Patient Interview:
Donata Reeve, Connecticut

Dr. Wilson interviewed Donata Reeve by telephone. To provide some background, Donata was being seen by her own doctor. Her sister recommended another doctor, Dr. Michelle Pulio, ND. Dr. Pulio then referred Donata to Dr. Michael (pronounced McCale) Friedman, ND. She was suffering from Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome which responded very well to the WT3 protocol and FibroCare. She experienced a bit of a relapse which improved with the addition of ThyroCare. She's been off the WT3 protocol for more than 6 months and is still doing extremely well. You can click on the links in the stories to hear some of Donata's comments in her own voice. The text covered in each link is highlighted in red. Of course, you will need to have your computer speakers plugged in and turned on.

Dr. Wilson: How long have you been sick, what was bothering you the most, and when did you start treatment?

Donata: I was sick for 3 ½ years, that I was diagnosed, with the Fibromyalgia and the Chronic Fatigue.

I started program [WT3 protocol and WTSmed Supplements] 1 year ago Thanksgiving, about this time last year, I completed program May or June of this year and I feel wonderful! (Laughs)

Matter of fact, I ran into a friend of mine tonight whose daughter is suffering severely from it and I said, "If she doesn't do this she's a fool." She said, "Well she's very skeptical about natural healing." And I said, "Tell her to call me and I'll talk to her."

Donata: [Dr. Friedman] and I discussed the program and I decided to go on it. And I stuck with it. It took me a little bit longer than he said most do but I guess everybody's body is a little different, I just did what he told me to do. And I found that the first probably couple of months I didn't see a dramatic change but I did see some change so I knew something good was happening. When I went off program I did really good for about a month and then it was like I crashed and burned. Then I got really discouraged. Then he called me one day and we talked and he said "Come back, let's just do something else". And he checked me again and he said I don't think it's really the same issues. He said, "I think you just need some extra supplements in your diet just to keep you going." And that's what we did, we introduced some more daily supplements and ever since I've been wonderful (laughs), absolutely wonderful.

And I'm going back to the gym now, I mean doing things I couldn't do a year ago. I feel good, I'm not exhausted like I used to.of course you know you get tired every day but that's normal. But before, I would come home and literally get home from work and sit on the couch and fall asleep and my husband would come home at nine and find me sound asleep on the couch, I'd go from there to the bed. And of course with the chronic fatigue I would wake up periodically during the night and wouldn't sleep good and then I couldn't fall asleep. So now I'm finding that, of course because I go to the gym I have a little more energy at night. I come home and I get some more things done. I go to bed every night at the same time, and I get up every day at the same time, even on the weekends, and I find that if I keep that schedule that I get enough rest, I feel good, I feel refreshed the next morning. I try to eliminate as much stress in my life as I possibly can which is hard because we all have stress in our lives.

Other than that, I did what he told me to do and it worked.

I take the FibroCare every day. I take ThyroCare.

Not the ThyroCare but the FibroCare yes.

[She was on the T3 and the FibroCare and did great and then started falling back and then she started the ThyroCare and turned around a relapse.]

I think we found with me I needed more [than the T3 alone] only because I think I had a lot of other complicating issues that just dragged me out more. I think it has a lot to do with heredity. My dad's diabetic.

Donata: I think personally the FibroCare helped me with the pain, the body pain, and the discomfort of those body aches but I do think the T3 treatment helped me overall. The only way I can describe it is that it centered me again. Where I like my body was off kilter.it wasn't right, and I think that [T3] brought me back to being centered being back to where my body should be running normally, functioning properly. And then the FibroCare just helped with the other pains and aches that I had and those two worked very well for me. And then when I got off treatment program and then I found a month or a month and a half after, starting to feel sluggish again and I thought "Oh no, what's wrong, I felt great?" [Because] I remember the day I reached my temperature and I called Michael [her doctor] screaming on the phone I was so excited I felt wonderful! It was like I woke up that day, the cloud had lifted. I felt terrific! Oh my gosh, I can't believe how wonderful I feel! And then that feeling lasted just for so long and then I felt this slipping effect again. And when I called him and said, "I'm really discouraged." And he said, "Nah, Ah. Just come see me." So then we did the test of the temperature thing again to make sure my body temperature wasn't slipping and it wasn't. And he said, "So, I don't feel you need any more T3. We just need to keep your running smoothly. He said, "I think you're just one of those people that.It's like a multi-vitamin, you need something every day to keep you going."

