Coming Home w/ Dr. Marian Jefferson

Hyperparathyroidism Journey: Navigating Diagnosis, Treatment, and Mental Health Support

December 08, 2023 • Dr. Marian Jefferson

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Ever felt like you're shouting into the void when it comes to your health concerns? Well, we have a tale to share about a personal experience with hyperparathyroidism, a lesser-known condition that made us question everything we thought we knew about healthcare. This journey, filled with skepticism, frustration, and eventual relief, proves that the patient's voice is invaluable in their treatment.

We navigate the intricacies of the endocrine system, the complexities of a diagnosis, and the challenge of finding a proper treatment for a parathyroid tumor. There's a valuable lesson here about advocating for your health and making sure you're an active participant in your healthcare journey. We talk about the dangers of blindly trusting medications and share our sigh of relief when the correct diagnosis arrived, marking a clear path forward.

With a diagnosis finally in hand, we tackle the logistical aspects of heading towards recovery. From navigating insurance to choosing the right place for surgery, every step is crucial. Highlighting the expertise of the Norman Parathyroid and Endocrine Center in Tampa, Florida, we discuss the minimally invasive surgical options and the vital importance of post-surgery rest. Wrapping up, we share resources for mental health support, reminding you that this journey might be tough, but you're not alone. Get ready to redefine what you know about taking charge of your health.

Thank you for joining our podcast today. If you have any questions, or comments, or would like to share your own experiences with aromatherapy, please feel free to reach out to us. You can connect with us on social media, or visit our website for additional resources and information.

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We look forward to having you back with us for our next episode, where we'll continue to explore the wonderful world of aromatherapy and its role in promoting mental and emotional well-being. Until then, take a deep breath, relax, and be well. I hope to hear from you soon. Your feedback is most welcome.


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Dr. MJ:

I keep thinking about the words of the phlebotomist in the ER room that evening. Her words were simple but profound you are responsible. Eventually I learned that the calcium wasn't just important to keep my teeth straight, to keep them from falling out, but it was important also for my bone health, essential for my brain health, nerves, muscles, heart and blood. The parathyroid exists to help to regulate the calcium, and when the calcium doesn't get what it needs, then the parathyroid steps in. If the calcium rises too high, the parathyroid stops making PTH, which helps your body decrease calcium to a normal level. When the parathyroid doesn't stop making PTH, that's when the calcium rises and the overactivity of the PTH gland begins. What are the problems? Well, in general you have overstimulation, and this overstimulation leads to increasingly more and more and more calcium. So now I am armed with information. after talking with the phlebotomist in the ER. I'm unstoppable. Now I'm doing the research, I'm getting the information, I know a little bit about what hyperparathyroid is, what primary hyperparathyroid is, secondary and tertiary, and I'm pretty sure that I have primary hyperparathyroidism. My doctor was not cooperative. She did not give me the tests that I needed to confirm it. She didn't give me a reason why, other than she didn't think that it was necessary. Now these tests don't cost them anything to run, especially if the insurance is going to reimburse. And I felt pretty sure that the insurance would not only authorize but reimburse, especially with my particular insurance. I didn't need authorization for this test, just like, eventually, I would learn that I didn't need authorization for the surgery. They were going to cover it because of the kind of insurance that I had. So what do I know? I know that calcium is important, not just to keep these beautiful teeth straight and keep them from falling out of my head, but for my skeletal system, to keep my muscles from weakening, to keep me from having bone fractures and bone breaks, bone thinning which causes pain and great discomfort. It's essential for brain health, nerves, muscles, heart and blood flow. The parathyroid exists to help the regulation of calcium. If the calcium rises too high, the parathyroid stops making PTH, the parathyroid hormone, which helps our bodies decrease calcium to a normal level. When the parathyroid doesn't stop making PTH, then the calcium rises and it's overactive, becomes overactive the PTH and the calcium and it leads to so many problems when you have elevated parathyroid, low vitamin D and high calcium, according to conventional wisdom, you have a tumor.

Dr. MJ:

Well, some people think that you'd be able to see it if you felt around the neck, that you'd be able to feel it, but the truth is you can't. Looking for a parathyroid that should be the size of a grain of rice. As it grows to enormous size, you would think you would be able to see it or feel it. I definitely did. Now, I'm not talking about a goreter, because a goreter you can see and sometimes there are things or tumors or cysts, if you will in the thyroid that you might be able to feel. But remember that parathyroid sits behind the thyroid. It's the size, normally, of a grain of rice. Nobody's going to feel that.

