His mother had a partial thyroidectomy many years previous to her death. They took too much - he doesn't know whether she was on meds or not, but we presume so. She eventually died of throat cancer. They were going to operate and then they left it too late. She died in agony being peg fed at age 64. He is now 65, 66 this year.
He has always been very fit all his life - very, very thin and stressed until he met me in '96 when gradually he put weight on - in '96 he weighed 9 and a half stone and is 6ft tall, so you can see, he was very underweight. He now weighs 13 and a half stone, and is still not overweight. He was a committed marathon runner, but has not run since 96 - (he found other things to do!)
Recently he feels tired and lethargic, his skin has become very dry, outer edge of eyebrows GONE, seems to have what looks like varicose eczema on his lower legs, lots of phlegm in the morning, very cold hands and feet, breathlessness, and palpitations, low basal temperature, Attention deficit, deafness and tinnitus, dizziness and almost fainting, sore throat and dry mouth, halitosis and runny nose, brittle nails, bouts of constipation then IBS, Bouts of high blood pressure, gritty eyes, depression and anxiety, and general loss of drive. Trouble is, many of these symptoms are routinely put down to the aging process. His Dad, on the other hand is a very fit 88 year old, who is only just beginning to lose his marbles. XX
According to the TUK interpretation of results flow chart he's hypo. Dr P says a TSH of 2 should raise suspicion and 2.5 is diagnostic! So.... you will be sharing your NDT!
Antibodies look OK at the moment, don't know if they are likely to go up (presumably the range goes from 0-something because people may normally have a few anyway?). But even so, his results look like he would benefit from treatment to me.
His thyroid results are obviously low, but I think there are other things that should be tested here looking at that symptom list.
The first thing in my mind is Coeliac Disease or another food intolerance - the gastric symptoms, the rash (is it itchy? google Dermatitis Herpetiformis and see how it compares), the bad breath, phlegm and runny nose. Here's an article:
And with that condition comes malabsorption, and with malabsorption comes thyroid problems and other deficiencies. Some of his symptoms could be anaemia (either iron, B12 or folate). Has he actually been checked out by the GP? Obviously with the breathlessness and palps you'd want to make sure his heart was OK? And have they done an FBC? I think you just need to get back to the GP and insist on more tests, we shouldn't have to accept second best just because we're getting older.
a) That the antibodies weren't, say, 30 yesterday, last week or last year?
b) That the antibodies testing kits are able to reliably measure a reading of zero? If not, then many tests will have a value greater than zero without any untoward implication.
We did not go via the GP - that would have been next to useless - we just looked at TUK and my symptoms and diagnosis, and went straight for the blood test. Because of the circ rhythms, which were so crucial to my diagnosis, I dragged the poor sod out of bed at 2am, and made him stab his fingers. The skin on Men's fingers are so much thicker than womens, and it took us nearly an hour to get the blood, by which time he was having a nervous breakdown. I shall put him on Nutri Thyroid as from tomorrow. He did have a blood test via the doctor a few weeks ago, so we shall see if we can get his full results. I thank you all for your help and advice XX
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