Dr. Wilson: "And that's when he started the ThyroCare how long did it take when you started the supplements before you started feeling better again?

Donata: I would say a couple of weeks to really get it into my body and to feel a tremendous difference. I mean I wasn't anywhere near as bad as I was when I first went to visit him but I could tell that I was starting to feel sluggish again. Where I had all this pep and energy and gosh, I couldn't wait to get home and do this and do that.and then all of a sudden it was like, "Uh Oh, I'm falling back into this pattern where I didn't feel like doing anything anymore." And I was finding at 2 o'clock in the afternoon at work I was fighting to keep my eyes open, then I felt like I really needed a nap. And then once he put me on the ThyroCare and the other supplements and he said to me, "I want you to stay on these for six months and do them every day three times a day," within a few weeks I just felt better. It's like, "Okay this is the right combination for me, this is what I need to feel and stay healthy." So that's what I do every day.

Dr. Wilson: Do you anticipate taking that for life or do think you'll be able to wean off of it eventually, or do you have a feel for that?

Donata: He said he didn't think I'd be on it for life. He said the FibroCare is something that definitely will not hurt me to take every day. And as far as I'm concerned I feel as long as I feel good on it and it's not harming my body in any way I don't mind taking it every day, it's preventive medicine.

Dr. Wilson: And how about the ThyroCare, the same with that?

Donata: Yeah, he feels that those two are a really good combination for me right now. He said maybe down the road I won't need the ThyroCare anymore. But the FibroCare because of the Fibromyalgia, he said "It's just preventative, if you want to stay on it it's up to you, if you want to go off it that's up to you." Right now, I guess I just feel so good taking it that I'm almost afraid not to take it. So I feel if I'm feeling good and I'm staying healthy it's preventive medicine, it's like taking a daily vitamin.

Dr. Wilson: On a scale of 1 to 10, with one feeling terrible and ten being terrific like you were feeling at your best, where would you say you were when you started treatment?

Donata: Oh gosh, probably a one or a two.

Dr. Wilson: And then at the peak of treatment when your temperature was up and you were feeling really well, and I mean before your relapse, the best you were before your relapse?

Donata: I was probably an 11 or 12, I felt wonderful! I felt like God gave me a new life.

Dr. Wilson: And then with your relapse?

Donata: I probably fell down to a 7. Not far, but enough that I noticed the difference.

Dr. Wilson: And where would you say you are now?

Donata: Oh! 10, 11.[laughs] I feel good, I really do. It's wonderful to get up in the morning, not feel miserable, not feel like, "It's a chore to get out of bed.I don't want to go to work.." I look forward to my days. I enjoy my evenings.I feel like I've been given a chance at life again.

Dr. Wilson: Wow. So you've been off T3 for 5 or 6 months and as far as you know your temperature is still normal?"

Donata: Right. I feel good, I really do. I mean I have my days, I'm not saying that every day is absolutely perfect, everybody has their days [laughs].

Dr. Wilson: So you're still on ThyroCare and FibroCare would you say you have any more symptoms of Fibromyalgia?

Donata: I think that they're there. I think the possibilities of them coming back are real. I don't think it ever goes away, away. I think it's a manageable condition now because I can find that if I have a very stressful day I can feel it.

Dr. Wilson: OK, so that's terrific. Boy! So you were a one.

Donata: I thank God about you every day, you have no idea [laughs]. You and Michael, I've said you're my saviors [laughs]. And I tell everybody that I know, this is the way to go [laughs].

Dr. Wilson: And how long were you a one or a two?

Donata: Oh, probably 3 ½ years.

Dr. Wilson: Golly, so that must have been hard.

Donata: It was. My medical doctor wanted me to go on antidepressants and I said, "No, you don't understand, I am not a depressed person, I am a very happy person I'm depressed now because I don't feel good. When someone doesn't feel well that's what happens. Because I don't want to put stuff in my body. I want to find what causes it, get to the root of the problem, and get rid of it." And he just couldn't help me.