Dr. MJ:

But I have seen humongous tumors and in my own experience mine was only about two centimeters but I felt it. So no wonder I was frustrated when I had doctors feel for it and they didn't feel what I felt. They didn't have the same experience. Of course that went to their evaluation. Of course that went to their diagnosis. Of course they didn't see or feel what I did, so they couldn't diagnose me with anything and I was even told that this was all in my head. How frustrating is that. Well, what else do we know? We know that the tumors are generally benign, but sometimes they are cancerous and, according to the Norman parathyroid and endocrine center, the only way to solve this problem is by surgery. If the calcium is raised over a period of time along with the parathyroid raised, a tumor is the only with the tumor.

Dr. MJ:

So I kept thinking about the words that the phlebotomists in the ER that day. I was so grateful for her. She lit a fire under me. She told me you are responsible. What did that mean? It meant that I wasn't done yet doing the research. I didn't have a right to throw up my hands in frustration just because I didn't hear what I thought that I should hear from a doctor that I was responsible for doing the heavy lifting and I needed to keep up the job that I was doing.

Dr. MJ:

Sometimes, when you feel like nobody is listening, you can become very discouraged. Rest if you must, but just don't quit. So I did the research and I did it in a way that many of you are able to do. For some of us, it's just part of the course. We go on to YouTube, we go on to Google, we talk to people, we read magazines, and my research was little more than that, but just in doing so, I found out information that was so rich and so helpful. The biggest help, though, was having dumb the whole body scan at First Baptist Duncanville Church in 2016, because that's where nodules or cysts were originally found in the scan. I took them to my endocrinologist at the time, and she would be my third endocrinologist. She agreed with what she saw, but she said, hey, these are so small that I don't think the insurance is going to do anything about it. Let's watch and wait.

Dr. MJ:

In my research of hyperparathyroidism, that's a message that you hear a lot over and over and over again. Many patients say that their doctor wasn't worried about it and determined that they needed to watch and wait. While the patient trusts their doctor, and this thing continues to grow and grow and grow. Many doctors will know a little bit about the thyroid and how it works and the impact of that thyroid on your endocrine system, but many doctors won't know a thing about the parathyroid and how it functions and the importance and the link between high calcium and high parathyroid hormone. And my goodness, in my mind, I only realized during my research that there are multiple hormones. So when we say that we have hormonal difficulties, that's a wide area to kind of troll through.

Dr. MJ:

I had no idea of the endocrine system and how intricate it was. I had no idea that it was necessary for not just bone health, but that if your parathyroid and calcium are not functioning well, that it could lead not only to achiness in your bones and your bone structure but it could lead to osteoporosis or osteopenia. Had no idea that it could lead to high blood pressure or high cholesterol or high glucose and that you can have wide swings in these areas. And all they're going to do, if they are not knowledgeable, is not give you the test or not just not test you, but they're going to give you medication after medication after medication, and for some people it becomes too much and they try themselves to live a naturopathic lifestyle, adding supplement after supplement after supplement, and they don't even know what's going on and for some of them they're doing dangerous things. We are doing dangerous things to our body and we're making the situation worse.

Dr. MJ:

What are we supposed to do? Doctors are supposed to work with us, they're supposed to be our biggest advocates, but we need to work together. We need to be able to take notes on what's happening time, date, duration, frequency, intensity and then be able to take that into the doctor's office and say you know what? These are the things that are happening to me. This is what I'm going through. Have you seen this before? And the doctor's responsibility, if they have not seen this before, is to refer you to an expert.

Dr. MJ:

But sometimes what we'll hear is you know what? Your symptoms are, so general and they are that we just need to do this, or I think you have a metabolic disorder. I don't want you to hang your hat on these other things that you think is going on. Why don't we give you more of this medication? Or why don't we try this medication? And I can't tell you how much today. That irks me, because when they're trying a brand new medication, it really is because they've got some, yes, new research that might show that this might be, this new medicine might be efficacious to the problem of the day. But, just like with some brand new medications that are on the market today, helpful initially to accomplishing a goal they will not tell you that we do not know the long-term consequences of some medications, but they promote it anyway. Well, big Pharma is doing the happy dance as this is going on, because they're not able to tell you, but they are able to tell you that the research is positive and will give us good outcomes for the problem that we're facing.

