Hi Sue and Holly and everyone!

I haven't been doing CAD for the past several days, so I hope it's okay that I still post here - I've grown kind of fond of everyone! I do feel more balanced and my heart palpitations have stopped, thank goodness. I changed my plan to modified paleo on my profile, as that pretty much describes the food choices I have been making ever since I started healing myself. However, I will try CAD again once I feel my body can handle it. And I have been trying to eat two or three meals a day as opposed to grazing all day long, which I think is a big part of why CAD works so well for me.

I'm not a doctor, but my intuition tells me that my body wouldn't be attacking its own gland unless it was really stressed by something. I know I have a genetic predisposition towards this (my sister got the exact same thing), but I have a strong belief that my body can and will heal itself if I find out what I need to do to support that. I defintely saw my doctor and endo regularly while I was hyper and hypo, and I had their blessing for my drug-free way (well, the endo couldn't quite bring himself to approve, but he finally got on board when my levels normalized.) So far so good! Maybe if I had developed Hashi's first instead of Graves' I wouldn't be so gung-ho on this - taking supplemental hormones to replace your own doesn't seem unhealthy. But the options for GD were to take anti-thyroid drugs (which can suppress your immune system and be toxic to your liver), do surgery to remove your thyroid gland, or take radioactive iodine to kill your thyroid gland. I would have taken the drugs if my body hadn't responded so well to all my natural healing stuff, but I was not excited by the idea of killing off a body part that is so essential to health and then depending on doctors to medicate me for the rest of my life. Especially as I view my immune system confusion as the root of the problem, and the thyroid gland a victim in this disease.

Also, I felt like getting GD was just the tip of the iceberg for me healthwise. I'm hoping to avoid getting more autoimmune diseases by healing my immune system now. Not to sound too spiritual, but I feel like this was God giving me a huge wake-up call.

I know this way isn't for everyone. My brother and sister, after spending time with me last summer, said they thought it was amazing that I have healed myself this way, but they wouldn't have the willpower to give up wheat, sugar, alcohol, dairy, etc. I totally respect that, and in truth I still struggle with giving up dairy, my fav. Luckily for all of us, there are so many options in this modern world of ours!

Holly, I know your appointment with your endo was today - how did it go? I hope you were successful in your quest to up your dosage.

Take care all!

--TwoCats (Gretchen)