James S Nagel, MD - Quality Of Life Medicine

In 2007 I gave birth to my first daughter. She was only 5 lbs. 7 oz., and I quickly found out that my health was not stable. Gaining 30 lbs in one month and completely unable to get out of bed, let alone care for her,  I went to my doctor. She tested my thyroid and told me everything was fine. When I fought back saying everything was not fine she agreed, condescendingly, to send me to an endocrinologist. I was quickly diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease and placed placed on Synthroid.

"You take this pill every morning, and you won't have to worry about this anymore." If I had a nickel  for every time a member of the medical community said that to me, my family and I could on a Disney cruise!

For the following five years. I struggled with infertility. Eight miscarriages followed; many injections, many tests, and no answers.  The weight fluctuations continued, as did the out of control rage that could overtake me causing out of body experiences. Why couldn't I calm myself down? I had a doctor laugh me out of his room when I said I had heart palpitations, and suggest I undergo psychiatric treatment for trauma. My feet hurt, my head hurt, my house was a mess, muscle pain and muscle weakness abounded and more than anything I was exhausted. The list goes on and on.

In January 2013 I gave birth to a healthy 7 lbs. 1 oz. baby girl. Immediately following her birth, I again crashed. I gained 50 pounds in one month. I produced absolutely no milk, as with my first. And every doctor that I went to see told me to eat less. At this point I was a vegetarian, having just changed over from vegan during my pregnancy. There aren't enough carrots in the world to get me up to the 267 pounds I was. It was a nurse who pulled me aside and told me it wasn't my fault. That it was Hashimoto's disease.

I finally took my health into my own hands. I started to research Hashimoto's disease, finding out that it was an autoimmune disease. Imagine that, five years of struggling with an autoimmune disease and not one single doctor declaring it as such to the patient. I fired my healthcare provider and found new insurance and subsequently met and broke up with at least 20 medical professionals. I found that being gluten-free made me feel better, however every medical professional I talked to told me cutting gluten out of my diet was pointless. We have come to find I have celiac's.

When my second daughter was a toddler I had the good fortune of coming across Dr. Nagel's name on a list of doctors worth seeing. All of them were further than one hour from my home. The list had been created by patients who had been mistreated just as I had. They had finally located decent doctors, and placed them on a list based on the kinds of tests they would run and the treatment they would give. It was clear at my first appointment that this doctor was different.

Dr. Nagel was so warm, and confident. He asked me questions no other Dr. had ever asked. Is your hair normally this curly? How do your feet feel? Can I see your fingernails, please? He ran tests and called me back for a second appointment.

He was matter-of-fact and comforting about his findings, "You have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and you need to be put on bio-identical Estrogen and Progesterone. I'm also going to switch you over to Naturethroid, and I will continue to raise or lower your dose based on symptoms as well as tests." He also was fairly certain that I was prediabetic and suffered with vitamin deficiencies. He placed his hand comfortingly on my knee and said, "This isn't your fault. It's not your fault you are obese, it is not your fault that you have no libido, and I can fix it."

I couldn't stop the tears from falling.

Fix it he did. He placed me on an auto immune Paleo diet, and set me up with a nutritionist. Turns out I was fairly knowledgeable about nutrition but I had no idea how to go about losing this extra weight as a woman with PCOS and Hashimoto's disease. In the words of Dr. Nagel, "This isn't your fault, you could gain weight on a TicTac"

I have been seeing Dr. Nagel for four years now and I will let my pictures speak for themselves. He's not just a doctor; he is an angel.

Thank you Dr. Nagel for saving my life.

I have been visiting dr. Nagels office for a few months now, HRT has been a wonderful experience so far. They are so professional and kind here. After being treated very unprofessional at other places a good friend told me to call Quality of Life, and it was a breath of fresh air. The Saturday clinic; for transgender individuals is truly a wonderful resource to have up here in Chico Ca. Very satisfied with my care here, definitely 5 stars!