Integrated/functional Medicine

[Ashelton80]

After my post complaining about an appointment, I thought I would share with you about a fairly good appointment I had a few days later. I had been referred to this doctor by a friend of mine and it took almost 3 months to get in with her. I had made the appointment back in November. It was a long wait as well (almost and hour and a half) in a very hot, stuffy office also under flourescent lighting! I was on day 3 of my menstrual cycle so I really thought I was not going to make it. LOL

Once she sat down with me, she spent 3 hours with me! Went over my entire history and the last 4 years of blood work I've had done through my general practitioner. She is a nurse practitioner who at one time practiced the traditional medical model. She got very sick and was bedridden for a year with Chrohn's, PCOS, Hashimotos thyroiditis and several other issues. That is when she turned to functional medicine which made her well and is now doing great. She is super nice and compassionate and told me that she thought she could help me, but if for some reason she couldn't she would get me to other people who could. That was refreshing!

She immediately noticed a few things in my blood work like antibodies to my thyroid which aren't too bad right now, but she said that autoimmune is now on board and will eventually need addressing. I am mineral deficient and my copper/zinc ratio is off. She also thing I have severe leaky gut and that's why I cannot process any supplements and have so many food reactions. Everything that I will be doing at first will be transdermal or IV/shot. We are doing stool, urine and saliva testing for several things. I know she is checking the bacteria and yeast in my intestinal tract and to see if I have the correct enzymes to break down protein, fats, etc.

I will go back next week for a new vitamin/mineral since my other one was a year old and also a Myers cocktail. I am a little nervous about that one. She has also called me in transdermal b vitamins and magnesium, but we will have to wait for all the other test results to come in and that can take up to 4 weeks. She did mention that she may put me on Fludrocortisone like my other dr suggested, but it would be at a teeny tiny dose and broken into 2 doses (1 morning and 1 afternoon) instead of all at once.

I am cautiously optimistic to have someone I feel is on my team and really cares about me getting well. I really hope she can help me. She was happy I am already doing some really good lifestyle habits such as gluten/dairy free, exercising, going to sleep around 9:30 every night (this has helped soooooo much) and practicing the biofeedback that I learned from my 2 week stay in TX. Only time will tell, but wanted to share.

[Leigh8]

That is so awesome! Hopefully you can find some relief from her treatment. At the very least, it's nice to have a kind, caring health care provider on your side and advocating for you

[FarmerAmy]

I have been going to a Functional Medicine doctor for about 6 months. I've been doing things to address my adrenal insufficiency and fungal dysbiosis. No major improvements with this doctor yet, but I really like her approach and plan to stick with it for a while longer.

Good luck!

Amy

[Ashelton80]

Amy, what has her treatment been thus far with you? I'll be honest, if in 6 months I don't have any improvements I probably won't be her patient anymore. She told me in 3 months I should feel significantly better, so that's what I'm giving her She is starting me on transdermal B vitamins and magnesium today. Have you had a Myers cocktail push before?

[FarmerAmy]

I've done a ton of stuff. It is a long answer, but I'll try to put some of it down here....

She has ordered several tests for me through Genova Diagnostics (NutrEval), US Biotek (food allergy), and Metametrix (GI Effects).

At first she diagnosed me with adrenal insufficiency. She had me taking some different types of cortisol--Phytisone, Cortrex, and Isocort (she uses mostly Thorne brand supplements). I actually felt some improvement on the Isocort. But it really upset my stomach. I usually don't have any GI issues, but she said that if I had an overgrowth of intestinal yeast, the Isocort would aggravate it.

So then we did the Metametrix stool sample. My results came back with a +2 on the yeast/fungi section. So I started a very restrictive diet to try to address the yeast problems. It is sort of similar to the Paleo diet, but not exactly. I started the diet in October. At first it was *really* hard because I felt like there wasn't anything I could eat. But now I've totally adjusted to it and it isn't a big deal at all for me to be on the diet. I was also doing oregano oil when I first started the diet. I was miserable for about a month. I had a non-stop smashing headache and my knees and hips really hurt. My doctor said I was having a severe herxheimer reaction and she took me off the oregano oil. I felt back to my normal self within a day or so. Now she has me doing Lauricidin, which is a coconut extract. I am doing much better on that. I also eat a lot of coconut (oil, milk, water, dried) because it is anti-fungal. I am *certain* that the diet has improved my overall health because it is such a good diet, but I haven't seen much improvement in my POTS symptoms yet.

I asked my doctor about doing IV fluids and she prescribed Lactated Ringer's for me. Unfortunately it didn't do anything for me. I just got some saline IV fluids, but I haven't tried that yet. I have not done a Myers cocktail.

My doctor has had some patients with POTS, but I don't think she's had that many. A few times she prescribed something that she thought would really work. But nothing has been dramatic yet. She thought the cortisol would really help. She also had high hopes for vitamin B12 injections, but again I didn't notice anything.

I have taken a boat load of supplements--I am a slave to my pill box!!

Even though we haven't had much success yet, my doctor is very willing to do research on POTS for me. She has been in touch with a Functional Medicine endocrinologist to get his opinion on my illness.

I'm sure I am forgetting something because we have tried so many different things. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Amy