EP 77 - Why Danielle Looks Different: The Truth About Her Health

There's just a lot of people that I guess aren't up to date on Danielle's medical journey. And so today we're going to address where Danielle is right now with, you know, give like a health update, medical update, stuff like that on the podcast. The number one question is it's not said in these terms, but it basically is, why does Danielle look fat? What is Danielle huge? How does she look so different? This is more than reality podcast where we dive into all things, faith, family and marriage and share that there is so much more than the reality that you see on the surface. Welcome to more than reality with Adam and Danielle Busby. Hello, hello. Welcome to episode 77 of more than reality podcast. This is Adam and Danielle Busby now this week. And guess. Oh, yeah, Gus is down there. Hey, Gus, he, hello. I can't even see him, but he's hiding over here. Like always, he's going to be as still as humanly possible or as can't really say humanly. Yeah, that's right. What do you say? He kind of is a human, though. It's my baby boy. That's still as doggy possible. That's still as a possum. Oh, man, he doesn't move. You just like he knows he'll get kicked out. Yeah, mean daddy. I mean, our last studio, it was in my office at our old house, which was right by the front door. Whenever he would stay in our office and there and he would see somebody, because you could see through the glass window. Yeah. And he would see somebody come to the door, he'd cause a ruckus. But back here in this studio, it's a little different. Yeah, it's a little bit easier for you to hack us. Yeah. If you don't know who Gus is, if you're listening, because I've got people actually listening and not watch, Gus is our, is my little price possession puppy. He's not really a puppy. He's about to be five years old this month. It's like birthday month, speaking of Gus is going to turn five. The quince are turning 11 and Blake is turning freaking 15. Yeah, it's crazy. Homegirl is like ready for that permit and I am not at all ready for her to be behind the wheel. Today, today is April 2nd. And her birthday actually falls. Blake's birthday falls on this Sunday, actual Easter Sunday. And we're going to be, we're taking a trip to Cinnamon Shore and Porter, Ranzus, Texas. It's like a little, it's like a little strip island right off the coast of Texas, like further south Texas near like Corpus Christi. I'm like, what's in here? I was scrambled for a second, like, whoa, what's this near? But it's like the 30A of Texas. So it's like, and what's 30A? I remember I texted your parents that and they're like, you're done. It's like, what's 30A? Like, everybody knows 30A. It's like the Florida, like Rosemary Beach. It's like the cutest area in, you know, Florida to go vacation and be naturally in America like in the South. 30A. It's a little bit bluer, clear water. Well, yeah. And the sand is definitely better. It's like powder white sand there. But it's what we got in Texas. Yeah. Or we're cursed by the current of the Gulf of Mexico. So we get all the crap blown in by the Mississippi River. Yeah. Um, excuse my man voice today if you're wondering who's on the set today. It's just me, Danielle. I sound like a man today. I've got. Who said Adam and that dude? I, um, which was so funny yesterday, small story. I had to make a phone call yesterday to have this like thing come in the mail and I needed to find out what was it about or whatever and it's Adam's name on it, whatever. It was like this reimbursement, like insurance checker or whatever. And they're like, what's your name? I'm like Matthew Busby. Is that one? Is that one I'm getting phone calls from the hospital? I got one today while is that work? I don't know. But it's, that's a whole, that's a side conversation. We'll have off the mic. But I was like, they ain't even going to question if that's a woman on the phone because I sound like a man. It's like Matthew Busby. Can you, yes, sir. Good times. But yeah, so Blake's, um, you know, I think having the golf car has definitely been like, I was thinking about this like actually last night when I couldn't go to sleep. It's like me and how life is so different when I was driving at, you know, 12, my grandpa's car from around the, his house to his garden farm. Remember, we had a argument about that on the podcast before. How to farm? Whatever it was. I think it's 50, 50. Anyway, um, sorry, you're a farmer whenever you create rich, like you plant vegetables, grow them and you sell them. You're a farmer. Okay. I win. Wait, what do you want to say to that? No, it's okay. Oh, I thought you were going to say something else. No. No, you're right. Um, I'll take 50, 50. Um, but yeah, I remember like pops being like, we'd get up in that Cadillac, Rosemobile. That's my grandpa always, always had the most mobility swore by that brand. Um, and we, in his farm, little garden farm was like two roads over from like where his house and stuff was. So he would let us like get in the car. And if you don't know like my grandparents like, um, raised us a lot me and my sisters alongside of with my mom too, but um, my grandparents like are the ones who like taught us like I was thinking about this and doing the tip like I'm like, man, that was another thing that like pops taught us like he taught us how to drive. He told me how to ride by it and like those kind of things. I was just thinking about that and a lot of things I've been thinking about. But, um, anyway, so we're in that season with Blake and, you know, for a long time from when she was little, we would put her in dance and put her gymnastics just to help her stay like coordinated and like build stability because she's can be like so law law like, you know, at times, I don't even know how to explain that besides just being like La La land, you know. And so I keep telling her I'm like, with driving like the biggest thing about driving is being multi sensory awareness multitasking, multi sensory, don't say multitasking. Well you are multitasking because you're using your, you're just aware, you're aware of your multi aware, but you are multitasking because you're driving. Nobody wants people out there. You drive in a multitasking. Well, I'm just saying that to her because I'm like, you have to make sure what your foot's doing. You're going to have your hands on steer well. You got to look at your, your, your mirrors all the time. You know, I'm going to every fine little detail point because I'm like, it does not matter. It does not matter how good of a driver you are because you're driving around hundreds of people who you don't know anything about how they're driving it. It's called defensive driving. I know. And