My autoimmune diagnosis: The full story and how it changed my life for the better
Receiving my autoimmune diagnosis was one of the most life-altering events I’ve ever experienced. At first, it left me scared, desperate, and confused. How could this happen to me? Hadn’t I been healthy my whole life?
I want to share with you guys about when I got my diagnosis and what steps I took in the years following to heal naturally. Of course, none of this is advice for anyone else; I’m simply sharing my experience because I think, the more we each share our experiences, they do have ripple effects in helping others heal!
My first symptoms & encounter with the medical world
At the beginning of 2021, I noticed myself becoming increasingly anxious and that my emotions were more on a hair-trigger than usual. Naturally, my husband noticed this too. I had always been an anxious person and, with anxiety, it can be easy to point to emotional and mental health issues as the root, so I didn’t suspect any underlying health issues. I would find out later, of course, that the two – emotional/mental health and physical health – are inextricably linked.
Then, the real symptoms started…
As if I weren’t already anxious enough, suddenly my heart started to act really weird. At night, when I was normally the calmest, it felt to be about double my husband’s rate, which is somewhere in the sixties. I also noticed palpitations and an arrhythmia throughout the day, sort of like my heart would suddenly do two really strong beats quickly in a row, out of sync with the others.
This scared the crap out of me. After a couple of days, I called my doctor’s office but, unfortunately, after spending two hours playing phone tag and trying to get an appointment that day, they just told me to go to urgent care.
My first time seeking medical help
Not knowing what else to do, I did what they said and went straight to urgent care. When I finally got in to see the doctor, my heart was acting up and she said she could hear the arrhythmia I was talking about. She ran an EKG, but everything was normal. She referred me to a cardiologist.
At this point, my first thought would always be: “How much is this going to cost?” I didn’t understand my health insurance very well back then, as I hadn’t had much of a need for it but, even so, I knew it didn’t cover much.
Nevertheless, I told myself I didn’t care. I resolved to just go to the appointment and worry about the cost later. (Ultimately I came to regret that decision.)
Seeing a cardiologist
I was able to get an appointment with a cardiologist the next day. I got there and, upon viewing my insurance, the receptionist snapped, “You’re supposed to have a referral from your primary care provider!” I told her I was only able to go to urgent care, and that the doctor there referred me. She then told me they might not get paid since I didn’t get the proper referral.
I thought to myself, “Don’t worry, my insurance doesn’t cover crap, so I’m going to be the one paying you regardless of whether the insurance accepts the claim or not.”
My appointment with the cardiologist lasted maybe 15-20 minutes. He didn’t hear anything when he listened to my heart, but he believed my concerns and ordered three different diagnostics. I can’t remember all of them, but I know it included bloodwork and a heart monitor. It also meant I had to schedule three future appointments with him on the spot.
My lovely health insurance
I hadn’t had to use my health insurance much up to this point, but I was vaguely aware that it didn’t cover much. I’m self-employed, so I purchase health insurance through our state’s marketplace. I could only afford a bronze-level plan, which had around an $8,000 deductible (how much you pay before the insurance kicks in).
In the days following my appointment, I started to do some research to find out if this appointment would be covered. I quickly figured out that, no, it wouldn’t. Basically, anything other than preventative care was totally out-of-pocket until I hit my $8k deductible. These kinds of plans are also referred to as “catastrophic” coverage. Great.
I got my bill for the cardiologist appointment. $250. For maybe 20 minutes with the cardiologist, and just talking to him. The sticker shock was quite something. Out of financial fear, I quickly canceled all the future appointments I’d made at the office.
The thought that I could go through all those tests and appointments – likely spending thousands in the process – and potentially not get any answers was a risk I wasn’t willing to take.
My first time turning to natural remedies
Thankfully, my best friend was at the ready to discuss other options. Her mother is a homeopath and her upbringing was saturated with natural alternatives to medical treatments. I was really impressed by what she knew, especially about herbs! (She’s British, so she says herbs with the “h”. Now it’s hard for me not to do the same, since I undoubtedly speak most about herbs with her than anyone else!!!)
My first supplements: Herbal tinctures!
She did some research for me and found two herbs that seemed promising for helping to regulate my heart’s weird patterns: hawthorn berry and motherwort. I’d never heard of these, but I was hopeful and eager to give them a try!
