I have an appointment with my endocrinologist's nurse practitioner at the end of this week. I have known my endo for 20 years - since I was 9 years old. I've known her NP for at least 15. They may not always agree with my decisions (declining flu vaccinations, for example) but they have always shown me respect regarding my obviously well-thought decisions.
And yet I'm nervous because I haven't been there since December which, as you know, was before I went on NDT through my new MD.
My endo previously handled all of my thyroid care. At my appointment in December, I showed her a list of a dozen symptoms that I had jotted down and told her, "We've GOT to do something else!"
I asked about NDT, T3, more labs. She very quickly gave me reasons why NDT wasn't a good idea ("I have a problem with putting ground up dead pig thyroid inside of you") and T3 ("Your body doesn't need T3 because it automatically converts T4 into T3").
I don't even remember where the conversation went after that and why she didn't order more labs. (Because she wouldn't know what to do with them, probably.)
I'm nervous because I get to half-fire her - because I don't want her to handle my thyroid care, but I do need her to help with my diabetes care.
I also have this great opportunity to tell the NP about Stop the Thyroid Madness and Recovering With T3 and how effective it is. I think that I could make a pretty decent argument in the mere fact that something I am doing with NDT must be right if I have had 77 symptoms dramatically, including chronic long-term depression (despite the fact that I went OFF my Prozac when I started NDT) improve in just a few months.
At the same time, I'm not sure if I want to deal with the stress of the appointment. What a dilemma.
