2.5mg

On Wednesday I decided to 'bite the bullet' so to speak and up my dose to 2.5mg. As I have said before in this blog, I am conscious of timing due to potential side effects and taking it on Wednesday enabled me to get the maximum amount of downtime before having to go anywhere.

I haven't posted for a bit and this is mainly for three reasons:

1. I started a new eating plan on Sunday - Intermittent Fasting on a 5:2 plan. This has taken up some time as I have had to adjust to that in the past week.
2. I am finding it hard to quantify what exactly LDN is doing!
3. Yesterday was my 'sickness anniversary' - 22 years ago was the day I became acutely unwell and my life has never been the same since. My life totally changed its course, and this time of the year is always a time of processing for me. I have feelings and thoughts that quite frankly only other people going through what I have been through can possibly empathise with me about. Seeing as there is not exactly a load of friends around these parts who are in my position, I retreat inside myself for a bit.

About number 2 -

So yeah, it's difficult! Of course there is that typical situation when taking a new medication or supplement, where you don't know how you would be if were not taking it. In my case, I feel as if I would have to be so dramatically better from LDN to be able to go... 'Yeah this is 100% working for me' - without question.

The last couple of weeks I have had a virus, PMS and then TTOTM (that time of the month).  All of this is typically straining on my body and this time around has been no exception. As such, I found that it was as if LDN's effects were being cancelled out possibly. Or maybe I would have been even worse if I had not been taking it... Who knows?

I have managed to get two nights of good sleep, and I do feel better for that. One of my concerns and issues at the moment is that I do not know what my thyroid is doing. For example, last night my heart rate was under 60 and my BP was lowish. When I lay right down my BP got very low  (which is typical for me) and my heart rate went up by 20 points. So, it's hard to tell! I had this crazy idea - well not totally crazy as some people do experience this - that I would take LDN and it would magically get my thyroid working and I would go hyper quickly and start to come off Nature-Throid. Whereas, I currently feel as if I am now not taking enough thyroid medication! I feel very fatigued, somewhat apathetic (mainly because I am so exhausted) and cranky because I am fed up with being sick and so dependent on others. It is taking me until about 2 p.m. every day to get enough energy to do anything and then I manage about an hour at the most before going back to staring at the wall/watching my birds/listening to others/watching a little TV or trying to read.

The complete opposite of what I thought would happen. I don't really understand that. If LDN acts on autoimmune thyroid problems to halt the attack, why does mine seem to going the other way? Anyway, I am going to take my heart rate when I am up and moving about and see how it is today.