Dr. MJ:

You're going in blind and could be risking your very life. So when the woman said, when the flabotomist said, you are responsible, she wasn't just saying go in there in blind faith and make a decision. What she was saying is it's my responsibility to do the research and if I am before a doctor and they're making a suggestion and it's not something that I want to do because of whatever reason, but they insist you're in the wrong house. Brothers and sisters, this is your care and you are responsible. You should be able to have a conversation with your doctor about your concerns. You should be able to be listened to.

Dr. MJ:

That was not the case with me, and so what I had to do was find a doctor, or find multiple doctors, who would not only listen to me, but who would test me and give me the specific tests that I needed, because by now, I believe that this tumor in my neck had grown to the point where it was going to kill me. My breathing was impacted. It was difficult for me to lay down in a certain way because of how the tumor was situated in my throat. It was difficult because the headaches sometimes were so bad I couldn't pick my head up off my pillow and I knew it was because of this thing growing in my neck, but it was difficult for her to make the decision to let me have imaging so she could see hey, there's something really wrong.

Dr. MJ:

When I told her about the body scan that I had in 2016 and told her that there were two nodules that were seen there that were suspicious, she said or asked me well, how do you know? They're still there? To which I responded where would they have gone? She just muttered under her breath. This was an opportunity for her to teach me. I'm not saying that they wouldn't disappear, but why would they is a question that I thought was pretty legitimate. If I was wrong, it was a place for her to teach me, and she didn't. She reluctantly gave me the tests, or rather, she ordered a TSH test, but not to look at the parathyroid.

Dr. MJ:

When I got back to the radiologist, the tech told me she didn't order to look at the PTH, only the thyroid. I explained to the tech doing the imaging exam please let the radiologist know I desperately need my parathyroid exam as well as my thyroid. There are two different organs and they do two different things, and I believe my problem is with the parathyroid. She said I'll talk to the radiologist, and she did, and she looked at it and she saw exactly what was there. She went to talk with the radiologist and while she was there, I asked God to help me to find answers.

Dr. MJ:

That day Before she left, though, I asked her if she was a praying woman, and she said yes, you know God. Yes, and I said well, I need you to be praying for me when you go back to talk to the radiologists. I don't want to leave here without an answer or a way forward today, and I know that we made a connection because she came back and told me the radiologist understood it that he would do the imaging not on just the thyroid but the parathyroid, and when the results came back in the my chart, it did indeed show a suspicion for primary hyperparathyroidism. What a relief we could now put a name on what was happening to me. What a relief I now could have direction and feel confident in the way that I was proceeding and not just shooting arrows in the dark. What a relief. The journey of a thousand miles, it seemed like, was over and now it felt like I had only a few more miles until I reached the finish line where I could have a treatment plan. Because now I knew from the research that only surgery could take care of this problem for me, but that after surgery you could be cured. What a relief.

Dr. MJ:

The tumors in parathyroidism are usually benign, but some can be cancerous. So again, this is very important to take care of. I realized that some people are not situated to be able to just walk in a doctor's office and say I want this test or that test, because they don't have the money. And we know that there are demographic issues as well. Women more than men are going to be diagnosed with this. Three out of four, a hundred thousand people a year, are diagnosed with this, and we know that that's under reported because doctors are not asking the right questions and some of them are downright refusing certain tests. So how would we know what the true number is? We know that whites are more likely to be diagnosed and treated and experienced successful outcomes, but that blacks are diagnosed with this way more than the white population, and the impact is grossly inadequate. One of the other symptoms that this disease can cause are kidney stones, which are very painful, and it may end up in renal failure as well.

Dr. MJ:

Sit back and think about the people that you know that are on dialysis, who are told that you're here because of your diabetes, which is because of your genetics or the way you have been eating, or the fact that you are obese and we've been talking about that a lot in the news Obesity, obesity, obesity, and we've got to get the weight down. We've got to get the weight down, which is a whole other subject altogether, because how can you do that when, everywhere you turn, it's fast food and unhealthy food? Even if you go to the grocery store and you shop on the outside perimeter of the grocery store, sometimes the very food that you pick up that you think is healthy is dead. It's dead, it has no nutrients because of all of the poisons that they are spraying on our food, and we blindly pick it up and we blindly consuming it, thinking that we are doing a great thing and we are doing the best we can with what we have.

