I started seeing Dr. R in 2005 when I was showing signs of being overmedicated for my hypothyroidism. I could immediately tell that he was not really listening to my symptoms but waiting to tell me what I needed to do. \r
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After two months of lowering my dosage, I was feeling better but still very anxious, tired and ""tremory"", not my usual self. He took my TSH and though I was still not at a normal level yet, he added T3. The T3 made me feel even more ""hyper"" and when I told him of my symptoms, he brushed me off. Two weeks of being unable to sleep, panic attacks, heart palpitations and other overmedicated symptoms left me fearing for my life. I called him on-call and told him that I was about ready to go to the emergency room with my heart palpitations and with all my symptoms he said ""WELL, IT'S NOT YOUR THYROID, IT MUST BE SOMETHING ELSE, SEE YOU FAMILY DOCTOR"". \r
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Before becoming overmedicated, I have never been anxious, depressed, or had any kind of serious medical conditions. I am an educated, normal, healthy and happy person. He made me feel like a lunatic. I knew that it was the overmedication that was doing all this to me but he ""the expert"" told me that it had to be something else...it wasn't my thyroid or the thyroid medication. I pleaded with him to listen to me but he was very cold, insisting I must have something else going on even though all my symptoms clearly resulted from too much Synthroid and T3.\r
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This sent me on a downward spiral that just about killed me. I foolishly stopped the meds all together and plummeted in a dark hole of thyroid imblanced hell. Everything in my body and mind went haywire and I was a non-functional shell of a mom who could not take care of my children and my husband had to take work off to take care of us. I had no idea the thyroid had that much power.\r
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Once I started myself back on the meds, slowly, though I was still feeling absolutely miserable, I called Dr. R again to check my TSH but the office said I was no longer welcome. WHAT? That happened to crazy people, not me! I think he was covering his but to be sued, honestly.\r
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Because this ""Top Doc"" endocrinologist told me that the thyroid doesn't call all this and it must be something else, I went through two months of seeing doctor after doctor for all kinds of tests to determine what horrible disease I must have, which only made my chemical-caused anxiety and depression 100 times worse, along with all the other weird little symptoms that doctors don't tell you about but you'll find everywhere on any thyoid discussion board (About dot com is a good one). I found that regular doctors know just about nothing about what thyroid imbalance does to a person physically and emotionally but eventually my own family doctor supported me in finding the right dosage for me while listening to me and supporting me through all of those scary and unusual symptoms (constant internal tremor, insomnia, numbness, joint pain, anxiety, depression, palpitations, etc.)\r
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It took my body THREE FULL YEARS to flush out that thyroid imbalance and the domino effect of disfuction it caused my body ~ my brain, my adrenals, my heart, my skin, my hair, my vision, etc.. It's been four years now and I still don't feel like I did before all that happened but in relation to that hell, I feel like a million bucks. I now counsel many sufferers on the discussion boards and many are thankful for my experience and advice, and I am happy to help others, but I wish I could go back to those days with Dr. R and ask him what the h*ll he was thinking for making me feel like I was the only one in the world with those obviously thyroid-related symptoms of thyroid imbalance. \r
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I was too brain-fogged to understand what was going on then but I will now definately tell anyone I know in the Minneapolis area NOT to see Dr. Jeffrey Ruegemer.\r
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