TiddlyPom

And you're in Sydney!!! Wah! That's where I go to get some sun.

Mrs Jackaroo

How you cope with the cold up those mountains mate I have no idea...the thought of it sends shivers down my spine

TiddlyPom

Kooky.

I just nipped up t'hill to the shops and I can tell you it may be sunny (or was then; now I'm watching the sun set over the mountains) but it's 'fing freezing. Almost everyone I saw had their arms crossed across their bodies in an attempt to hug themselves warm.

TiddlyPom

It was -.5 this morning.

I was in Sydney the other day and it was very cold ... 20 degrees on the beach, and I was wearing a jumper.

tasmas

Hey everybody

Ooooh Tiddlypom, new sexy avatar!!!

Just been to docs, its been 4 weeks since I was diagnosed with Underactive Throid. I've been on 50mcg since then.

Its only the past few days I have felt a little different, i.e. I don't feel like i've just been hit by a bus!!

I get my next set of bloods done on the 4th August.

Anyway here are the results of the first blood tests 4 weeks ago:

SERUM FREE T4 LEVEL 13 pmol/L
SERUM TSH LEVEL 23.41 mIU/L

This might make sense to most more than me. Doc just said my throid is screaming cause it ain't working. But I'm quite unusual cause the T4 is within correct range.

Tracy

Mrs Jackaroo

Wow thats a pretty high TSH! No wonder you're starting to feel better with a bit of treatment

Do you also have the ranges they're using? Are they also testing your Free T3? If not, ask them to...it gives a much better picture of whats going on.

Hope things continue to improve for you

tasmas

Sorry, thats the only results that came on the printout. Should I ask the nurse to put that on when i go for next bloods?

Do you mean by ranges - the figures they say it should be within?

tracy

Kooky.

Yes, tracy - I don't know about UK compared to Oz but I've found that Singapore uses different measures and reference ranges from Oz for a lot of blood tests, so it will help these expert ladies to advise you if you include the ranges your results say is the norm.


(I have an update and more questions too Been doing a good impression of an ostrich all weekend but I do need to get back onto this. Later...)

TiddlyPom

Thank you.

Holy mother of god.... couldn't you have a higher TSH? Ok, well TSH stands for Thyroid Stimulating Hormone. As the activity of your thyroid has reduced, your pituitary gland has gone into overdrive, pumping out more and more TSH to make your thyroid .. well... get stimulated.
The T4 is within range but without seeing your Free T3 too, it's impossible to work out the ratio at which they're in your system...

Your TSH should be around 1 by the way.

Your dose does need to go up... when is that happening? Usually you should switch up your dose every 4-6 weeks. Faster than that and it's not very good.

Glad you are beginning to feel better... symptoms may return as your body utilises the thyroxine it's getting, and that's a big sign you need to increase.

Good luck hon. Your doc sounds like he knows what he's doing. So far.

TiddlyPom

It's possible they didn't test you for it.

And yes, it should say something like TSH <1.4 - 4.1> or something similar.

Mrs Jackaroo

Come on...fire those questions at us...whats the update?

Kooky.

Well I saw the endo man on Friday.

The good news is, he says I don't have hyperparathyroidism as, although the PTH was high, it wasn't ridiculously so, and my calcium levels are not elevated, i.e., it is not leeching out of my bones into my blood. So the conclusion is that my osteoporosis is purely menopause induced and I'm going to "thank" my new GP for scaring me so. Have to retest in 3 months.

He said that there is no point me taking extra testosterone (contrary to everything I've ever heard but, yay, I have enough facial hair already thank you), and has prescribed an osteo drug, Actonel Combi. I was expecting Fosamax and this is very similar, some scary shit really with strict instructions on how to take it. However I do concede that the time has come for desperate measures - I've already had one serious fracture and I'm too young to deteriorate so rapidly, have hopefully got quite a few years left yet - so will see how it goes.

The main thing I take issue with, but was expecting from an endocrinologist - and I'm one of many thousands who have been through this I know - is he says I do not have and have never had a thyroid problem. I know my T3 and T4 are in range (my T3 was under, when I was first diagnosed) but my previous GP has always said that my 2 elevated antibody scores indicated autoimmune thyroid problems.

I've done an awful lot of reading and I know this is a contentious opinion that specialists are likely to pooh-pooh, but I had all the symptoms and could not find any other reason for them. Over the last (almost) 3 years I had gradually improved and in fact only my Thyroglobulin Antibody is now out of range, and it's almost back in.

The endo could give me no alternative reason for the scores to be elevated and wasn't particularly interested in anything I had to say. He was definitely old school.

I'm not happy to be back on conventional HRT and I'm not sleeping and I'm having flushes for the first time in years, so I'm going to ask my GP (whoever that ends up being) about going back on BHRT. Despite what the endo said, I know it could be thyroid- or even adrenals-related. I am still taking the herbal thyroid support though; will however run out soon and it's practitioner-only.

So - I just needed a bit of a break from it all, and to see how I settled in with the Actonel, but I'll be seeing Dr Ludka soon, for sure.

Actually am off to Chatswood this afternoon, might go hunt her place down...after I've had my steamed pork bun fix, of course.

TiddlyPom

Seasider... If you have thyroid antibodies, then you have Hashi's. It's that simple.

The way they 'get' the range in the first place is to pick a random 100 healthy people. Now some of these people obviously have thyroid issues, but they just don't know it.
So they take their blood and bingo, it seems some of them have antibodies!
And yet they're healthy.
Hmmmmm.
What could this mean?

Conclusion: Healthy people have antibodies.

Therefore, you've got antibodies and they're telling you they should be in a certain range. The bottom line is that if you have antibodies, then you've got an auto immune issue.
End of.

Healthy people do not have thyroid antibodies.
There's no such thing as a healthy 'range' of the buggers.

Go see Ludka.

Mrs Jackaroo

ditto ditto ditto!!

Bloody Endos p**s me right off! Go with your insticts, go see Ludka, and sack that bloody Endo. I have no time whatsoever for Endos who dont listen to their patients! I am soooo over them!!

Good luck - you'll (we'll) get there in the end