so I'm trying to tell her she's like, mom, I'm doing good. I'm like, okay, you are. But it doesn't matter. Like you always have to be aware. She does do surprisingly well because she was able to drive the golf cart. Yeah. We've had a golf cart. And now we have a, we had a golf cart, the size of your car. Yeah. Still it. Still one of those big limo golf carts. Yeah, that helped a time. I mean, it helped her a time. And so just, you know, she definitely is like getting more comfortable with like the foot and like the braking and like all those kind of things. But it's just, I'm just, I just sit in the car and I'm just like, I cannot imagine you on the road with other cars around you. And I'm like, what happens if a car comes flying up behind you? So it's, it's a season of us trying to teach our teenager how to drive. And, you know, she's all like wants to be go, go, go in the car. And I'm like, she's super motivated to like, want to just go and drive around. Yeah. And part of me is like, I get, I get to home, I get to the house in the evening and she's like, let's go drive. I'm like, I don't really want to drive. I just got so I had to do it. Drive around the neighborhood. Cause most, cause like when she comes home from school, usually like she's tired or like once in a half or like chill time. Yeah. And then she wants to go do it like in the evening. I'm like, but it's dinner time. And like, and so, I know, like I was, like I, I was heating up dinner and like right as it's like ready. She's like, okay, let's go. I'm like, baby, it's dinner time. You don't call her babe. You call me babe. Baby girl. Baby girl. I haven't heard that in a while. Um, anyway, do you remember? You got mad at me yesterday. Why? Just what's cause we went cause we went driving and I'll let her get on the main road. Don't even get me started because I'm gonna get fired up again. - Freak her out. Okay, now take it left. She's like what mom never lets me go left. Let take it left I'm gonna keep her on her toes. I got a pusher, but Let's not talk about that and let's not do that because You gotta push them you gotta make her feel uncomfortable. She has to get her permit She has to get a permit to before you start doing that. I mean everybody takes their kids out to drive before they get their permit Yes, it's what I'm doing in the back of the neighborhood where there's no houses and no cars Learning how to control more cars going through the neighborhood than there was on the main road Not even you go to the back where it's all new. It's like cars on both sides of the road parked on the Listen You're fired. She's constantly like you fired weaving through cars the whole way and like No, take a left. We're gonna go out on this road I'm just saying be careful because you don't want her to have I just don't want a consequence to come up because that is what we teach our kids a lot consequences Consequences with things that you make decisions. So if you can wait police officer would be understanding. Oh, yeah BS you lose your 14-year-old your teaching how to drive That's what a permits for when you get 15. That's when you do that driving. That's when you do that kind of driving Yes, it's okay. Oh, Whatever Anyway, springtime is here, which means summertime is right around the corner and honestly with our family So much of our life happens right around the table. Yeah, and with six girls. What's on that table matters like a lot That's why I'm really intentional about what I'm feeding our family and why we've been using good ranchers And if you've been listening for a while, you know, we're not just saying that we've been customers for a long time This is what we cook at home good ranchers delivers a hundred percent American meat from local farmers and ranchers straight to your door It's quality you can actually feel good about serving your family, but okay This is the part that we have been waiting for for a while. I'm so excited about this because we get so many questions about this And it's finally here they have launched custom boxes and I'm not kidding. This is something people have been asking for Forever for a long time and it's nice to finally have it because now you can build your box exactly How you want it? So whether your family eats more chicken more steak or you want to load up for grilling season you get to choose No more trying to make preset boxes work You just get to pick what your family actually eats and right now when you subscribe you'll get a free meat for life and $25 off your first order when you use our code bus B That's free meat in every order plus $25 off your first box with code bus B good a good ranchers dot com American meat delivered Thank you good ranchers for sponsoring this episode That's not what I was gonna talk about I was gonna say do you remember You're driving like practicing driving It was like it was actually pretty It was crazy uneventful because Um So like I always thought that like I was gonna get my dad's truck He was gonna pass it down which I I never ended up getting my dad's truck, but it was a Standard shift which you rarely see those anymore unless it's like a sports shift a standard standard standard automatic Yes, that's what they call it. Oh, that was just called a stick And so You know, we're on our way home from church one evening. It was like dark and We just we're going down like these back roads going back to our house and he just like pulls over stops that It stops on and gets out the car And I was like oh crap. What did I do I thought I was about to get beat on the side of the road for something He's like go get in The very first time like actually getting in a truck driving and a stick shift as Daniel would say and And just immediately You know people listening call that too And immediately got in took off never stalled it just like drove all the way home like no issue and I Kind of relay that back to like driving floorwillers all the time that were like Not automatic and so I was used to like feathering the gas letting off the you know pushing in the clutch and like working the gas and clutch and stuff like that. So like I had those fundamentals down and Just took off never never stalled it No issue took off and you still drive that bus bus like you're driving that sports car Yeah It's funny It's a lot of times while I drive because he makes me car sick um But yeah, that's a fun fun part of life right now. It's Very very new very different Yeah, I mean I I got a little I just don't want to like be I got a little annoyed yesterday We're getting the cars. He's like well, he's like back it out of the driveway for I mean back it out of the garage for me because it's kind of tight squeezing out of the garage Pass the van and then