LONG POST: Complete latest bloodwork from Belgium and a Hertoghe follow-up appointment review!

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Dear group-mods and members,Thought I'd give you all a lil write-up after my second time visiting Dr. Hertoghe in Belgium!Here are all my results from the bloodwork.http://nightrangerweb.net/health/RomanPaisLaboratory16thofJune2010_COMPLETE_.pdf(If link appears skewed, just copy and paste it together so it makes sense!)So, here are the treatment changes / additions for my treatment with Dr. Hertoghe:Based on these results and clinical examinations, Hertoghe wants to make me stay on 2 pumps testosterone gel daily (10% gel, 2 grams daily) and keep those testosterone levels HIGH as they are at the moment, and start 50 mg DHEA daily due to low DHEA-Sulfate at the moment. PLUS start a Growth Hormone injection treatment soon (when I receive it in the

mail). I am gonna up my HC dose to 35 or 40 mg daily, when I start GH-treatment, cause GH lowers cortisol. I was told everything, how it works with GH interacting with HC, etc.With our dear in mind, I asked about taking more than 10 mg HC in the morning, like a 15 or 20 mg dose and how that would supress ACTH and complicate the treatment. He replied that ACTH would maybe only go down 30% when taking big morning doses, not 100%.If you look at my ACTH level in serum, it's mid-range, even right after I took 10 mg HC the morning of the blood draw, maybe 1 hour before the blood was drawn. I wonder what that means...?I started 35 mg DHEA 4 days ago, along with 25,000 iu Vitamin A. My fatty acids profile was not perfect, so I'm gonna keep using "Ghee" (clarified butter), and add Borage and Flax oil to my supplementary intake (two-in-one-capsule) and Perilla oil as well. I was adviced, again, to

NEVER cook meats/food on "medium to full heat" and preferably cook food in the oven on very low, low temps. Rather cook things for 1+ hour, than fry things to death in 10-15 minutes. Doing so causes cancer, he said. Also, digestion works better with low-temp cooked foods.Hertoghe likes low-carb diets. He DOES want his patients to eat fruits, so a "no-carb" diet is not what he's recommending. ALL DIARY PRODUCTS ARE A NO-NO. So I have removed that from my diet. No more cheese. Too bad. I like cheese. :-) Oh well! I'll survive.The main thing is that Hertoghe wants me to start GH-treatment, and he believes that an increase in GH, even if my value is at the top of the range (and 4 months ago it was almost twice as high as the top range - that might have been a lab-error though! GH-levels don't fluctuate like that do they!), cause a person "my size" (which means "my height" - I am quite tall!) needs a bigger level of GH, or

IGF-1, and an upper range twice as big as the normal one. Cause I am bigger than normal people, or at least, taller than average Belgians, which made the scale. Hertoghe also talks a lot, in his books, which I read in the waiting-rooms at his Clinic, about how reference ranges simply do not work. We are not all equal, we're all different, especially when one person is a good foot or two taller than the next person.GH-treatment should make T4->T3 work better, and make T3 work better in my cells. I also need to lower my 120 mg ERFA Thyroid daily (2 grains) to 90 mg daily (1 1/2 grains) due to the added GH. I have not started GH yet. I need to order it from Switzerland. It's quite complicated ordering medicines from out of country, really. Especially one that needs to be kept cool while in transport.Hertoghe appeared VERY professional on my second appointment with him. First time around, I went there with my father. I

didn't sleep at ALL at the hotel the night before the first appointment back in March, and had our return flight back the SAME day as the appointment, AND I had an infection AND was taking antibiotics + 50 mg HC daily. I felt amazingly bad and Hertoghe might've gotten the impression that I felt worse than I "really felt". If that makes any sense. Anyhow, this SECOND appointment with him was much better. I went there with my mom, we had 2 nights at the hotel instead of just 1, and got to relax much more. I also got some sleep this time around. Mostly due to the fact that I wasn't infected this time, and my mother don't snore as much as my father does. LOL! :-D So anyway. Good appointment! My mother "loves" Hertoghe now. She was charmed by his personality, his professionalism and how thorough everything was. He went thru the bloodwork results with his partner (Hertoghes regular assistant was busy this time, so I got a new doc as an assistant, but it was

