anyone know about thyroid problems?

[Anonymous]

after elliot was born i found a lump in my neck. my obgyn sent me to the surgeon—-who had removed half of kevin’s thyroid only 2 years before because of a large lump that could not be ruled out as cancer until they actually got a look at it. kevin and i have both been on thyroid suppression therapy–him for 13 1/2 years, me for 10—-the psych took me off the thyroid meds almost a year ago to see what my thyroid would do on it’s own.

in feb of this year it was tested and seemed to be functioning normally. since i have have been having alot of trouble with carpal tunnel in both wrists, our orthoped checked my B-12 and my thyroid a couple of weeks ago. my B-12 is actually flagged as high, but my thyroid is low.

technically, my TSH and my Free T4 are both still in the normal range, but the T4 is right near the bottom end. the weird thing, is that both of them have dropped since feb. normally, if one goes up, the other should go down—kind of like a teeter-totter. i can’t seem to find any info on why both of them would be dropping. the only thing i have seen is that sometimes it can be caused by a medication—but i don’t think that any of the meds i take can cause that.

i got a book from the library on thyroid problems and discovered that low thyroid can cause alot of the problems that i have been dealing with for the last 9 years. i also learned that our bodies have to convert T4 into T3—-but my T3 has never been checked in the 10 years since i was put on thyroid meds.

if you know anything about thyroid problems, is there any pertinent info i need to be sure and tell the doc when i see her, or any specific tests i should ask to have run?

kevieb2008-09-28 01:15:35

[Anonymous]

I would definately have T3 tested. For what i read most often T4 and TSH will be normal when T3 is not.

Kendra has truoble converting beta carotene into the vitamin A form wich is regulated by the thyroid. She is sensitive to carrots and sweet potatoes (two vegetables very high in beta carotene) and if she eats a lot of beta carotene her neck will get a yellowish/orange color to it (due to excess accumulation).

She has had the routine check up thyroid hormone test and it has been normal. Her T3 has never ben tested and we are waiting on our next blood work to get it done.

Our naturapth tested her and she was low in Selenium. Selenium assists the thyroid with the beta carotene conversion. So she has been on Selenium suplementation for almost 8 months as well as iodine, vitamin k (helps with calcium absorsion and calcium is regulated by the thyroid). We also give Cod liver oil (to get the natural form of vitamin A).

Since then, the yellowish/orangish color under her neck has desapeared. We still avoid carrots and sweet potatoes and will be testing her Selenium levels again.

how is your calcium and vitamin D levels? if those are low the thyroid might be working too hard.

good luck with your testing. i hope the info helps.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know very much, but I was diagnosed with hypothryoidism (underactive thyroid) about a year ago when Nathan was 4 months old. One thing I’ve learned, which you probably already know since you’ve been reading up on it, is that TSH levels used to be considered “normal” up to about 5.0. But recently, doctors/researchers are saying that normal TSH levels should really only go up to 3.0, and in fact my doctor aims for mine to be around 1.0. I’ve never had my T3 checked, but I’m sure it couldn’t hurt to do it.

One more thing — I second what Leo mentioned about iodine. When I first got diagnosed, I was nursing Nathan and on TED. I was reading about underactive thyroid and found out that iodine is very important to having a healthy thyroid, and that iodine is mostly found in meats, seafood, and dairy — and I was eating none of those foods. I was taking a multivitamin but was surprised to find out that it contained no iodine. So I got checked for iodine deficiency (24-hour urine sample), which showed that I was grossly iodine deficient. Anyway, I started taking a natural iodine supplement (from kelp) and got re-tested a few weeks later. I was no longer iodine deficient and my TSH levels were a good bit better. But I did still end up starting on thyroid replacement medicine a few months later…in other words, my low thyroid was due in part to iodine deficiency, but mostly to an autoimmune disorder.

I don’t know if any of this helps, but I really hope you find some things out soon. I know that the thyroid sure controls/affects so many things in our bodies.

Please let us know what you find out.

[hellbennt]

I have hypothyroidism (low thyroid) & nodules. I had a BIG SCARE this summer due to growth of a nodule and had to have biopsies (talk about my life flashing before my eyes!). Turns out I am FINE.

also turns out that the growth & appearance of new nodules all happened b/t 2003-now. This coincides EXACTLY with me being preggo and breastfeeding my 2 kiddos. Coincidence? I don’t think so!

I certainly gave my endochronologist something to ponder!!!

I am also a bit of an enigma to him bcse w/ all that I have, it would seem that I would have Hashimoto’s Disease (autoimmune disease) and, well, I don’t. Not yet? Hmm….

maybe you have Hashimoto’s? could it be related to your fibromylagia?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashimoto’s_thyroiditis

me & my saving info, LOL! here’s some thyroid info (cannot take credit for this post):

thyroid:

ask to get a full thyroid panel run
& see if you can get the actual number from the TSH test. A lot of docs/labs still go by the OLD scale, where #s up to 5.5 can still be called ‘normal’. The NEW recommendations are not over 3.5. Even though it’s been YEARS since they adjusted the TSH range, some docs still aren’t aware…and many don’t know that the ideal range is 1-2 for most women…

My endo likes to see that one between 0.35 and 2.0. Mine was at 5.4 when my symptoms were starting, some people can get up really high with no symptoms. My (fired)doc told me that my symptoms were normal and nothing that diet and exercise wouldn’t cure. A year later my symptoms had really escalated and I sought a new doctor and was diagnosed and on the road to feeling better and being able to lose that hypo weight if I get serious about it.

[Anonymous]

i had multiple nodules when they first put me on the meds. they did not do any biopsies, just an ultrasound. since i had multiple small ones, they did not look suspicious like the one large one that kevin had. his was called a follicular adenoma.

in feb my TSH was 1.27———now it is .87 the bottom of the range is .45

my T 4 was 1.02———-now it is .87 the bottom of the range is .71

when the doc looked at my test results, he asked me if i had had a B-12 shot because it was at 1000, which was flagged as high–top of the normal range is 982—-obviously this isn’t a problem, it just eliminates that as the cause of my carpal tunnel problems.

he told me that my thyroid levels were still in the normal range—which i knew he would say, but i just told him that the other doc had said that it was too low and that it was causing the carpal tunnel problems. he actually doesn’t know what to do with me anymore, he has tried for alot of years. when they sent the referreral to the endocrinologist they listed it as urgent, so my appt. is on oct. 9th.

i havae run out of the stimulants i was taking and can not get them refilled until i get back up to the psych. now that i am not taking it, i am amazed at how much it was actually helping me—-however, it seemed to be helping less over time—-which is probably because my thyroid had started to go.

kevin quit his thyroid meds in the last two months and is starting to feel like he is more tired. he is starting to wonder if his thyroid did not go back to functioning on it’s own like we had both been told.

he does not want to see the regular doc and is waiting for me to see the endocrinologist and ask about her recommendation. our local docs would give us a dose of meds, do a blood test one month later, and if the levels looked ok, they would not even check us again for a year. since we were on thyroid suppression therapy, the levels were supposed to be read differently than someone who was on meds for low thyroid. i’m not sure that our docs were reading the tests right—one time they were going to change the dose of kevin’s meds until i told them his thyroid was being shut down on purpose—-the surgeon who put us both on meds left town and took all his medical records with him.

kevieb2008-09-29 15:27:55

[hellbennt]

I truly don’t know. all I know is that I can never stop the meds; I have to keep taking them for life…my nodules were small for a long time and then 2 got large enough for a biopsie. I am only monitored once a year- well 9 months- it was 12 month then at one point 6 months now back to 9 months…

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