once I get past the van I Get out and let her in But she was like she's trying to like set up like because obviously it's on the Tesla She put her name in We made a profile for her. Yeah, but you set it up wrong and it was like It was like trying to make me register it like you sold her the vehicle like she was having to do all kind of stuff and like put Input her bill the bill of sale and like I'm like no, I don't know what she did on her phone I didn't know it was done wrong. I did it on the on the car. All you have to do is go to Blake. Oh, it was She was trying to set it up with the app. I don't know what she did on the app. I didn't do any of that correct. No, that's why canceled it but Yeah, it was having me give all kind of weird information but She was trying to set up like Apple music and all this stuff on the Tesla. I'm like babe We're not you don't call her babe. I actually did um Wait, we're not listening to music like you're driving and you're gonna focus on driving. We're not We're not there yet listening to music. Make sure you know how to use the gears and stuff first. Yeah before But we had a level of destruction like driving me in the passenger seat and then Parker and Riley are in the back seat freaking out the whole time And then I had a little bit of a roll down the windows and stuff. I might know no But at at some point those levels of distractions will have to come into play because like music you know Just gonna music going you know like whatever but I'm just trying to make sure like she knows how to like control everything and and Know the function of the car as well as how to use it. Yeah um Which it's so funny because like You know nowadays with all the backup cameras and like there's there's rare rarely look any there's barely any cars that have like that technology Like a standard now, you know And so I'm like girl when you back up always you know She's like just wants to look at the camera like I do but I'm like no When you get in a test for the driver's-ed thing they're gonna want to watch you like look back look back look at your mirrors And I said but yes in this car all you do is make sure those lines are You know it's so it's cheating. Yeah, and I suppose you'll like especially driving a But I'm wondering what I'm like learning how to drive on a Tesla upper up car that can pretty much drive itself Yeah, I mean we're not letting her do that but um I wonder what those regulations are when you go through your driver's-ed like it's gotta be the same as it always been like as if All those features aren't on a vehicle. Yeah, I would imagine any I mean you gotta be prepared for something that doesn't have that kind of stuff on it Yeah, so right now she's doing like the It's like the parent taught like um look It's my first experience with homeschool parent taught driver's-ed So it's like a six Little tester whatever it is and then That way she can she has to complete this before she can get her permit on her 15th birthday And so she'll get her permit like when we get back from the beach um Oh just crazy and then from there. Oh, she means we have to put on insurance, huh? Yeah, it's any of the car insurance Yeah, it's the start the start of everything continually to increase and go up and cost in this house um Oh boy. Yeah, but uh, yeah, so Anyway, that's what's happening lately just driver's-ed and t-tedra-draven so Yeah, so today Another weekend she's gonna want to be Let me drive like pick her up from school. She's gonna be want to be like let me drive home. Yeah, like all those little things Let me drive to school. Let me yeah, hey, but you know what you know what else it is. It's also another form of a consequence that You can say no If you're punished you're not allowed to drive no driving That's true one more thing we can take away Um So today because I feel like we kind of in the in the spirit and the move of like the last Few episodes. I guess we've kind of addressed some stuff that we've like seen online or whatever but I feel like we're running into more and more comments from people, you know, just like about Danielle and like, like, Danielle looks different or I mean, just like a lot of comments, like a lot of people that just don't realize like what Danielle's going through like with her autoimmune stuff and so there's just a lot of people that I guess aren't up to date on Danielle's medical journey and so today we're going to address like where Danielle is right now with, you know, give like a health update, medical update, stuff like that on the podcast and kind of let you guys know like where we're at, yeah, or where she's at. I think the number one question is it's not said in these terms but it basically is, why does Danielle look fat? Why does Danielle huge? Why does she look so different? And let me tell you, welcome to 42 autoimmune mama six quintuple pregnancy, my body has been damaged and I'm no longer living on adrenaline and it's like kind of like an extreme like hormone imbalance. I mean, it's a lot so we're talking about, you know, my notes out here because there's a bunch. Yeah, so we're talking about thyroid to hormones to stress to inflammation and a lot about just like hydrating your body and stuff too. So it's not one thing and what I've learned, actually let me just start with all the things that I'm going to share that I am doing and that I am using and I am taking. I am not suggesting as medical advice, as medical advice for you to do this. I am letting you know what I have been advised by by my doctors and how and what my blood work and what my body is going through. These are the things that are helping me which I'm super guilty of constantly giving Danielle medical advice. Every day and I don't respond to any of the TikTok, any of the things I'm like, this is old. This looks promising. I don't like nothing. You send me as your doctor thought of this yet. Yeah, he thinks he's doctor of fixed Danielle. I come across obviously just because in everything you said, the world that we live in, and Danielle's like battle with fibromyalgia and the hormone stuff. It's like naturally just like from us talking and and then I'll get fed stuff in my algorithm, like on Instagram and like I'll just kind of get in that go down that rabbit hole of autoimmune stuff and treating autoimmune disorders and stuff. And so like I'll come across these random videos and it's like just like constantly sending Danielle stuff. I don't even respond to him anymore because I'm like, I've already seen this in you're in the past. That's in the past. Like you think you said me when yesterday, I'm like, I saw this a long time ago. I said one about blank too. I haven't noticed. It has like an iron deficiency. Yeah. So anyway, however, the