So I had my consultation visit with Dr. Friedman and we went through things and he said, "Do you want to do this?" And I said, "There's no question, yeah I want to do it. I realize it's costly I realize it's an expense but you know what? You can't put a price on your health," so I did it. And I brought two members of my family in and he's treated my niece, he's treated my brother-in-law, he's treated friends of mine that I've sent to him and they're all thankful that I sent them."

Dr. Wilson: I really appreciate your talking with me about this.

Donata: Anytime.

Dr. Wilson: Of course I believe it and Michael believes it, because we've seen it before, but you're saying that you were just totally debilitated with a disease that most people consider untreatable, and now it's almost completely gone...

Donata: I can live a normal life.

Dr. Wilson: It's manageable and the symptoms are under control and you're living a normal life and that supposedly doesn't exist. So in a way, what you're saying is not believable to some people. So how do you reconcile that? How do make sense of that? Or how might you help others make sense of that? How can that be?

Donata: I think that many people, doctors included, don't believe that you can get better. I say, "You saw me before, you see me now, there's two different people here." The proof is in the pudding. It's a matter of ignorance, if it's not in a doctor's own "textbook" of knowledge he doesn't seem to be intereseted in it. It's almost as if the doctor can't believe that there are maybe other ways of helping people that he's not yet heard about. For example, I went to see an endocrinologist and presented to him the program that worked for me and he looked at me like I was a crackpot and wasn't even interested in looking at it and handed it right back to me.

Dr. Wilson: How would you answer this? We get this a lot. People ask us "If this worked that well it would be on the front pages, or every doctor would do it, If this worked half as well as you say it does everybody would know about it by now.

Donata: Well I just say that the American Medical Association is pretty blind. They don't want to accept it. I feel sometimes that the medical profession doesn't really want to heal people because it stops them from coming to see them. It stops their income so to speak. "If I can give you a pill this week and this takes care of it, well you'll be back in two months because you'll have another problem." Why fix something? Because if you fix something then you lose your income. I mean that's the way I see it, and it's probably wrong but I saw what my medical doctor did. He wanted me to come back every month and every month and every month and every month and for what?" for 15 minutes of talking and he couldn't do anything for me? I was wasting his time, he was wasting my time. I wish they would do something I wish they would put it out there and let the world know that there is something that can help women and men, mostly women of course who suffer from his horrible disease to recover from it. Because there's no reason anyone should have to suffer.

Dr. Wilson: So you think mainly it's just that they're not really looking for a cure, or that they're not really wanting people to get better?

Donata: And I think that there's still a lot of ignorance to that illness. My own doctor said to me, "I don't know anything about this illness, I do not know how to treat you." He was honest. He's a cardiologist, that's his field, but he's also my medical doctor and he was very honest about it. And he said, "I'd don't know what to do for you. I can send you to a rheumatologist." But what's he going to do for me? They wanted to start sticking needles in my hips and start shooting me up with cortisone just to get rid of the pain. You know, "I don't want you puncturing my bones [laughs] and the rest of my body and putting in medicine that may or may not help and may cause another condition somewhere else down the road!"

Dr. Wilson: Your views are interesting because you were seeing a regular medical doctor and he was recommending antidepressants and different things, and then you heard about a natural medical approach and then you explored that and fortunately ran into Michael with it [she laughs gratefully]. Right now you're really glad you did it but at the time, it was almost like a last because you had to do something.

Donata: Exactly.

Dr. Wilson: So you were open-minded enough to do something different. I'm trying to get a feel for how odd it must have been for you, to go from a situation where it's hopeless and then go for a last straw. Everybody says if it's too good to be true it probably isn't [Right. she laughs]. You go for a last straw and you know that the chances of it really working are probably slim, and yet for it to pay off so well for you, what's wrong with this picture? How did you reconcile that?

