Best approach to gaining a correct diagnosis, how to prepare for a visit to Drs or specialist.

[jatanin]

Thank goodness I found your site. I am a 65 young but feeling ancient Breast Cancer survivor

over the last 3-4 years feeling increasingly depressed and highly anxious but became alarmed this at things getting stuck in throat itchy leggs hair falling out stomach and abdominal issues waterworks problems and now no concentration shakes sweats high temps

sleeplessness and on and on but now also intolderance to alcahol voices mood swings blah blah. Concentration overall tiredness anxiety all huge issues for me just typing out this message has got me sweating. I already suffer from depression due to an incident 30 years ago with a drug xanax which the drs put me on and i was totally allergic to and threw me into a downward spiral of chemical induced depression it nearly destroyed me but if fought it but still have to take medication for the rest of my life so I know what that is all about and manage my life moderately well so far. Then Breast Cancer which again i fought with the help of my husband and family and am now 7 years on and okish about that. Then gall bladder went but recovered, the picture i am trying to paint is that i am not a depressive person by nature.

But now having read articles on your site am beginiing to feel that my thyroid perhaps has been responsible for some of the most alarming incidences of anxiety, mood swings and depression the last 2 years or so. I now have additional depressive moods from early morning til about 8pm ish but it varies, if i eat anything sweet and I am absolutely craveing sweet carbo anything i feel weird, my weight has balloned and this is a women who always tries to keep herself within a healthy weight cant do anything domesticated, its all too hard all of it. My garden has gone to pot. We retired to North Cyprus to give my life a boost and my garden was my passion. Apologies for the ramble but concentration is zero. My point is this i am in a foreign country i need to present myself to a dr. or go straight to a specialist but i have a loveing husband who quite rightly states i should not self diagnose but can you undertand that with my background history finding one who will not pidgeon hole me is going to be a difficult task. i need to arm myself with a list of all the tests i should ask for and correct procedures to ensure i get a correct diagnosis.

My poor husband has had to put up with a wife who as soon as a medical problem occurs and does not go away straight away has to take me to see a specialist who then confirms that i do not have liver bone blood secondary cancers and am ok when clearly i an def not.

I have not confused my cancer worries this time because some of my symptoms just make my husband think that i am going off my rocker especially short term memory is really bad and i am so clumsy now, I am loseing my confidence in myself , my husband is getting fed up with me looking so pale and jumpy getting so hot he worries bless him and tries to soothe and yes maybe 2 days out of 7 i feel a tiny bit better and try to get on with my life but am increasingly isolating myself cos i cant be bothered or dont feel confident enough. So my request here is please (i just cant concentrate enough to trawl through all the questions and do some homework) can you please advise me what my approach should be and what tests i should ask for. Thank you all for listening. My older sister has been on thyroxine for years.

Jackie

[Moggie]

Firstly you will need to ask for a FULL thyroid function tests to include FT3, FT4 and TSH (it is near on impossible to get the FT3 test over here but you might be lucky where you are). These tests will measure exactly what the thyroid is doing and, more importantly, what its not doing. Please ask for print outs of all your results so that you can post on here for advise as what the doctors class as normal may not be normal for you.

Secondly you need to let the doctors know that there is a family history of thyroid problems and thirdly you need to ask for B12, VitD, Iron, Folates and Ferritin tests as these, if not at the higher end of their ranges, can have a knock on effect on the thyroid.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Moggie x

[Moggie]

p.s. Forgot to say that you will need the ranges of these tests when you get the results as they will be pretty useless without them, especially as you live abroad and the Cyprus ranges could be totally different to the British ones.

Moggie x

[jatanin]

Many thanks Moggie will update as and when ,much appreciated

jackie