things that I do share, I would if you struggle with any of these things, I would say there could be some helpful tips in or you can talk to your doctor or try some of these. I mean a lot of these are just vitamins and minerals. So it's not like it's going to like, it's not like you have to have a prescription for this or nothing. And these are things that work well in your body and help help things in your body. So a lot of that supplements should not do you wrong in a sense. But once again, this is what I'm doing. I mean, the way that Danielle's explained this to me because like I'll say, hey, you know, maybe like add this to your, you know, your supplement routine or like your intake or whatever. And she's like, no, I can't do that because so like her doctor is or what do you call homeopath or homeopath? She's a doctor. She's a doctor. My car, which doctor? She's not a witch doctor. She is amazing. She is one of my favorite people these days. She has helped me so much. Danielle's got a voodoo doctor. And um, but so, you know, Danielle has obviously she's going to has hormone imbalances and also like chemicals and and everything in her body. So like little by little, they're trying like, they're getting certain levels up, little by little, you can't just go in like all at once. Like you got to attack one or two things at a time until you get something back like up to where you need it. Okay. And now that that's there. Now let's bring this up. And so like it's this long journey of, you know, just constantly. It's like minor tweaks here and there. Okay. You know, let's do this for the next three months and then come back, do blood work and let's see what we're at. And then the like adjust from there. And so it's just constant adjustments to try to get everything before you just like go all in and, you know, like you did in the past and like doctor just put your own testosterone and stuff. And it may not been the best thing to do right then. Yeah. So so I can speak on testosterone first. So years ago when I was having all the migraines just emits amount of pain. I was extremely exhausted and tired all the time. I just and blood work whatever I had like three like my testosterone was three in for a woman. And it should be like what 60? I don't know. I don't I don't like the standards of what normal is because I think everybody has their own normal. So I did go on testosterone for a while. And it did great. It it kept me alive. I felt like it. But you also have side effects. It it helped me feel like I was awake. It kept me not having taken apps. It helped me with my migraines not getting as many migraines and just like that energy and just feeling like oh my gosh like I'm a person. I'm not just like struggle bus every day, you know. I did that for a couple years. And I it was it's like you had to take to get good out of it. I had to suffer something else. So nothing was ever like perfect right. And so I had a lot of side effects. You know, I mean just in general like people get you get like random hair growths and just whatever I gained weight which most of the time people lose weight on that. Well guess what my body is like no let's do the opposite. And so I was a season a while of that. I went through that years ago. And for the season of life that I was in it was very much a help. But I knew I didn't want to sustain or like that that. And people do. But at that time I was on like pretty high dosage of it like just to regulate my body. But with that said, I did that without knowing all the other things that were depleted in my body. So it was in a sense it was a bandaid on top of these other things. And that were so struggling in this one thing. Like maybe gave me a little bit of energy and stuff. But it didn't help the other things, you know. So I went off of that for a while knowing that hey I really want to like cleanse my body and get through all that to really start with like hey how do I how do I figure out identify the problem. And you know that's been the hardest part to talk about like what's wrong with me or whatever because there's no like perfect terminology for it. But what I will say is what I have learned is you know I have had stomach issues my whole life. So I BS I've had my whole life which I don't think I've ever ever verbal verbal verbally shared that but I've had that since I was a kid. Which therefore shows you that I've already had like some gut issues and everything my whole life. Crohn's has been in my family. We've really thought I had Crohn's but I've never tested positive where that I'm not I don't have celiac so I'm not gluten free but I have a gluten intolerance. And I don't test positive for having like celiac disease but I'm right on that marker you know and so so that's just a little bit of gut things. Then when it comes to hormones you know I always struggled with my cycle and not having a regular cycle. We were infertility with Blake and all these things and I did go on birth control you know back then I don't know like before I met Adam I was maybe like 17 18 years old when I got on birth control to help with these like off the chart cycles and periods and stuff like there was no not enough knowledge coming to me or me like investigating at that time to me. It was just like, okay, get on this and it'll help you. And that's what I did. And now that I'm a mom of six girls, I'm like, absolutely not. We will not be doing that. Anyway, so I was on breast control for a while, and then up until, went off of it, obviously when we got married, when I have kids, all these things, went through the infertility, yada yada yada, a long story, had PCOS, always, always having cysts form of my ovaries and rupturing and incomplete, or just cycles off the chart, like never knowing when they're gonna come, having to go on medication to help me have a regular cycle to be able to try to get pregnant. And then, speed all that up, after I had the quince, my body went into this, like, overdrive. Actually, it struggled without me being aware, at that time I'm pregnant with the quince. My body is working in major, major, it's trying to provide for six people at one time, and myself with five babies in my belly, and my body is just overworking, overworking, overworking, trying, and trying to do that. - I mean, it was almost like I put your body into this fight or flight, like mode that it just stayed engaged for years. And I think, you know, this is part of our, this is funny, we're talking about this, because like the quince are doing, like this science project with like, instinctual behaviors versus, and learned behaviors, and instinct versus reflex and all these things. But I think by nature and the way God's created us as women is for our