Help with blood test results please

[MidnightBlue]

I have typed up my results into a neat table, but for some reason the table has disappeared, so if they are difficult to read I will repost them. I would really appreciate some help understanding them. The first set were done by G.P., then I started supplementing with iron and calcium, second set done by endo. I am concerned that calcium is still low despite the fact I was supplementing for a month before the second test. The endo wants me to stop supplementing iron and calcium so he can see what the underlying levels are. I am not happy to do this. I have hashimoto's and am on 100mg levo a day. Any advice gratefully received.

[Clutter]

Midnightblue, Your TSH is slightly below range but that doesn't mean you are overmedicated because your FT4 and FT3 are comfortably within range. TPOab have decreased slightly possibly because of Levothyroxine and any dietary changes you may have made recently.

Folate and B12 are good although some prefer B12 higher in range.

If the endo wants to see baseline results of calcium and ferritin you'll need to stop supplementing unless you have results before you supplemented which you can show him. It may be that he needs to see how low, or how quickly your levels drop, to determine what the underlying reason is.

[MidnightBlue in reply to Clutter]

Thank you Clutter for your help. The endo I saw was a young registrar. First time I saw him. I was refered by my G.P. As my antibodies were raised ( she seemed to think they should not be up if I am on levo, not realising that levo does nothing for antibodies. I was just glad to get a referral). I am really worried that my ferritin is only 20, and if I stop it will not reach 70. Do you know long will I need to stop supplementing before my next blood test? He does not want to see me for 3 months. It is so complicated. He didn't seem to know that my ferritin was low, he said 20 was fine. He also said I was over medicated, due to TSH, and recommended I take 100mg 4 days and 75mg 3 days. (He didn't give me a prescription for this though!) thanks.

[Clutter in reply to MidnightBlue]

Midnightblue, Anything, where ever it is in range seems to be deemed acceptable by doctors. If your endo intends testing other iron then it is no good supplementing iron for a period prior to the blood draw but I don't know how long you would need to stop supplementing. It takes 120 days for red blood cells to renew and die off, but I don't know whether a shorter period would suffice. You could post a question specifically about how long you need to stop supplementing iron and calcium for retests.

I don't think you look overmedicated. I imagine your endo wants to get your TSH in range

[MidnightBlue in reply to Clutter]

Thanks for your advice Clutter, I will do that.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

So that everyone knows:

You cannot sensibly format a table as a post or response here. Multiple spaces get treated as a single space when displayed. (This is part of the specification of HTML.) Tabs don't work. Using other characters doesn't work because the displayed text is in a proportional font. And even if all that was not enough, the layout will change depending on the browser, operating system, display monitor, etc.

This is a real pain. Many people have fallen into the trap and ended up wasting their time and effort.

Rod

[MidnightBlue in reply to helvella]

I thought I was going to look so clever! I did the table in word, emailed it to myself on my ipad, and then then took a screen shot of the table to use as a photo in my post. Problem was that for some reason the word document didn't open properly on my ipad, no table! Next time I may try printing the table and photographing that.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to MidnightBlue]

If you do a screenshot, you don't need to photograph it at all!

I suggest that if you want the whole thing properly available, you post the Word document (or, preferably, a PDF) to a cloud site such as Dropbox. Then post the most important few things and a link to the cloud version.

[MidnightBlue in reply to helvella]

Just for fun I have had a go at reposting the results in a table. I opened the word document in pages, and then took a screen shot.