Dr. MJ:

But again. It's just like talking with the doctors, with big pharma walking in. This is blind faith. We're trusting that everything that they tell us is the truth and we walk out of that office feeling empowered, feeling that we're on the road to healthy recovery, when the truth is they've handed us another poison pill that is slowly killing us. What are we supposed to do? We need to think diligently about the things that we're putting in our bodies. We need to think diligently about the conversations that we're having with the doctors that we have. We need to think diligently about the conversations that we're having in our family. We don't generally tend to talk about these particular issues. We talk about everything, but even politics.

Dr. MJ:

But one of the things that I was able to do is look back in my mind to see what else was going on around me. What were people talking about? Did I ever hear anything that would have led me to do more investigation? Stories are important. Listing is important, and it's because I listened to the women at first Baptist Dunkeville because I listened to Annette Gumpert and because I listened to the other women who say hey, we do this whenever we get an opportunity, whenever the opportunity presents itself, we take this information and we take it to our doctors and that can be the foundation for a discussion and that discussion could lead to a treatment plan for whatever is ailing us. It's just another tool. If I hadn't been listening and paying attention because I will tell you that I thought to myself. You know what. This does not make any sense. I know that I'm not going to benefit from this at all. This is a waste of my money.

Dr. MJ:

The exam usually was two or three times what I actually paid for. I brought my daughter along as well, because we usually do things together and we did the test and then forgot about it. But when I started experiencing complications in the symptomology and I didn't have answers, I remembered that I had that test done. And because I had that test done and had those scans and imaging ready for the doctor to review, even though she wasn't sure what to do with them at the time it did help me eventually to come and get a diagnosis, because when I said to the primary I was seeing at the time, hey, I have these tumors, this is hormonal and there may be something we can do she could have just ignored it. I thank the church for having these people there when they were there, and I thank God for the wisdom that he has given me in doing this research. It helped me to land and finally make a decision to have the surgery, because surgery is the only cure for this disease. And, as I said, I realized that for some people this is difficult and I will readily admit that I don't have all of the answers.

Dr. MJ:

Another tool was not just the imaging and the wisdom of the ladies of Duckville's first Baptist church, but also support groups like hyperparathyroidism support group on Facebook. I just never knew how helpful those groups could be, but it really helped to save my life. There are so many questions that people had and in the questions there were so many people who had been through this before. They had multitudes of answers and sometimes just hugs over the way the airwaves online, if you will. I've dated myself Love that sent, support that sent. It's always there and people are always present to respond to you.

Dr. MJ:

And that is such a big deal, especially when you've been told that your symptoms are so general, or when you've been told it's all in your head, or when you've been told, hey, we've spent a million dollars and we still can't find what's wrong with you when you've been told maybe you need to lose some weight and even after you lose the weight, maybe you need to lose some weight push back from the table because they don't know and they're not seeking to know. They are doctors, are woefully undereducated on this issue and, as the phlebotomist said, we are responsible. Wherever you find an opportunity to talk about this, if you're impacted by this or if you're doing your due diligence and you believe that this is something that is impacting you but you don't have specific diagnosis yet, talk to your doctors. Show them the research that you have had. Talk to other people. Make it a part of the regular conversation. Ask them questions.

Dr. MJ:

A lot of times we're having these things go on and we've had people to dismiss us and not respond appropriately, and so we stop talking about it. We just suffer in silence and suffer alone, and then the disease wins. It wins because it doesn't have a voice, and I discovered a long time ago sometimes if you are not that voice, it will not be heard. So I have promised myself on this particular issue, if nothing else, that people will know and it's the reason that I'm doing this podcast today on this particular subject, because I am responsible Be persistent if they won't pursue the tests that you need, which we haven't talked about, I think.

Dr. MJ:

What tests do you need? The DEXA test. Dexa will test your bones to see if you have any weakening in this structure. If the calcium is being pulled from these bones, which are the reservoir for calcium into the bloodstream, your body is supposed to flush it out in the urine, which attributes to the frequent urination that we experience with hyperparathyroidism. And one sign is of the frequent urination. Another sign, if you will, is dehydration, because you go to the bathroom all the time and you constantly need to replace those electrolytes.