Donata: It blew me away. Because of course, we're always skeptical. I didn't really know a whole lot about holistic medications or treatments or how holistic medicine worked in itself. But I was willing to try something and I don't like putting chemicals in my body. And that was probably the biggest thing that forced me that way. Because it seemed like all my alternatives were always "It's going to be a pill of this, it's going to be a shot of that." It was always something. Like I said I worked from my teenage years until I was 28 years old in a hospital. I worked around sick people and I saw what different things did. And I thought, "You know, what do I have in front of me for the rest of my life? I'm only 47 years old, am I going to be in a wheelchair by the time I'm 55 because I can't walk anymore because the pain is so great? Or am I going to be walking with a walker? Or am I not going to be able to go on trips anymore and enjoy life? Because I love to travel and my husband travels three-times a year for his company and he loves me to go with him and I love to go with him. And I found that I lost desire to do these things. And I said, "You know, I have to find a way to get better so that I can enjoy my life again but I have to find a way that I feel comfortable with doing it. And I don't want to put something in my body that's going to make me spacey, incoherent during the day, make me feel like I'm not in control of myself. I just did not want to do any of those things. So I knew the only other way would be, obviously, the natural way because I know now I'm not putting anything foreign in my body. I felt, "OK this is my last straw, somebody's going to have to help me here [laughs]. If I could get, even if it was a little relief I was happy because the pain was just so great and I was just so miserable that anything was an improvement. And never ever did I ever expect going into it when I first met with Michelle [who turned me over to Michael] that I would ever feel like my old self again. And everyone I talk to who knew me prior to the recovery period as I call it, look at me and say, "Oh my God, I can't believe it!"

I just ran into a friend of mine tonight at the grocery store who I haven't seen in, oh, probably three years. And she looked at me and she said, "Oh my gosh, you look wonderful!" She said, "I've been meaning to call you. My daughter is suffering from fibromyalgia so bad I wondered how you were feeling. but obviously you're doing well!" And I went off in the grocery store [laughs], giving her my testimony, there! I gave her Dr. Murphy's name and said, "Please have your daughter call him. get her down there. if she has any questions have her call me.here's my phone number.." I gave her the Web site, I said, "Have her go to the web site.read about this. because I'm telling you, look at me, see me? I'm smiling, I'm happy. When was the last time you saw me?" [She replied,] "The last time I saw you, I thought you were on death's door." I said, "And, I felt like it." And she said, "I am standing here in awe, I really am." And I said, "Well I can't talk enough about this and anybody that calls me about this, I just tell them 'You're an idiot if you don't do it!.You obviously like to suffer then.because I'm telling you it works. Just do it. Don't think about it, do it"

You know, I have ladies who call and they'll say, "But it's so expensive." "Yeah, it is. I agree it's expensive, but what's more important, your health or your pocketbook?" If you look at it and say, "OK, it's 6 months of my life that I'm going to devote to getting better and it's going to cost me X amount of dollars to do that." Then guess what? You're done. It's over with. You're not continuing for the next year or two years, taking whatever other medication you're on or go from one doctor to another doctor and still be miserable. It's over, it's done.

And I think attitude is 99% of getting better. I wanted to get better so bad, I was eating it. I wanted to feel better. I did not want to be miserable anymore. I didn't want, when my husband touched me, to cry in pain. And then he always felt like, ". I can't touch you, you're just like glass." That bothered me. I used to say to him, "I'm sorry, it's not you, it's not you, it's just me, it hurts. I'm not trying to push you away, it's not that I don't want you to touch me. It's just that it hurts. And I could not make him understand that because he would look at me and still see me. He didn't understand what was going on inside of me.

If he would squeeze me to hug me, sometimes it would be like so unbearable. It would just really hurt. Your body aches like you have the flu any way. That's the only way I could describe how I ever felt. I felt like I had the flu 24/7. And then when somebody hugs you and squeezes you tight it just felt like, "Oh my, everything hurts and you're making it hurt more [laughs]. You're just squeezing all those muscles together that.they don't want to be touched."

I do go and I have been going now 2 years to a massage therapist. Once a month, I treat myself to a massage and this lady that I go to is very, very versed in fibromyalgia. And she knows exactly how to treat people who have the condition with therapeutic massage. And she's helped me a lot too. So I think everything together was a real well greased wheel. The treatment program, the therapy program, my own strong will to feel and get better, you had to put it all together.

Donata: Do you find that there are roadblocks with doctors who don't believe in it?