bodies to be able to do and be women into grow these babies and to birth them and to provide for them, and our bodies are built to go through that. I did it on a high capacity, and once I had the quince, my body was definitely shocked because it went from providing for six to like just pulled everything out, and now you've won heartbeat that you're providing for, and like literally, you know, pumping blood, circulating, feeding your body. And so I went through, you know, a lot of my uterus was basically like destroyed and never went back to, it's normal state after a couple years and have an extreme cycles and just non-stop bleeding and bleeding and bleeding. And I was breastfeeding, I was pumping, and so usually that's something that helps your uterus contract and go back down and that you don't really bleed. Well, not me, I was having it all over the place bleeding, and so had to have a hysterectomy years after that, which therefore then affects my hormones in my body because I'm now removing an organ out. And so my doctor now thinks a lot of my struggles internally that I'm facing today have happened since the hysterectomy. Now I think a lot of it is true when it comes to like the depletedness of a lot of like vitamins and minerals and how, you know, blood flow and blood platelets and thyroid and adrenaline and, you know, your cortisol and all those things. Everything is connected. And so she has really helped me try to understand, and I'm still trying to understand how those all like work together. Work together in what Adam kind of said is that we can't just like dump all this stuff in. You gotta build this up so that this will work so that these are working together so that when we get to the third level, these work and that, you know, so if I explain that when, you know, my cortisol, my adrenal glands shut down, I have zero cortisol, my adrenal glands shut down. Therefore my body is really struggling which would got all the way to my thyroid and my thyroid has not been properly working. It has gotten to the point where it's shut down. And so one side of my thyroid's getting big and, you know, because it's just saying, we can't do this anymore, we're struggling. And we're talking years after, you know, having the quince and years after them, me being out of that fight or flight mode where I was literally living on adrenaline and, you know, people watching out, daughtering and I'm so skinny and stuff. And I look back at that and I say, I was living off adrenaline and I think I was very malnourished. I wasn't, I still needed to when I was pregnant with the quince, I had a 4500 calorie diet. And when I was mom in the quintuplets in Blake, I still needed to be taking that high level of calories, maybe not 4500, but I was lucky enough to be on a standard 18, 2000 calorie diet. I, if I would, if you look, I was just so malnourished, I look at myself and I'm like, I was so malnourished. But everybody says, oh, you're great, you're skinny and you look muscular and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, yeah, I may have felt fine, but I was not internally, I wasn't. And always been petite and, you know, thinner whatnot. But from people watching on the show to, you know, thinking that's still me and it's been 10 years, it's been four, three years since we've been off air almost. And a lot's changed and I'm in my 40s, I've tried to like get off of a lot of, like I got off of the testosterone. And so my body went into a reverse mode where everything is shutting, everything is shut down. And on top of that, I had knee surgery. And so I don't have a lot of cartilage and I have arthritis and stuff like that. So my body is, it is struggling. And I don't think a lot of people realize what it is. And I think you as a mom know that when we are down, we still have to do and that is our instinct. It's very, and I'm not speaking, dads don't do the same, but I'm telling you, women do it differently. Moms do it differently because it is just like our nature that we do for, we just have to, like you just still have to do it, you know? And so long story short, even though that was kind of long, I wanted to share today where I'm at, what are all the things that I'm doing and taking that are helping get these levels back to a functioning state. And I've been with this doctor, I think a year and a half and it's taken a year and a little over a year to actually get my thyroid literally at the lowest point. That's okay for my T3 and my T4. I'm now at the marker where, like registering on the scale. It hits like, I'm at like a level of like, wow, you actually have a thyroid that's doing something now. And to get to that point, I've been on thyroid medicine. So I take like MP thyroid and I take level, the rocks to seen or something like that, level rock of the theme, can't say it right. Let me get my notes, I say these things correctly. - I mean, I'd probably read it and still pronounce it wrong. A lot of these words, I guess especially like medications or stuff, it's. - Yeah, so I take MP thyroid and what that's doing is it, it provides hormones for the T3 and the T4. So it's trying to help produce. It's not making enough, I need help trying to get it produced because once again, my thyroid has shut down. Why did my thyroid shut down? Because my adrenal glands shut down. Why did my adrenal glands shut down? Because my hormones were all black and everything. And so I have to be able to get my hormones level to then get my adrenal glands to be function again, which therefore I need my cortisol to start working and doing things for that so that my thyroid can be fed what it needs to work. And then I take level a thyroxene and that is providing just other supportive to stabilize, I think the thyroid and like other hormones to help make it work. So I take both of those. A lot of doctors to focus a lot on T3 but I would recommend that if you do have some thyroid issues, make sure that they are checking your T4. So for the thyroid, which is, a big gland and it's in your sitting your throat and it is literally connected to everything I take. So along with taking actual prescription, which was something that, I was trying not to do when I started seeing the doctor. I felt like the only medication I was on and took off every prescription. Everything except my what I take for it's like a three and one. I take it for like my nerve, a lot of my nerve function. My fibromyalgia, like my muscular fibromyalgia, neuro muscular, like muscle pains and of my neck and all that. And then my migrum preventative, it's called deloxetine. I've been taking that for years on a high dose because that's what my body needed. And I have slowly been trying to wean off of that because I have felt