Dr. MJ:

So for some people that have problems with keeping up with that they don't understand why, and they're diabetic it might be that your sugars are out of whack. Well, if they look and they say your sugars are out of whack, they're just going to adjust that medication and then give you a lecture on what you eat. But the truth might be that all of that is happening because of hyperparathyroidism. I am telling you it is profound how the hyperparathyroidism impacts everything else. It's like because doctors don't know. It's just sitting there undercover and all they know to do is what they do every single day when somebody walks into the office with these symptoms and they're a part of a certain class, because what they've seen indicates to them that because you are of a certain class, because you have a certain history, because you have certain genetics, this must be the issue, and they only look there. They don't look globally at what might be happening. We have to help them with that.

Dr. MJ:

So we talked about the DEXA, and that's different. You don't go in there and ask for just a bone density test. The DEXA is the gold standard when we're looking at diagnosing hyperparathyroidism. So you need the DEXA exam, you need a calcium exam. They need to test your calcium, they need to test your hyperparathyroid and they need to test your vitamin D. Now, many of us struggle with low vitamin D anyway, and there are links between low vitamin D and cancers, which is again why I say that we can't just say that, oh, the majority of time that this disease, this tumor, is benign, we don't know that the one that we're walking around with is benign, so we shouldn't be sitting back thinking, you know that it isn't going to be us. It's like playing Russian roulette, and I don't know about you, but I don't want to lose at that. Okay. So we need the DEXA, we need calcium, we need parathyroid and the vitamin D tested.

Dr. MJ:

Now I had other tests done as well, because I was very sure, because of other symptoms that I was having, that this thing had really done a number on me. So not only the regular tests that they ran I asked them to do again, but I asked them to look at, you know, my kidney function. I asked them to look at my liver function. I asked them to look at vitamin K. I want to know what my potassium level was, what my phosphorus level was, my sodium level. I needed to know all of those things because I knew that this thing had impacted my liver, my kidney, my pancreas. I knew that there was inflammation and swelling in response not just to what I was eating, but this, this disease.

Dr. MJ:

And again, talking to other people who are not familiar, they want to put this together. So don't frustrate yourself by trying to have these conversations with people who are not prepared to have the conversation. Talk to the experts and sometimes the experts don't have MD after their name and be okay with that, because they can help you to advance your goals and accomplish your purpose, which is diagnosis. So let's talk about the common symptoms. I mentioned those earlier. But just to put it all together, I want you to have a picture that might help you to understand that what you're feeling isn't just all in your head, even though it is general Common symptoms, fatigue, just feeling unwell.

Dr. MJ:

You don't know what's going on, but you don't feel good okay, and you can't explain it Insomnia, frequent urination, depression, anxiety, restlessness, agitation, poor concentration and memory loss. And sometimes they'll say you know, this is just a part of getting older, or get some more sleep. They are not ready, if you are not a certain age, to go there with a discussion of dementia or like diagnosis. They think it's just everyone's getting older and as they age, there are certain things that just happened and dulling of the memory is one of those. But if you don't want to be satisfied with that answer and at 53 I didn't you got to do some more investigation.

Dr. MJ:

Body aches, pains, bone pains in my case the pain was searing. Sometimes it will wake me up out of my sleep and sometimes it was difficult to get up off a couch or to get out of the recliner, to go walking, to walk up the stairs and I had just a few stairs when I was working full-time at a treatment center in Grand Prairie. But, man, every time I got to walk it up those stairs I really had to ready myself for that. I had to prepare my mind for going up and down the stairs or up and down the hallway. It just became so burdensome.

Dr. MJ:

Maybe you were experiencing that too Increased thirst, and we talked a little bit about that, because your body is putting out so much of the calcium and it can't hold all of that, so it pushes it out, so you flush it out in your system and that's why you experienced the dehydration. And with dehydration comes headaches and just drinking water is not going to handle or speak to the issue of dehydration. We think that that is the case. But when our electrolytes are off, we need to replace those electrolytes. Some people might say gated raid or pedialyte or you know a non-sugar form of that. If that's what you've got, that's what you've got, okay.