Specifically, I ordered one tincture of each from Mountain Rose Herbs. While they were a bit pricey, the expense paled in comparison to what I was looking at spending on all those medical diagnostics!
Plus, if they worked for me, I found out that making my own tinctures from the dried herbs was a much less expensive option going forward.
Within a month of starting these two tinctures, my heart calmed down. Naturally, I attributed this to the healing properties of the herbs. In hindsight, I see it more as an autoimmune flare that calmed down for whatever reason. But, who knows, the herbs probably didn’t hurt!
Hawthorn is indeed known as a heart tonic and motherwort, also known for its heart-helping properties, actually turned out to be one of the main herbs recommended for hyperthyroidism (which I didn’t yet know I had).
So, that was the start of me making my own tinctures, which I still do to this day!
Related: Homemade herbal tinctures: My favorite DIY natural medicine!
Getting my diagnosis: Another interaction with the medical world
It just so happened that, later that year, maybe six months after my urgent care and cardiology appointments, I scheduled a physical with my primary care doctor. This was one of the few services that was covered by my insurance, so I liked to take advantage of it.
One of my friends who had an autoimmune thyroid disease (and was treating hers naturally) recommended that I have my thyroid levels checked after she’d heard about my symptoms. She explained to me that doctors usually only check one thyroid value, but there are others which can indicate disease and should be checked as well.
I took a note of the tests she recommended and took them to my appointment.
My yearly physical revealed the cause of what I’d experienced earlier that year!
At my appointment, I explained to the nurse I saw that I’d had some heart irregularities but that they’d since gone away. I did ask for the additional thyroid tests as well, and she ran those along with some routine bloodwork.
Well, though I was feeling pretty normal, there was a huge red flag when my tests came back. My TSH was .01. For those of you who don’t know, TSH stands for thyroid stimulating hormone. The normal range was listed as .4-4.50. Mine was basically nonexistent!
A quick internet search made it clear that this could be an indicator of hyperthyroidism, which would also explain all of the heart symptoms I’d been experiencing!
The nurse I’d seen then ordered further thyroid testing to ascertain whether I had an autoimmune disease. There are three antibodies which are associated with thyroid autoimmunity, and I tested positive for two of them (TPO and TSI), one of which indicated Graves’, the hyperthyroid autoimmune disease.
However, the good news was that my thyroid hormones themselves were in the normal range, which meant I wasn’t at the clinical stage of my autoimmune disease… yet.
My reaction to my autoimmune diagnosis…
However, I was terrified after receiving this diagnosis! I’d found out that hyperthyroidism is more serious than hypothyroidism, and that the treatments were much more severe.
The medical treatment options I discovered
The three treatment options for an overactive thyroid which came up in my research were:
- Anti-thyroid medication
- Radioactive iodine (zaps your thyroid to damage it and cause it to create less hormones since it is overproducing)
- Surgery to remove all or part of the thyroid, after which you need to take thyroid replacement hormones for the rest of your life (because you no longer have a functioning thyroid)
It seemed very strange to me that the solution to an overactive thyroid was to… damage it and/or kill it. A bit heavy-handed, no?
Anyway, as you might guess, none of these options appealed to me. None seemed to get at the root cause of what was actually causing my disease… the treatments just dealt with the excess hormones the thyroid produces in hyperthyroidism. And these hormones can create very serious symptoms, don’t get me wrong, but I didn’t have those symptoms at the time of my diagnosis. So what was I supposed to do? Just be a ticking time-bomb, waiting to develop a full-fledged autoimmune disorder? Or was there more I could do to reverse this damage to my body?
What the doctors recommended
The first thing my primary care provider recommended was to see an endocrinologist. The problem? I had to wait three months for an appointment. They put me on a cancellation list, but I never got a call.
However, my doctor was kind enough to speak with the endocrinologist on my behalf and get her recommendation. Apparently, she said it would be wise for me to start an anti-thyroid medication just in case I start to get hyperthyroid symptoms, despite the fact my thyroid hormone levels were normal.
My turn towards natural treatments had already begun to take hold…
At this point, after feeling increasingly disenchanted with the medical world, I’d already begun doing my own research. I already knew the typical medical options, and they didn’t interest me. I didn’t want to take the medication.
So, I politely declined my doctor’s offer and told her I was going to seek out the advice of a naturopath. She encouraged me to still see the endocrinologist at least once so she could brief me on the risks of my disease. I agreed out of respect for her.