better, haven't been having migraines. But I still have to take it. And it's a drug that is not going to, it's not going to necessarily like, it's not doing anything as harmful as other drugs would, meaning like my neurologist tells me this is a safer drug. This is a safer drug to be on. It's not going to, it's okay that you still, if you had to take this the rest of your life. So the deloxetine, I've never really shared that word of the prescription that I take, but that is the medication that I do take that I've taken for probably four or five years by now. But it just helps regulate like the nerve pain and prevent me from getting these migraines. And it also helps because it's a nerve, it helps with nerve pain. Fibromyalgia and IBS are a lot of the same in a sense. And so this has really helped just like the nerves around like the way my stomach and digestive track has been functioning. I have been trying to wean off of this drug for over the last year and just been lower and lower in my dose and I'm on the lowest dose right now. And I definitely feel like it's not working. Like I definitely think that I do need to go back on a higher dose because I've been seeing a lot of just changes that like within my IBS structure headaches a little bit more. I've been taking that for a while, but along with improving a lot of things in my body, a lot of other minerals, I definitely have seen a better intake with how my grains are and like what else I'm doing to help prevent those which I will share in just a minute. So I take them thyroid medicine and then I do take the deloxetine and what I take as a prescription for hormones is DHA which a lot of people take DHA. I've shared this on my Instagram stories before that there's different ways to take DHA because I've discovered that because I was having a lot of side effects that I didn't like. So for instance, the first DHA I took was was appeal was just like DHA appeals and I did not like it is the easiest form to take to me, but I had side effects. I was just constantly having these major hot flashes, constant sweating pits at night and just like waking up drenched. I was getting acne which I've never really suffered with acne, but I was just getting random breakouts like all my chest and like I was like no I will not. So come to find out let's let could be the DHA. So I went to a oral DHA supplement and these are the three things I shared on my story about DHA. I thought you said it was a pill form. I'd start it with the pill form and then I went to the oral because I was having this oral. Also. I know I learned to take the pill form of DHA. I switched to the liquid form of DHA. Liquid, not from pill to liquid. They're both oral. Yes. Sorry. I went from a pill to liquid taking meaning like in a medicine dropper and I'm a strong person. I can take back anything. I can swallow medicine and do it in my whole life and shots, Medicaid like nothing bothers me and liquid DHA. It's gross. I almost want to go get it and let you smell it. And I was literally I I couldn't do it. I could I was like this is the worst taste and then it lingered in your mouth. You had to squeeze the dober under your tongue and it literally I couldn't do it. I think I did it for about a week and I'm just like come on Danielle power through this like you're this is ridiculous. I'm like having these fights within my internal self like it's just you know two four milligrams mill mill mill mill leader like mill like super small amount. Just do it once a day and it was literally so hard. So I shared that and my doctors who's you call my witch doctor was like you don't have to suffer through that. Let's try the topical form. Let's try another form. So therefore we switched to a topical form which is basically like a little lotion and this is what's worked for me. It's just a little tube twist the knob in our rub it on my inner like arm like kind of like where your tricep would be but like inner and I will usually get out the shower or whatever and I'll just rub it there and by the time I'm like done drying my like dry my hair brush my hair or whatever it's dry a get dress or you can run it rub it on your inner thigh just somewhere where you're not like I'm going to top my arm or something where it would rub off on something. So I typically do it after the shower and it dries pretty quick and then I can get dressed or whatnot. So that has what has worked for me. We have had to adjust the different levels of the DHA and the DHA is it just supports your hormone production so helps just balance energy moods you know all those women things that we love. But I have a estrogen and progesterone problem because usually estrogen and progesterone kind of work like from what I'm understanding now given I'm no medical professional I'm taking in and trying to explain how I understand it. You know different parts of your cycle your estrogen goes up and then your when you're off your cycle it goes down your progesterone comes up and it's kind of like does like this balance what are you doing. And so my estrogen and progesterone just never do that mine just like to just stay in the low section they don't really increase and decrease so that's why I'm taking this stuff to kind of help me cycle in regular I don't necessarily have you know quote unquote period anymore since I've had a history I think but I still have these hormones that are off wet. So I take that to try to help regulate estrogen progesterone and stuff. And it's still an investigation on the amount and everything and so that's something that you just have to be close-knit watching with your doctor so that you can be aware of how your body is reacting to something that you're taking and what that you know level is because you need to have appropriate dosage and be in conversation with your doctor and don't just self do this. One thing that I take for inflammation is turmeric that is just you know helps with joint pain and you know inflammation and whatnot and that's something I struggle with especially in my knees since I need to have another surgery on my knee with arthritis joint pain inflammation I take turmeric I just take that one today. Let me go back I take magnesium at night helps to support you know muscle relaxation support your sleep that's another problem that I had was just getting good quality sleep I could was restless couldn't really sleep well I would say now I can sleep and go to sleep and if I do wake up I can go back to sleep and still sleep so that was that's a good thing I was not able to do for a long time. So back on to the thyroid thyroid and hormone support I take liquid iodine and this is I think the thyroid is like the my biggest like area of like trying to get to function so that