Dr. MJ:

Another warning before we go on with the the symptom list if you are taking a high blood pressure medicine and it has hydrochlorothiazide, htz, I believe that causes, the whole purpose of the HTZ is for you to excrete more water to keep so-called swelling down. And when they do that that is causing dehydration. And so what I went to my doctor and told her was that I needed a change in my medication, and the first change we needed to make was that I wanted a medication that didn't have the HTZ. And after much wrangling and discussion, eventually she's she did prescribe the medication without that, and I have no swelling and haven't had any swelling for a year, aside from the hyperparathyroidism. But she never thought, say, hey, we've been on this HTZ for years. Have you ever tried being without it? What's it? What do you? What is it? Let's see what it would be like if you don't take it. And I haven't had a negative impact since. So there you go again, just being an advocate for yourself.

Dr. MJ:

Other symptoms of headaches, the high blood pressure or heartburn reflux. We talked about osteopenia, osteoporosis, bone fractures, kidney stones, kidney failure, heart palpitations, cardiac arrhythmia, inflammation, not just in your feet. It could be around your heart, it could be in your intestines, it could be anywhere around your liver, around your kidneys, around your pancreas, anywhere it could be inflammation in your body, and our body doesn't do well with inflammation. Weight gain, I'm telling you, I could do really good throughout the day. It was the evenings that I had these tremendous cravings for sweets. You, if it was one o'clock in the morning, sometimes I would have these outlandish desires for things that I knew I should not be putting in my mouth, but I was just craving it so bad, you know. So the weight game came and sometimes, even when you're eating right, you're gonna gain weight.

Dr. MJ:

Muscle cramping where your toes are curling up, or your the back of your, your legs, are hurting so bad. They may tell you to take magnesium. But again, if you just take a pill, does that speak to the symptom or does it give you a diagnosis as to what's going on? And again, you might. They might tell you to stretch more, exercise more, and that'll go away. Or they may give you muscle relaxers. You know when they could tell you to just take magnesium, because that's another nutrient that our body needs that many of us are woefully lacking in. It's easier to give you a prescription than to tell you to take something that's naturally occurring in nature. You need to ask more questions. Okay, that that sounds good, this is a new pill and all. Maybe we can, maybe we can try that, but are there things in nature that I can do first? Are there other things that I can do to decrease this bothersome symptoms? Like you know, drink this tea or that tea, or take this supplement or rub this oil on that's naturally occurring in nature. Most of them are not going to support that.

Dr. MJ:

Functional medicine doctors. Will Functional medicine doctors really focus on finding a solution? You're going to present them with the information and they're not necessarily going to hand you appeal. They're going to give you a battery of tests. These doctors you talk about expensive. They are indeed expensive. Most of the tests they run are not covered by insurance. But faced with desperation or if you are able to do so, you may get to diagnosis a lot faster dealing with functional medicine doctor than you will dealing with an everyday doctor that only specializes in one thing or another, or primary care doctor, meaning that they know a little bit about a little bit generally.

Dr. MJ:

If you're a woman, most doctors think it's because you're getting older when you present with some of these symptoms, that it's related to menopause or some metabolic issues related to cholesterol hypertension or high glucose levels, and we talked about how it's important really not to just accept that this is the case when you have this cluster of things going on, and they've already explained that they feel like it's general. And if that's the case, then how can you give me a specific diagnosis with general symptoms? You need to ask more questions. Who is most impacted by this disease? We've talked about that a little bit. Both men and women are diagnosed with this disease, but 100,000 people a year are diagnosed with hyperparathyroidism and we know that that number is woefully under reported, so that this number is just not accurate. But after today, we're going to do better in that area, because you're going to start talking about hyperparathyroidism. You're going to start talking to your doctors and your family members and having this discussion around the dinner table about what they're feeling and experiencing, and I'll tell you why before we end today. Very important to hear the stories of others that may lead us to answer some questions that we don't even have yet, but very important to stick it in your back pocket for reference later on. Women are diagnosed more often than men and why it's so more apt to be tested for and receive treatment for this disease compared to black or Hispanics.