Dr. Wilson: Oh yeah, definitely. That's why I'm focusing so much in our conversation talking to you about that because it is just so bizarre that you can have such great results, and you would think that that would be enough.that everybody would be really interested in knowing. The problem is, it's almost as if the patients do too well. Because really what you're saying a lot of people would say is just too unbelievable.

Donata: Exactly. I hear that in people's voices when they call me and ask me about the program. There's skepticism in their voice and they ask the same questions over and over, "Are you sure? Are you sure? You really do feel better? You know, I'm constantly getting that. "You think I'd lie to you?" "First of all, I'm sure the doctor would not recommend you calling me if I wasn't doing better [laughs] he wouldn't want you to know that I wasn't feeling well. But you know, I'm not going to lie to you. It takes time. You have to go in with an open mind."

Dr. Wilson: About the expense, do you mind estimating about how much it did cost you for 6 months?

Donata: With all the supplements that I purchased along with the T3 packets, I would say somewhere in the vicinity of about $1500 to $2000.

Dr. Wilson: Like you say, in a way that's expensive but in another way, it sure isn't.

Donata: It's your life! [laughs]

Dr. Wilson: In a way, people would spend that on a lot of things that wouldn't be worth a thing.

Donata: Right, you go out tomorrow and buy that $2000 television set but do you really need it? You know, that kind of thing. But I personally just don't think you can put a price on your life and how you feel. To say, "Oh yeah, it's a lot".I can understand there are people who are not financially in a position where they can afford that and I do understand that. I am fortunate enough that I'm in a position where I could afford it.

Knowing what I was getting into I explained to my husband, "OK, my visits are covered. I pay our co-pay on our insurance, but everything else is out of pocket." At first he was very reluctant. And I looked at him and I said, "You know what? I work too so I'm doing this, and that's the way it is." Because in the beginning I was getting "Witchdoctor" and all this crazy kind of talk because he didn't believe in it. And I understand that, a lot of people don't. I mean, they're very skeptical when you say holistic medication or holistic doctors or anything like that. They just look you like you've got five heads and you don't even know what you're talking about because there's nothing better than a medical doctor and they know all. "Well I'm sorry, they do not know all." And I think there's a fine balance of both working together. Of course, I do go to my medical doctor for my medical check-up for normal stuff. I do see Michael. And I do see Michelle for my annual physical with her. But I do see my medical doctor because I do have a heart condition so I do go there and he does check me. But I feel that I have a very good balance now in my life. I have everything that I need. Michelle and Michael take care of my health needs as far as my well-being. And Dr. Singh takes care of my heart, my blood work, my cholesterol, any of that other stuff, like making sure that I'm not diabetic because that does run in my family. And I'm happy with that. I feel I have a very good balance, everything I need. But I also feel that I get the most honest and the most caring care from Michelle and Michael. I don't feel like I'm rushed, I sit, if I have questions they answer my questions. They're real. Not to just knock the medical profession, but then my medical doctor, it's like you're a number. "Whisk, whisk, get in / out I've got the next one to get in here." And then when I'm in there I'm so nervous because I know they're going to rush me then I forget all the things I want to ask.

Dr. Wilson: You know, it's funny, you might get a kick out of this. When I was in medical school they actually trained us this way, and it didn't make sense to me then and it doesn't make sense to me now. They actually trained us to think that if you see a patient come in with a list of symptoms, or a list of problems, you should consider that a red flag. In their mind, if the symptoms aren't bad enough for the patients to be able to remember or talk about them, and they have to write them down then they must not be that bad. And the patients must be kind of like hypochondriacs.

Donata: Oh yes, oh my gosh! [laughs]

Dr. Wilson: Isn't that incredible?

Donata: That's rediculous.

Dr. Wilson: Here they rush you and they pressure you and they're staring at you and if you can't regurgitate it then you're a hypochondriac.

Donata: Right, exactly.

Dr. Wilson: But you know, you forget things, I forget things. And some things are important, but just because you can't come up with them within that second doesn't mean they're not important.

Donata: That's right.

Dr. Wilson: I just find that amazing.

