So the bad news is this week that I have finally reached my limit of absence/'reasonable adjustments' at work, so they are looking to 'retire me due to ill health (I am 33!!!), had applied for voluntary redundancy and was really hoping to make it that far before it came to this but...not to be. Gutted.
The good news.... my armour is finally starting to work again a bit, I had to lower to 1 grain for 1 day to see if it was the armour that was raising my bp, it wasnt, so I raised to 1.5 again but it knocked me quite a bit and it has taken a good few days for me to start feeling a bit of a benefit again. As soon as I get my new prescription Im going to go up to 2 grains, I will have been on 1.5 for about 2 weeks by that point.
Even better news is....as some of you may know my GP is COMPLETELY against me being treated for underactive thyroid, totally disagrees that this is what is wrong with me and refuses to discuss any aspect of it further. He is adament I have CFS and when I last saw him he basically said he would only keep writing me sick lines if I followed his advice. So when he recommended I saw an NHS CFS specialist I had no choice but to agree. He stressed very strongly that he held this doctor in very high regard. (Apparently a leader in his field) I subsequently found out the doctor in question is a psychiatrist so the first appointment letter that came through I binned (I have been through all this before) but when my GP then questioned me on it I had to say I didnt receive it, I got another appointment through and the appointment was today. I went along on the defensive, fully expecting them to agree it was CFS/in my head, recommend CBT/counselling etc etc.
Well....I couldnt have been more wrong!! The doctor allowed me to speak, I told him all about not agreeing it was CFS (I nearly didnt as sometimes its just easier!), all about my thyroid research, my journey, having to pay privately, he took a full history and we discussed everything, he said he had never met a case like me!!! lol. He was aware of a lot of the research and hypothesis I was talking about, knew that the TSH test isnt everything and that sometimes you can just be underactive without test results being particularly out. In fact he said that if I had come in and asked for a trial of thyroxine he wouldnt have said no. He said he fully agrees with me, that it is very likely thyroid (although he is not a thyroid doctor), that I am right to be doing what I am if it is working and that I seem sensible and responsible enough to know what I am doing (a compliment from a psychiatrist I assume!!).He said he knows that edocrinologists tend to panic as soon as your test results are out of the ranges. He finished up by saying he will be writing to my GP advising him that he shouldnt be freezing me out, that he should at the very least be monitoring me and that he fully agrees and is supportive of everything I told him!!! I cannot believe it!!! Im still in shock. It may not make much difference but he is the first doctor in 11 years (bar Dr S) and certainly the first NHS doctor to actually listen to me, believe me and to act on it! Take that GP!!!!! lol. Fingers crossed I am finally getting somewhere!