Dr. MJ:

Insurance may or may not cover these things, but sometimes, when you talk to the people at the hospital, they may be able to work some things through for you. I do know that some Medicaid covers the surgery and the exams, and other insurances as well may cover some but not all. So you will need to be prepared, really in your mind, that finding or walking this path will be a process. For some people. It won't be walking into the doctor's office and having them say yes, yes, yes to all of these things, and you may need to see multiple doctors to accomplish this task I did. When one doctor told me they wouldn't do a test, I went to another. When the other said I'm not sure what's going on here, I asked for a referral, and it's just a habit with me to ask for a referral. I keep I need to keep remembering or reminding myself that with my insurance I don't need a referral. But it may be that they do have to call to get permission to do this thing or that, but I've never had a problem with this.

Dr. MJ:

What insurance is it? I know a lot of people ask me that and sometimes I'm read as in to say, but it is the TriCare Champ VA insurance and then the secondary insurance is the same, and the reason that is is because my husband is 100% disabled veteran and so I, as a dependent, am on that insurance. I have a copay. I can't do dental on that insurance or vision, and so I have secondary insurance for that as well, which is I didn't mention the vision changes as another symptom Of this disease as well, and it could be because of what's happening with the blood flow in your brain and the pressure that you feel from the migraines that you get. So every insurance is different, so we all have to approach this issue from you know things, the tools that we have personally, and the things in the resources that are available to us that we can make use of, and just prepare yourself to get those ducks in a row as a part of your research, as a part of the discussion for the healing journey.

Dr. MJ:

And I needed to do all of those things to see what I could and could not do. When my doctor came to an end of what she was willing to do, I just started referring myself. I referred myself to the Norman Perrithiroid and Endocrine Center in Tampa, florida, because they didn't need a referral, and the reason they didn't need a referral in general was not because of my insurance, but because they realized that doctors are not educated enough and many times patients know what's going on with them and they figured it out long before their doctors have. So if you're thinking about the Norman Perrithiroid Endocrine Center, get those tests we talked about earlier, the DEXA. The vitamin D, your potassium and phosphorus are some that are good to have. They really just need to three the Perrithiroid and the calcium and, I would say, over at least a few months period or six months period to give them some idea. They will give you a permanent diagnosis or an official diagnosis, and from that they will determine if they will do the surgery, and most times they will. I will tell you that in my research that some people are having biopsies on these, these, these adenomas and I knew the one disqualifying thing for Norman was having had a biopsy on that particular area they won't do a surgery. If that has been the case, there are other doctors that have been talked about or other centers that have been talked about as really good places to have the surgery.

Dr. MJ:

When you get to having the surgery, I chose a minimally invasive surgery, and so my scar is. It's probably smaller than the tumor itself, it's about a little longer, I think, than an inch, and it's. It's fading, it's healing and it looks pretty. It looks pretty good for being cut on a little over a month, or a month and a couple of days ago. The other thing is that the healing time with a minimally invasive surgery is not months and you know months and months down the line. One person that had this surgery had it like on a Saturday and was back at work on the Monday afterward. It's good to listen to your body and to take your time. Everybody's healing journey is going to be very different.

Dr. MJ:

The testing to see if you have other parathyroid problems, because sometimes people are taking not just one but multiple out and some people are taking three and a half out. Remember you have the four parathyroids, one around each side. The size of a grain of rice is what it should be. But sometimes this disease has really gone to be very overactive and those glands and the tumors just grow, grow and grow. And so with the Norman parathyroid center they will test each one of the other parathyroids to see if they have been impacted and if they are sick then they take those out. They leave at least a half one there because if not, then you'll have problems with low calcium and other issues, which is just as complicating as high calcium. They leave you with something to help with some degree of regulation for the endocrine system in general.

Dr. MJ:

We talked about your downtime at the Norman parathyroid center. The surgeon himself is going to give you a number for you to contact him whenever you need to contact him, and I think I called him once and he told me that what I was experiencing was natural. I went back to the roadmap that they gave, because they have an app and on that, when you download that app, it tells you everything that you need to know and what to anticipate in the days after. But your doctor, who gives you your diagnosis, is the doctor who's going to do your surgery. He's going to do your follow up and he's going to be available for you if you have any questions, for you and your family. So that was very helpful and the surgery itself took less than 30 minutes to do.