Donata: It is amazing. But I really can't say enough about your program. I think it's wonderful and I wish more people could get benefit from it that need it because there are a lot of people I know that suffer from this illness and have suffered for many years.

I wonder about patients with MS, because that's what they thought I had at first.

Dr. Wilson: I haven't treated a patient with MS before, but I've seen so many different things respond to it that I'm almost to the point that "If they have a low temperature, try this first and ask questions later." [she laughs.Right! Exactly!].

Donata:.[In the beginning]. And I'd say, "Well, I'm getting better, I'm getting better. I'm being positive about this. I know it's going to take some time and I know this so I don't expect miracles today. I will expect them in a few months but not today.

And they have seen the dramatic change in me.

Dr. Wilson: Well, I sure thank you for all the time you've given.

Donata: Oh! My pleasure, believe me. I can't thank you enough for giving me back my life.

Dr. Wilson: Oh, well I'm glad for the part I played in it.

Donata: If I can help someone else I'm happy to.

More...

Donata: Now I just fly up and down stairs and do what I have to do.

Through the illness I was gaining phobias that I never had before.

Like, I didn't like to go to the mall where there were crouds of people, which never bothered me before.

Not last Christmas but the Christmas before that, 2 years ago before seeing Michael, I had gone to the mall to do christmas shopping and I was in one store, I bought a few items, I came out of that store to go out to another store. The mall was so crowded with people, all of a sudden I felt very dizzy, felt like I was going to pass out. Then I literally had to leave the mall.

I was like, "What's wrong with me? I love to shop." I didn't have the energy to do it. I didn't want to do it. And it's the best time of the year to go, to have a good time, picking up things for people you love, who mean a lot to you, and I didn't enjoy it for one minute. Not one minute. And I didn't even want to put up our christmas tree that year. I love to decorate our home. And my husband kept saying to me, "Are you going to do this, this year..." "No," [her immediate response]. And he wouldn't push it. I didn't even bake that year. I said, "You know what? I'm going to go to the store and buy stuff..." And he said, "You're gonna go buy stuff?" Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I'm a fabulous cook and I just didn't want to even deal with it.

All those things, the things I enjoyed most in my life I had no desire to do anymore. I didn't even like riding in the car. It was like, "I have to go somewhere in the car? [Yuck]. OK,When's the best time to go when there's no traffic".all these things and never realizing that it was all related to what I was going through.

Now that I feel better, I went to the mall and spent the whole day there and I had a ball.

Dr. Wilson: I had a patient that started driving slower and slower.

Donata: Yes! Like a little old lady.that's what my husband calls me.

Dr. Wilson: She knew she was feeling better when her temperature went up and she started getting speeding tickets. She'd be going 80 mph and felt like she was going 30. It.

Donata: [Laughs] I love it! My husband would say, "You've never been afraid of anything!" It's weird how your body.It's a weird feeling that it just overcomes you and takes you. It's hard to explain. I couldn't make my husband understand because I would tell him and he'd look at me like I had 10 heads. And I'd say to him, "But Pete, I can't make.." [And he'd say,] "But you've never been afraid of anything!" My husband is my second husband and we've been together for 18 years. When I first met him, I was 30 years old and I was raising two babies by myself. He said to me, "You are the strongest person I have ever met in my life! You know, I think back to when I met you, you were alone, raising two kids by yourself, working full time." (My children were only 3 and 5 years old.) He said, "You managed your own place, you managed to take care of the kids, work full time and still did it all, if and now you have all of a sudden become this very frightened fragile person. And I said, "Well this is all because I don't feel well and this is what you don't seem to understand, I've lost that edge." And finally he realized when it came back that, "Oh yeah, there was something wrong with her." [laughs]

It's funny you don't think about all those things until afterward. You just think about what's happening at that immediate time, and the pain. You don't think about everything else that goes along with it. You think you're fine. None of this stuff registers. Then when you have a moment to think about all the things that are happening to you, you realize, "Oh my goodness, all these things must be related."

Dr. Wilson: You don't know how sick you were until you get better?

Donata: Absolutely!

P.S.--

In a follow up phone call, Donata asked Dr. Wilson to guess her favorite Christmas present she just received. This 47 year old woman, wanted, received, and can't wait to use a brand new pair of roller skates!