fine - he was a very nice guy too, and a good doc for sure!) and they examined me quite well. I stripped down, they did my weight, Hertoghe himself poked me here and there, found some low cortisol symptoms on my skin (though I don't quite see them myself) and then I did the BMI-thing stepping up on a special device/weight for that. I was also given a new grid-like plan, with my current meds and some new stuff added like GH, the oils etc.I felt the appointment was good. Though, there is never enough time with Dr. Hertoghe. He's such a busy man, and.. Well, I like to talk. And I have my worries! So.. Hehe! I will have to talk to him on the phone (same price as a consultation; modified to "pay-per-minute!") if I need more answers. And I do. Cause I am vibrating! It feels weird, and wrong. It doesn't feel HORRIBLE and BAD, just.. Strange! This far. And this change happened after starting DHEA again, for sure.I was told to

take Zinc because my serum level is falling. Also, I was told to take it in the morning, cause we have better absorption in the morning. Makes sense.The additions of the Borage/Flax and Perilla oil capsules are interesting. Hertoghe really wants my fat-profile to improve. If you look at the bloodwork, you will see a comprehensive fatty acids profile in a graph below the bloodwork results. The results of the fats are also listed with the other samples in the first few pages of the bloodwork results.It's exciting how it all will go. I am crossing my fingers, toes and more for improvement!REAL IMPROVEMENTS SINCE STARTING WITH HERTOGHE IN MARCH 2010: (4 months of treatment with ERFA Thyroid 2 grains daily + 5 mcg T3 daily, 3 months of DHEA 35 mg daily, 2 months of Testosterone gel 2 pumps/2 grams daily, and 35-30 mg HC daily this far... Plus different vits and mins!)* Less heart arrhythmia!

Arrhythmia = Irregular heart beats and skipped heart beats! It was really bad while on T3-only to be honest, and also before T3-only when I was on T4-only.. I was taking HC at the time, last year, however, when I had all the heart issues! Of course, T3-only could've rmoved some of the rT3 in my cells during my 3-month treatment with T3-only and now that I'm taking ERFA Thyroid, it just works better because I have less rT3 stuck in my cell receptors. Does that make sense? Or maybe just ERFA Thyroid works better for me anyway. I don't know.* More energy for walking! I can now talk for 15 minutes without stopping / getting any problems. I can even walk for 30 minutes. But then I'm all worn out. I am never really stress dosing with HC while "exercising" (walking), so. Dunno if that is right but it works.* I've lost like 3-4 pounds. Which is something, not a lot, but something. Dunno if it's due to Hertoghes plan or

something with my diet or whatever. We want to see my weight drop further, of course. I still have a big fat belly. (Which appeared AFTER starting HC in June 2009 with my previous Finnish Hypothyroid/Adrenal Fatige-specialist though!)Having said that, I do feel I have some new problems/symptoms, but, I've had so many symptoms these last 2 1/2 years in "Thyroid hell" (or whatever you can call it) that I'm having a hard time sorting them all out. But the IMPROVEMENTS are welcome!Oh, I have to add that the secretary at Hertoghes clinic is very, very, very nice. She is such an empathic human being, and the right person for the job! You're always met with a smile, be it on the phone or In Real Life at the clinic. I don't take that for granted cause there's a LOT of docs/health workers out there (just people in general no matter what/who they are, I geuss) that are grumpy all the time! Dr. Thierry Hertoghe himself isn't

smiling all the time, but hey, he's a Pro and acting like one! ;-)Sooo.. This is turning into a long, long post! Not sure if anyone's even bothering reading this thing. But I thought it could be helpful writing something from my second appointment with Hertoghe, cause he's such a "celebrity Doctor" and all that stuff. And maybe, just maybe someone on here would like to go to him one day.Ok. I do have to make 4 (!) operations "in my head-area" which are: Tonsils (laser), nose/septum (it's too crooked on the inside, while my nose appears quite straight on the outside!), my sinuses (we need to make the opening into the right sinus bigger!) and finally my cyst below my right sinus which could grow over time.We can't give the verdict on my health til I've done everything to fix it, and that includes fixing my tonsils, etc. But it also includes starting Growth Hormone, according to Dr. Hertoghe. He really

believes I should take it, and that I'll improve with it.Just one question about GH though: I hate supressing things. Will I loose my ability to produce GH forever if I start GH? With the Thyroid gland it's different: After 10 years of taking adequate amounts of Thyroid meds to supress my Thyroid gland, the gland was still alive when I weened off of T3, and weened down on T4. So that was cool! I just hope I won't loose my own bodys production of stuff when I start GH.I'll fly down to him again in November and every 4 months or so.Ok, gotta start thinking of going to bed it's gonna be midnight soon...So, my temp is 98.4 F at the moment (an ok temp being this late, or?), and my pulse is 68. So I really, really don't feel or "appear" hyper. I do wonder about that internal vibration though...With love and respect for/to you all, in

Norway... Also trying to get well again!