Dr. MJ:

They thought that my parathyroid tumor was complicatedly well, we'll not say just that, but they thought it was inner woven into my thyroid and that's probably why it appeared on the imaging in the full body scan as two nodules the way it did. But there was nothing there except for that one offending parathyroid tumor and so they were able to remove that. They're going to give you a picture at the Norman parathyroid center center which I keep looking at. It, for me, is mesmerizing. The reason that it is is because this thing caused me so many problems and it has a face now, even though it is a thing, I can look at it as the reason for all of this. When people were telling me this was all in my head, it wasn't in my head, it was in my neck and I call this tumor Freddie.

Dr. MJ:

Imagine why, if you stay in general in that area at the hotels that they suggest the, they will pick you up from the hotel and take you to the hospital back and forth, and so it was wonderful, and then the hotel itself will take you to the airport. I mean, what kind of service is that? Y'all? So that was very helpful. Can you do this? Can you do this by yourself? There are people that fly down there and they fly back home and they're by themselves. So this is totally doable If you choose the Norman parathyroid center and I'm not affiliated with the Norman parathyroid center other than the honey they touched me, okay, and help to make my life whole.

Dr. MJ:

But I will say look, this was a wonderful experience. I'm not talking about many problems that I had. I can remember the name of everyone who touched me before and during that surgery. I could never do that before. That's how immediate the change was. The bone pain went away immediately, the headaches went away immediately.

Dr. MJ:

I am still struggling with some things because the vitamin D is so low that it is impacting again my my bones, and so I'm working on that. Also, the anemia I don't have anemia, but I have issues with the iron levels, and so I'm having to take iron infusions because I can't take iron pills. My body doesn't tolerate that. But that's important because most people, after have this cure from hyperparathyroidism, think that they won't continue to have any struggles whatsoever. But remember, sometimes we're dealing with comorbidities, meaning that we might have more than one diagnosis, but when we remove one, these symptoms from the other come to the fore, and then that we have to deal with those. We've got to learn how to cope with those. So it's important to understand the physical dynamics of what you're experiencing and know that this is a tool towards whole body health.

Dr. MJ:

Okay, so I'm taking care of now these things as a part of my everyday regimen, my health regimen. I'm journaling, I'm seeing every day how I feel, what are the changes that I see. It doesn't mean that I pick up the phone and call a doctor immediately. Sometimes after the surgery, people's calcium is still high and it takes a little while for the other parathyroids to wake up and start doing their job. So some people will experience a little lag in time in their healing. But remember, everybody's journey is a little different. Some people gain a few pounds. Remember, sometimes there's inflammation, that's there, or something else is happening, and so you want to continue to look at what's happening every single day, but not down to conclusions that this surgery didn't work. The group that I'm in, the hyperparathyroid support group on the Facebook. If you are experiencing this or you suspect that you are struggling with hyperparathyroidism, especially primary hyperparathyroidism, then this is a good place to flesh out any questions that you might have.

Dr. MJ:

I expressed gratitude to so many people earlier on. I just want to again take the time to thank the Norman Parathyroidist Center and Dr Rhodes there, who did my surgery, and all of the staff there. They were wonderful. Annette Guppard, kathy Manders-Anden was helpful. Also thank Larry. I want to give you your last name, but Larry, you know who you are at DFBC, who has always shown my family so much love, and I just thank you and Ann and everyone, just thank you so much for being present in the life of the Jeffersons. You are so consistent and I just wish God's blessings for you.

Dr. MJ:

I know this is a lot of information, but you don't have to fight this battle alone. Use this podcast as a reference to go back over and over and over again as you need to get that information. Use the Facebook support group. Go on to YouTube, which is what I went to YouTube University and initially my family was like what is she doing? But we got to the place where they learned to just sit there while I went through my process. There was no complaints. They knew mama is doing her thing and if I hadn't done, I would not have gotten these answers.

Dr. MJ:

And you can do it. We're here for you at the Coming Home Podcast, the Warriors Purse. In case you have any additional questions, just contact us at connect1atwarriorspursecom or MHFA or mental health first aid at warriorspursecom, and I hope that this has been very beneficial for you. I hope that if you find anything that intrigues you concerning yourself and what you might be going through, that you can use this information to help you build a foundation toward better health. I love you, and there ain't nothing you can do about it. Until next time, welcome home. In case you haven't heard it, god bless.