Update: I wanted to give a quick disclaimer on this series. It was originally written and posted in Aug/Sept of 2019. I was hired as the Education Coordinator for Riordan Clinic in June of 2020. All of the information in the series is reflective of my experience as a patient, pre-employment. I did not make any changes to the original posts after being hired and is a true reflection of my experience as a patient there.
It’s been a few weeks since I had my follow-up appointment and I wanted to wait to post about it until I’d spend a little time on the supplement protocol prescribed by Dr. Anne.
First, I want to recap my appointment and then tell you what I’ve experienced since then. A few days before my follow-up appointment day, I received a notification that my lab results were available in my patient portal. I promised myself that I wouldn’t try to interpret them, but of course, I couldn’t wait to check them out. Remember back to this post when I said they took a lot of blood? Well, now I totally get why because all that blood yielded 12 pages of lab results. Twelve pages, y’all! That’s a lot of information from a few vials of blood.
As I mentioned, I didn’t try to interpret them myself, but some things were glaringly evident like a vitamin D deficiency (and I was taking a D supplement at the time), So despite my utter lack of daily sunshine, I was a little bit surprised by this one. When I went in for my visit, Dr. Anne literally went through every single item on the 12 pages. We’re talking almost 200 measurements of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, fatty acids, etc.… My head was spinning by the end, but luckily, she sent me home with a guide to help explain the role of each of these things in the body and how to correct imbalances.
Remember that I was going in with no severe symptoms. I did have mild fatigue and got headaches more often than I was used to, but nothing that was a red flag to alert me that there was a significant imbalance. Let me just say that I am SO GLAD I got this done. Dr. Anne said that functionally my labs looked good, meaning there weren’t any serious issues going on, BUT there were some areas that could potentially become a concern. Namely, my thyroid function. I definitely was not expecting to hear that because aside from occasional fatigue, I had zero symptoms of low thyroid function. This is such a good lesson because often we wait until symptoms arise to seek out help, but in this case, I caught it before it became a problem. This alone was worth the cost of the program. She said that the low thyroid is likely linked to some other key nutrient deficiencies that showed up on my profile so we would try to treat it by supplementing and diet first.
After we went through all of my labs, Dr. Anne gave me a treatment protocol of supplements to take and foods to eat to help address the nutrient deficiencies that showed up. I’ve been on the protocol for about one month, and I have definitely noticed some positive changes. For starters, my sleep is so much better. I honestly didn’t think my sleep was that bad except for the nights that Alex wakes up. Well, sometimes we don’t know things are bad until we know what really good feels like. My sleep has definitely changed for the better, I sleep deeper and feel more rested in the morning. This, in turn, has helped my energy levels throughout the day. I feel more even-keeled. I’m a pretty easygoing person, but I did start to notice that I was super irritable more often than ever before. I definitely feel like my moods have stabilized over the last month. I don’t know if it’s the supplements or just better sleep, but I will take it! I’m starting to feel like myself again.
I like to think I am a pretty self-aware person, but I honestly did not know how out of balance I was. I thought I knew better, but I had adjusted to a new “normal.” A “normal” that included a need for caffeine to get me through the day and wine to wind me down at night. A normal that meant worse-than-ever PMS. A normal that blamed a lot of aches and pains on getting older. A normal that is widely accepted by most people but isn’t really normal at all.
So, If you’ve caught yourself saying “that’s just me,” “I’ve just gotten used to it,” or “It must be because I’m getting older,” take a moment to reflect and truly ask yourself if you feel as good as you think you should. That is what started this for me. I knew I was busy and tired, but I also knew that with everything I was doing to try to live a healthy lifestyle, I should feel better than I did. And I was right!
Don’t sell yourself short and settle for being tired all the time, in pain, or just really out of balance. You can and deserve to feel better. I’m sure by now you can tell that I can’t say enough good things about the Riordan Clinic. If you are considering some testing or just trying to figure out what is going on inside, I recommend it so highly.