Turning toward the world of natural health, and not feeling disappointed!
As I researched more and more, I discovered that there actually were people investigating the root causes of autoimmunity and how to heal – rather than simply treat – these diseases. Specifically, I found a website called Natural Endocrine Solutions by Dr. Eric Osansky, which was a treasure-trove of free information that really helped me get started.
I received my diagnosis on December 16th and, just three days later on December 19th, 2021, I started a full-blown autoimmune paleo diet, which this doctor recommended as a first step towards achieving remission.
In the following months, I also decided to work with him (virtually) to treat my disease. Since he had also been diagnosed with Graves’ and was in remission, I felt it to be the best option.
His program was definitely expensive, but I felt better committing my money to something which would address root-cause healing instead of just managing symptoms.
The miracle of natural healing: My improvements
Though I can’t say I’ve 100% healed my autoimmune disease (there are still some loose ends I’m trying to figure out), my health has improved drastically since I changed my diet, started important supplements, reduced my exposure to toxins, lowered my stress levels, etc.
Where my lab values are today
For a while now (since around 2023), my antibodies which indicated Graves’ disease have been in the undetectable range! My other antibodies (TPO), which funnily enough can actually cause hypothyroidism, came down from 504 to 80 at one point, but have since gone up into the low 200s and stayed there for some time. I’m still trying to dial in why that is but, thankfully, my thyroid hormone levels have been pretty stable while I continue to address this.
And this is all without one ounce of medical treatment!
The frustrating thing about natural alternatives is that there are a lot of diagnostics. Unfortunately, everyone’s triggers vary (though there are some main common culprits), so a lot of different tests are often required to figure out what’s going on for a given person. And these can be expensive. I did take a lot of tests that didn’t reveal much helpful information, and that was definitely frustrating. But, overall, I have learned so much about my body and what works for me, the investment was well worth it.
How my overall well-being has improved
I will also say, in addition to my antibody levels improving, I actually feel so much better, too!
While I can’t give numbers to prove this as I can with my antibody levels above, I can tell you that I have felt my health improve in the following ways:
- I almost never get headaches anymore (I used to get them somewhat often)
- My emotional instability and anxiety have greatly improved; I’m more patient and less on a hair-trigger
- The activity in my tummy and bowels is much quieter and more predictable; I was able to figure out what foods cause bloating and upset and eliminate them permanently
- The heart symptoms I felt at the beginning of 2021 have never returned!
The benefits I have experienced from seeking a natural healing path go above and beyond any medical treatment could ever offer me. I am so happy I was aware of this option upon receiving my diagnosis!
How receiving my autoimmune diagnosis changed my life for the better
There is still so much more I can do to improve my health and continue healing. The journey never ends! And though I was so terrified and things felt so uncertain when I was first diagnosed with Graves’ disease, I genuinely would not change a thing.
If it weren’t for my disease, I never would have changed my diet so drastically (which I now feel strongly we would all benefit from doing, considering how toxic our food is and how unhealthy we all are!). Without my diagnosis, I never would have become this healthy. Paradoxically, I’m healthier now after my diagnosis than I was before I had this disease!
Truly, I had no idea how bad so much of the food I was putting in my body was. I thought I was eating healthy when I was diagnosed, and that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
Receiving my diagnosis and acting on it in a natural way has shown me the path to true health and, though it’s not an easy one with perfect answers all the time, I’d choose this way one hundred times over.
In the end, I am very grateful for this diagnosis; it has helped me understand health better and become so much more aware of the many drivers of disease. I have, unfortunately, completely lost faith in the medical institution, but this doesn’t discourage me, because there is so much out there to help us heal in the way nature has always intended.
In conclusion…
For anyone who has read this entire thing, I really appreciate you taking the time to hear my story. It’s certainly been quite a ride!
My hope is that there are others out there who need the encouragement and testimonial that natural healing does work, and that this story can help provide that. If I hadn’t heard inspiring stories from others who have blazed the path I’ve since followed, I’d likely have had no other choice but to listen to the doctors!
If you have been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, healed another disease with natural alternatives, or have any thoughts at all, I’d love to hear them in the comments down below! Each of our stories is so very powerful, so please do share!
I’m wishing the best of health to all of you out there, and thank you so much for being here on my site! ♥
