Thyroid function question

[AnnieR]

Dear Forum Members,

I am new here and I was wondering if there is anyone who could help me. I am 32 and about 3 months ago I asked my GP to send me to a thyroid function test as I had matching symptoms. He did send me but the surgery never contacted me and I have seen the GP several times since with my blood pressure issues, and he never mentioned it, so I assumed my blood results were all ok.

Yesterday I've seen to another GP (same surgery but got appointment with someone else only). He has suggested to change my blood pressure pill due to the side effects I was getting on the old one, and also printed a blood test form for me, he said that it's routine to check kidney functions and the like when someone has high blood pressure so when it's convenient for me I should go and get the test done. Only after I got home (and surgery was closed by then) I read the blood test form. It is asking for full blood count, glucose (I assume it's because I had gestational diabetes during my last pregnancy a year ago), Urea and electrloytes (kidney function), which is all understandable. But it also says the following in the "Tests required" section:

"Thyroid function tests (tft)(g)(Thyroxine therapy=Yes(Drug and dose =>200 mcg Thyroxine))"

What does this mean please? I am not on Thyroxine and never been told that I should be on it, never been told that my last results were not ok either? Is it possible that this GP just made a mistake when printing the form? And if so, why is he asking for a Thyroid test anyway, it was done just a few months ago?

I know I should ask the GP which I will, but they are closed until Monday and I am a bit worried about this, just wanted to know what you think please. Any advice would be appreciated. I am hoping that surely it's not possible that a GP surgery doesn't inform you if you results come back not ok, and since I've also seen the doctor several times since, he would have mentioned if there would have been a problem with my last results? Anyone has any experience with something like this? Thank you very much.

-Annie-

[helvella Administrator]

Someone (not you) has made a mistake.

You really need to get hold of your test results so that you can make sense of them. Here's a link:

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/NHS_In...

In such circumstances I would consider it completely unacceptable to be charged anything at all for a print of all test result over the time in question. I can't see it being this GP's mistake as such things often come from the records rather than doctor's memory/brain.

So that you realise, hypothyroidism can cause raised blood pressure (can also cause low blood pressure - welcome to the crazy world of the thyroid).

I also feel that many people with any question over blood pressure should consider buying a validated blood pressure machine so they can monitor their own BP - well away from the surgery and whenever they wish.

Rod

[AnnieR in reply to helvella]

Dear Rod,

thank you very much for your reply, much appreciated. My worry is not about my blood pressure, I had high blood pressure for years. My issue is that I am worried that my thyroid blood test which was done 3-4 months ago actually came back showing hypothyroidism and they failed to inform me, hence that "thyroid function tests (tft)(g)(thyroxine therapy=yes(drug and dose =>200 mcg thyroxine))" on the latest form they printed. Why would they say this on the form? Is it because I should be on the thyroxine drug and they entered it into their system but they failed to inform me? Or is it just a mistake on the latest printout (that would be the best case scenario for me anyway and that's what I am hoping for). I was thinking maybe someone had similar experiemce with the GP and can help me with sharing it, or maybe I thought that the text "thyroid function tests (tft)(g)(thyroxine therapy=yes(drug and dose =>200 mcg thyroxine))" on the blood form is just a routine print? I have no experience with blood forms so I was thinking someone can clue me up before Monday and give me a piece of mind

Thank you so much.

Annie

[helvella Administrator in reply to AnnieR]

The problem is that virtually no-one would ever start on 200!

So I'd assume that seeing 200mcg would immediately mean someone who has been taking it for some time. (Actually, people might have to suffer and grovel to get that much from some doctors.)

What you saw looks entirely wrong for you. How it got there is open to speculation. It is quite normal for GPs to put that someone is taking levothyroxine (or whatever) as this may well affect how the lab decides to interpret any results. It does not appear to be "routine" in my experience. (If it were routine, I am sure we would have had lots of questions here!)

Rod

[AnnieR in reply to helvella]

That's very useful imformation about the dose, thank you very much Rod, it gives me even more hope that this is just a bad error. Thank you so much.

[roslin]

Just to keep in mind that the readings may not completely correspond with your GPs (yours may be the correct one). I just bought a validated one from Boots (own) for £40 which seems fine for my use.

And I agree that you must question this and get the print outs of your bl tests and post them here. There are many knowledgeable people that can help .

Roslinxx

[marram]

I cannot help but wonder if the information was actually yours. It is not unheard of for other people's information to go on the wrong records. I would go back to the doctor and ask for an explanation.

[AnnieR in reply to marram]

Dear Marram,

I so agree and I am hoping secretly that there is a mix up .. I do know however that they can't print anything for another patient whilst logged in to one patient only. If I go in with my son and we both need advice, he logs into one record and prints prescriptions, looks at results etc, then he can only deal with the other patient's prescriptions/issues if he logs out of the previous patient and loads the new patient. So if it's a mix up, someone has entered this info to my record manually (either the hospital where the blood test was done, or the GP secretary). And my very last blood test was exactly a thyroid function test only, nothing else was checked and so I am indeed worried why this info turns up on my next blood form Everything else is correct on the form by the way, it's my name and details, and it was my name on the screen as well when he printed, I've seen it. Anyway I am hoping it's just an error, thank you very much for your suggestion.

Annie