Yesterday was a long day. I travelled all the way to The Royal Salford Hospital in Manchester (4 and a half hours each way!) to see Dr Annice Mukherjee. This Dr had been brought to my attention by my Perrin Therapist who had heard her speak at this years Perrin Conference. Dr Mukherjee is an endocrinologist who has a special interest in ME and as I have been having lots of menopausal symptoms recently I thought she might be a good person to speak to. As I sat in the waiting room I wondered whether the trip was going to be worthwhile. I know there is no cure that this doctor (or any) can offer, but I do realise that looking at all the pieces of this M.E. jigsaw is a useful exercise and seeking out information from those in the know is adding more pieces and this is what I was hoping to gain from my visit.
We talked through the history of my case and generally about how it had progressed and what current treatments/supplements I am using and just built up a big picture of the situation. Apparently, it is very common for menopausal symptoms to hit women with ME and throw the managing of ME symptoms off balance and further effect their energy levels. So, she has recommended a supplement called Promensil Red Clover, which contains naturally occurring plant oestrogen's. This will hopefully ease off the peri-menopausal symptoms and in turn even out my ME again. Her second recommendation was to take some iodine. Iodine helps to boost the thyroid and will hopefully bring my TSH levels down - she has seen this in other women in my situation, so that would be good. The third recommendation was to pull back a bit on Dr Myhills supplements and move to only taking daily recommended doses rather than the rather high levels of some of them I am taking at present. I feel they have done well in helping to build me up over the previous 3 years, but now I'm going to let some of them go.
Before I left they took lots of blood in order to do some thorough testing. I get the impression Dr Mukherjee will leave no stone unturned. She was very generous with her time and very informative and I did feel that the long trip had been very worthwhile.
Dr Mukherjee has a website www.fatiguewise.co.uk
I particularly liked her clear, caring and research led style. Yesterday reminded me how important it is for us all to take responsibility for our own well being as much as possible and seeking out those who might be able to help is a part of that. We are lucky that we have an NHS where, if you have a referral, you can request to see any doctor based anywhere in the country (as I understand it) and I am lucky enough to have a GP who was willing to refer me.
We talked through the history of my case and generally about how it had progressed and what current treatments/supplements I am using and just built up a big picture of the situation. Apparently, it is very common for menopausal symptoms to hit women with ME and throw the managing of ME symptoms off balance and further effect their energy levels. So, she has recommended a supplement called Promensil Red Clover, which contains naturally occurring plant oestrogen's. This will hopefully ease off the peri-menopausal symptoms and in turn even out my ME again. Her second recommendation was to take some iodine. Iodine helps to boost the thyroid and will hopefully bring my TSH levels down - she has seen this in other women in my situation, so that would be good. The third recommendation was to pull back a bit on Dr Myhills supplements and move to only taking daily recommended doses rather than the rather high levels of some of them I am taking at present. I feel they have done well in helping to build me up over the previous 3 years, but now I'm going to let some of them go.
Before I left they took lots of blood in order to do some thorough testing. I get the impression Dr Mukherjee will leave no stone unturned. She was very generous with her time and very informative and I did feel that the long trip had been very worthwhile.
Dr Mukherjee has a website www.fatiguewise.co.uk
I particularly liked her clear, caring and research led style. Yesterday reminded me how important it is for us all to take responsibility for our own well being as much as possible and seeking out those who might be able to help is a part of that. We are lucky that we have an NHS where, if you have a referral, you can request to see any doctor based anywhere in the country (as I understand it) and I am lucky enough to have a GP who was willing to refer me.
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