to do with they simply don't understand how involved the endocrine system is and that if one thing is out of whack then other things are likely to be out of whack. Then too I don't think they truly understand the relationship of T-4, T-3 and Reverse T-3. A GP is just that and they only have a general understanding of things. I could never get a referral to an endocrinologist who might have understood a little more. Anyway, I am still kind of scared to get my hopes up that this will last but between my diet and my thyroid/adrenal protocol I am feeling great these days. I can't believe how much I am able to do. I still have the pain of fibro, I have had that all my life and I can live with that. The fatigue is what I couldn't live with and I think I have that under control. At least I am praying that I am. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Thyroid Health Day 3

Well, yesterday was a good day. I really felt good for the first time in a very long time. Although, here it is 4:00 in the morning and I have been awake for the past hour. Just another sign that you can't fix something that has been wearing itself out for the past 8 years. It will take time for my adrenal glands to rest and heal so that I am not experiencing symptoms of adrenal fatigue. I did find out though that I am sensitive to licorice root, which I knew could be a possibility. My adrenal support has licorice root in it and when I took a whole pill yesterday morning my blood pressure went up and I developed a headache. However, it went away within about an hour and I felt better. So my afternoon dose I only took half a pill and experienced no problems. I did have more energy yesterday and didn't experience my typical daily crash. I did some work around here then went to the feed store and the grocery store which normally will completely wipe me out. However, while I was a little tired I didn't crash. That to me was amazing. Now, if I can just get back to getting a full nights sleep. I don't think I am going to continue feeling great with only 5 hours of sleep a night. We will see how today goes. Blessings, Kat

Thyroid Health Day 2

I have been working on my adrenals and watching my diet like a hawk for the past several weeks. I have felt better, but still not there...still not normal. I thought I would blog a little bit about this journey. I am hoping that the journey will lead me to feeling like a normal human again. I am scared to be too hopeful. However, I have noticed improvement with following Weston Price's research and then following that with working on my adrenal fatigue. Now, as of yesterday afternoon I am finally working on my thyroid. I am not going to post about what all I am doing or taking because I simply don't want it to be construed as medical advice. I am not a doctor. I am a patient that is fed up with modern day medicine refusing to acknowledge that something somewhere in my body is not working right simply because they are relying on unreliable blood tests instead of symptoms. I have a laundry list of symptoms. I guess the one thing that I have learned from studying Weston Price's research is that symptoms typically mean that something is not working like it should and that there is always an explanation. So a diagnosis of chronic fatigue simply means that a doctor has given up trying to find what isn't working like it should. At least that is my theory. All I know is that several generations ago things like chronic fatigue and fibro rarely existed. Something has changed. So much has changed...food, chemicals, lifestyles, etc. What are these changes doing to us? What have these changes done to me? Growing up in a world loaded with chemicals, ingesting chemicals, processed food, fast food, food lacking nutritional value...the overload and underload has wreaked havoc with my system and something is not working right anymore. I am on a mission to fix it even though modern day medicine says there is nothing to fix. I will let you know how the journey goes. In one way I am hopeful and in other ways I am scared to have much hope. I have to trust that the good Lord will lead me down a path to wellness. I have to trust that He would never wish his children to suffer so much pain physically. I have to trust that He did not design our bodies to be so weak starting at such a young age. I pray that I am right and that He will lead me on the path to healing and wellness. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Thyroid Health

A couple of weeks ago my little one and I had the flu. Before I started coming down with it she wanted me to take my temperature just like I did hers. So I did and then I took it again because what I saw couldn't possibly be right. The thermometer read 97.4, both times. I was curious but a little busy with a sick child so I determined to address this later. Later in the day when I had another moment with the thermometer my temp once again read 97.4. So I got on the internet and discovered a whole lot of things that I wish I had known years ago. 8 years ago I had 1/2 my thyroid removed due to some benign cysts. Prior to removal I was classic hypothyroid. You could have knitted a sweater with the amount of hair that was falling out of my head and I slept every single moment that I could. At the time I was working and when I headed into the office to do the paperwork at the end of the day I would fall asleep sitting at the desk. The doctors told me it would get better after surgery....it didn't really. It did get slightly better as my hair wasn't falling out so much and I could stay awake a little more. However, I still had that overwhelming deep to the bone fatigue. I still gained weight just by thinking about food. I asked my doctor to check my thyroid levels. He did and said they were fine. Over and over again over the next several years I asked for my levels to be checked and each time they told me I was fine and that it wasn't my thyroid. Three doctors later I finally get the exasperated diagnosis that I have chronic fatigue and there is simply not much that they can do...but it definitely is not your thyroid. Well, here I am 8 years later and I am still convinced that my health issues are strongly related to my thyroid and I don't care anymore what the doctors tell me. By this point I am also hovering between stage 3 and 4 adrenal fatigue also. A person's body can only take the stress of not feeling well so long. For days I have taken my body temperature and it stays a pretty constant 97.4. I can raise it to 98.2 or so by taking a hot shower, but within a couple hours it has dropped back down. I have less and less tolerance to heat and cold, so thank goodness it hasn't been that cold this winter for us. I used to love 60 degree weather and now I find it intolerable as I just can't get warm, no matter how many clothes I put on. So, I have been reading and reading and I have found that there are loads of folks just like me. People who present classic symptoms of being hypothyroid yet their doctors tell them they are fine. So I am going to take the matter into my own hands first addressing my adrenal fatigue. The nutritional information at the Weston Price foundation has helped and will continue to help because much of what I have discovered is that many of the things I have learned about nutrition there goes hand in hand with having a healthy thyroid and healthy thyroid levels. So here is hoping that I will soon be able to find out what normal is. I don't think that I really know anymore. I just want to feel what other people feel when they have the energy to get through their days without breaking down in tears because they simply don't know how they are going to be able to put one foot in front of the other. I would like to go to sleep and stay there instead of sitting on the computer and updating my blog at 3:30 in the morning. Wow! A full 8 hours of sleep all in one stretch....what a delight that must be. For anyone interested check out these websites: Stop the Thyroid Madness, Wilsons Temperature Syndrome, and the Cold Body Page. Blessings, Kat