I survived the doctor appointment, as anticipated, and (after seeing my panicked face ha ha) he said I don't have to lower my thyroid levels.

I told him I've been having pain in my right shoulder (old injury) and my left shoulder, and right leg. Also, I still feel very unwell. We talked about doing a pituitary function test and other hormone tests, and then he said, "You know what? I'd like to talk to you about Chinese medicine."

He explained how Western medicine tends to pinpoint problems and treat those specifically, where Chinese medicine take a "whole body" approach.

He said I need to get my heat back up. (I think he said I don't have enough Chi but I could have gotten it backwards.) Although I swim and walk a lot, he said that I need aerobics to bring my core heat back up. (I'm always freezing, and it doesn't help that I live by the Pacific Ocean and it's always cold here.) And he said we need to get me feeling well. Although I don't feel good enough to do aerobics, he said it's a vicious cycle and if I push myself to do a little bit at a time, everything should start improving.

I like this approach. Beats the heck out of throwing some pills at the problems. Here's what he prescribed.

Avoid cold foods: raw, dairy, sweet, sugar, cold
Encourage heat: cooked foods, hot drinks, soups, spicy, ginger
Aerobic exercise: 15 minutes, 3 times a week, heart rate up & sweaty
Panax Ginseng: 600 mg/day
Astragalus: 200 mg/day
Tyrosine: 500 mg/day
(herbs that support endocrine function)

I'm going back in six weeks and we will see how it's going then.

I had a major anxiety attack about two hours after my appointment! At least it was after, and I'm hopeful about this whole-body approach.

Gotta go now, I'm off for my "power walk"!