if I can build up all the little things and they're not little I'm saying little because I look at it as like thyroid's on top and all these other things that have shut down I'm trying to slowly grow those up so the thyroid can work without having to take medication and so everything is to support each other so working on my hormones is therefore going to help support the adrenal gland in my cortisol which therefore is going to help the hormone levels, progesterone, estrogen and then my thyroid and I'm sorry if this all sounds extremely tiring to you all but I get asked this all the time so I'm just trying to like share it all do with this what you want so I take the liquid iodine just once a day under my tongue This has been a different dosage over as my blood work has continuously shown improvements and whatnot and like my levels with thyroid and how my iodine is and how my iron is. This is just helping the thyroid function, that energy, that metabolism. I take selenium. So selenium, you can take in multiple forms. I used to take it in the Brazil nuts, which I did not mine that, but ever since we moved, I kind of forgot about it. And so now I just like add the liquid selenium to my ritual at night where I just take all the things and the drops and the liquids and all things. So this is just helps it to have like an active form, it helps convert that thyroid hormone to be active and just kind of like work correctly. It's a small little drop, you know, like five ml's that I do once again at night. I also take liquid copper. So copper supports like an enzyme function. It helps like the body utilize the hormone. Once again, my thyroid has been so bad that I'm having, I am taking thyroid medication, but I'm also taking these minerals that my body has been depleted of so that they can health, health, health, health, health, health, I don't say that. Hopefully and healthy and health, I don't know, so that they can help support the thyroid so that I can hopefully not have to take thyroid medicine, build these levels of minerals up so that thyroid can function properly without having to take the medication. And maybe I have to take it my whole life, I don't know, but the goal what we've said in the beginning was I might have to be on the thyroid medicine for about two years before my body can produce its own. And so I am slowly at the level where all the things that I've been taking in the thyroid medication where I'm like on the read, I'm on the scale factor of like, well, we can see you're there with all this help in the thyroid medicine. So I still know I'm going to have to take it for quite a bit longer before I can ween off of it. But there's hope. So I know I'm doing better. I take vitamin D3 and K2, which another just immune system function helps support your hormones and calcium absorption for your bone, health, mood, and immune system. So that's something that I think in general is just healthy for everybody. Bow or other dog has made it to the scene in. He's trying to figure out where Gus was. He's now an Adam's lot standing sleeping. And let's see, I take adrenal cortex. So this helps support the adrenal glands, your stress response to things. It's with fatigue and stress and like that burnout. Cortisol, you know, building your cortisol is something that you need to do. Like get up, get outside, do exercise, all those things. On my, I did a Dutch test, which was, it's this like 24 hour urine spit saliva test that you do at home. How does my body go through a 24 hour period of what I intake? How does my body actually use it and what is my body doing? And my cortisol and like usually your cortisol, like when you wake up, your high peak is like in the morning and then by the afternoon and stuff, it slowly starts to go down. My cortisol was like literally flatline all day. All day. But never went up out of all the things I do, everything never. So like my, my, my body is showing like a mid-semount of stress internally because everything is struggling just to survive for everything. Like when your thyroid tends to shut down, it means like you're, you're living in flight or flight mode, like all your minerals, like everything is shut down. And so I've just been on a struggle bus and just doing life and just going with it because I have to, but I've been miserable for a really, really long time. And it's hard to explain that it's hard to, you know, have your loved ones understand. It's hard for Adam to like be a support to this because I'm crazy in a sense, you know. I'm struggling. I'm exhausted. I don't feel good. My body aches, my body hurts, my muscles hurts. And then therefore all these things, what these things start to do is when you, as me, as the woman, as going through these things, I start to feel crazy. I start to say, no one understands me. And this is something that I need to really talk about on another episode is that how this affects your mental state because that is a main factor too and how all these things affect you because internally you don't know how your body necessarily completely functions and works and all these things that you do need to, you know, have it provide healthy for you. And I didn't know about, I didn't know my body needed copper. I didn't even know that was something that was even functioning in my body, you know. And so just all the things that I've learned, I'm still learning so much and your body is incredible like organ that all these things that are working together in such small capacity, but all are very much needed to work together. So what I did forget to mention was something that I learned probably about two years ago that before I really started, for my whole life, really ever since I've been, I'll also take vitamin D and B12, I have always been severely depleted in vitamin D, especially since after I've had kids after Blake, my body has never been able to absorb and utilize and use even the medication that I was taking even for vitamins. So what this means along with other things, along with that means my body, I learned that we have blood work and stuff. My body is not methylating. And I heard this word about two years ago and I was like, "Huh, that's interesting word." And then when I started seeing my doctor, she started using this word and I'm like, "Explain that to me, I've heard that." And so once my blood work was coming back and I'm taking all these things and my body's not showing improvement, my body was basically saying, "It's not methylating." So what that means is that everything that you're taking, your body is not absorbing it to provide the nutrition that your body needs. This could be done through vitamins, supplements, food, all the things. My body was just like being like this whole. I'm in taking all these things and it's just like going down the garbage. There's no like wrestling in your body, absorbing the nutrients it needs to properly and function. And so I had to start taking methylate complete, which was allowing my blood to breathe, like blood levels, blood oxygen, forming healthier cells within your blood to let your body absorb what your body is actually needing. It is literally like a pathway, like how does your body detoxing and absorbing these vitamins? Because we're so long for years, guys, Blake's about to be 15. For years, I've been so depleted and I just take high levels of vitamin D, high levels of this. But what good does that do if your body is not absorbing it? So these are, that was like mind blowing to me to discover that that was something my body was struggling with. So something that I recommend you looking at if you're one of these people that are like me, looking to asking your doctor about, you know, methylation and I take, I still take that. I don't have to take it every day now. My body has been slowly building absorbent and getting better. And so I only have to take it once a week now and I was taking it every single day. It's just a little pill that dissolves in your tongue. And this just helps my body process the nutrition nutrients it's supposed to. And so I struggled with that for probably 15, 20 years and didn't even know it. So, you know, I think what I can do with a lot of these things, I do take two other things. I know I've been talking for way too long and I hope this is all helpful. When I probably will do that will be beneficial for this podcast. I'll put a link but maybe do a blog post with all this with links and stuff for all the supplements and things I take. But I do take M salt, which is just like this mineral salt under my tongue. And so that also helps with electrolytes and establishing your balances with your trace of your minerals. And also helps with just those migraines. A lot of people ask me about migraines and stuff and I tell them this. I'm like, I haven't had a migraine and probably like a full on migraine where I have to take my miracle migraine drug probably six months, at least six, eight months, which is huge. I get headaches but I'm able to, I've been able to work the headache where I'm not getting to that level of a migraine. I think maybe I've had one migraine in the last six months. So I take MSAL and then I take the cure hydration electrolytes every single day. We know in the pace of life that, you know, I'm not even going to say like if you're an athlete and you're doing extra curricular activities and sweating, it doesn't matter that like we in America just in general, like we don't provide enough hydration to our bodies. We're not drinking enough water and I think our bodies need more, our bodies need more than just the water. You need to be replenishing the high like electrolytes in your body. And I say that to everybody whether you're an athlete or not, you, whatever you're doing in your day to day, your stress levels, like all the things like you're depleting yourself and water is just not enough for us these days. And so, you know, we talk about cure hydration on our podcast and they support this podcast. And because we use it, I use it daily, we believe in it and we support it. And, you know, thankfully they support this podcast. And my doctor recommended it. Like it's so it's, it's what we talk about in the ads that, you know, we do on our podcasts. These are not just ads for us. They're like things that we use and things that we support and we're sharing for y'all and love when we can work together with the companies that, you know, support the podcast, but they actually we're supporting them too, you know. So, anyway, this is a lot. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of questions. I don't really know the best way to like Q and A through that, but I would love, you know, feedback. I'm been loving asking for it because I am getting a lot more like responses to like our podcast and talking about this. This is a huge topic that I think goes widespread. And I'm sorry that I jibber jabber and might not have said it in the best way for you to understand, but it's just a lot and it just, I need it to get all this out. I need it to get all this out in one episode and state all these things and all the things I take, what they do, what they mean and why I'm taking them and how they've helped me and that I think it's helpful to a lot of other women. And I think women are going through the same, a lot of women going through the same thing had hysterectomies who I have like high level stress who don't methylate who are not, you know, absorbing the nutrients that they need that they constantly have been taking these things for years and they don't see a difference and all the things. And so, I would love to continue on to the next podcast and talk about, you know, the mental state of this and how it has affected my body and the look of what's going on with the autoimmune and the change of that. So this podcast was mainly to say, hey, yes, I struggle with these things. I look different. These are the things that I'm doing and, you know, because I struggle with these things, I feel a whole, yes, I still have pains and I can't walk and I need knee surgery. But the fact that like, I don't have my migraines, I can feel better day to day better. I still struggle, but I feel better. I feel more alive. I feel like I feel differently and a lot of this is because of these things that I just shared. Is it perfect? No, but am I on a way to, am I increasing the way of life in survival and getting out of this survival mode? Absolutely. And so those are things that are working for me and I don't do a good enough job, like keeping everybody on the go for it because a lot of it is like minor tweaks and changes. But this is everything that I've been taking for the last like year. So, so anyway, Adam's honestly on all this because he has no love honestly. He has no, and put in put on it. But next podcast, we'll talk about how, how to do life like this as a supportive spouse. How can you be supportive? What does this mean? And what does this mean for you as a woman when this affects your mental state and what you go through and how you can help yourself go through those things as your body changes as we get older and stuff like that. So, yeah. Say tune for that one. I hope I don't forget that that's what we're going to talk about. So, need to make my notes for next week. Alright, thanks for tuning in to episode 77. Is that what I said earlier? See, I told you you's fun. We'll see you in the next one. Thanks guys. More of the reality podcasts. We love you guys. Peace out. [Music]