Anyone on Mumsnet?

[Ansteynomad]

A GP has posted on there today. She has some interesting views on thyroid issues and people who read websites and then start asking for unnecessary tests like FT3.

I'm adding the link. As do done once said "Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!"

mumsnet.com/Talk/general_he...

[Jazzw]

Oh my...

Time to crack open the popcorn.

[Clutter]

Anstey, I would say the GPs comments are typical but not interesting. She's on a hiding to nothing if she expects support for her views other than from other GPs. Her 3rd point that thyroxine if you don't need it is dangerous is stating the flippin' obvious. So are antidepressants and statins but both are handed out by GPs like sweeties in lieu of a diagnosis. Her 4th point about labs being in control of doing the tests she requests or not is sad. She should be outraged that her ability to make a diagnosis is compromised, not that she appears to understand much about thyroid if she doesn't understand the importance of FT3 testing.

[Polina44]

I have not posted before but reading that is very sad. I have gained a lot of valuable information since joining this site. Today I requested that my FT4 and FT3 are tested after realising that yet again only my TSH was to be looked at. I'm tired of my GP altering my medication based on little information. Today I've decided enough is enough and my health is important!

[shaws Administrator in reply to Polina44]

Your GP is wrong and causing you more problems by adjusting medication according to the TSH alone. Read the first and second questions on this link:

web.archive.org/web/2010103...

[Polina44 in reply to shaws]

Thanks... Yes I'm beginning to understand my condition after 14 years of treatment and just going along with things but not always feeling well or understanding why medication is being changed. Perhaps that's my own fault really! Thanks again. I will post my next results if I need any advice.

[faith63 in reply to shaws]

I think this is one of the most useful links i have seen..thank you so much!! I have finally found all the tests Dr. Lowe did plus a great explanation about the meds etc..

[galathea]

So, if you take too much t4... ( An inert storage hormone). Your tsh will lower and your thyroid, if you have one, may stop producing t4, until the tsh rises. If there really is too much in the blood, it will be converted to reverse t3 so that it can be disposed of.

If you are kept short of t4, you risk coma, heart problems and death... As well as no quality of life. Here is a link about one poor soul who was 'sub clinical'. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/210...

Hmmm..... I know which state I would rather risk.

G xx

[Hillwoman in reply to galathea]

I was regularly blacking out, on top of all my other problems, before I was finally diagnosed and treated (badly, with T4). I had thyroid anti-bodies, but the standard bloods were, of course, 'normal'!

[faith63 in reply to galathea]

This person in the coma had a normal ft4..it was the intravenous t3, that saved her life. A person can live without t4.

[galathea in reply to faith63]

Well, yes they can live without t4 if they given t3. But if they are not given t3 there has to be plenty of t4 so there is something to convert to t3.

[shaws Administrator]

It truly is awful that you have to actually become comatose before any action is taken. How unwell she must have been before that to happen.

[Fruitandnutcase in reply to shaws]

That's pretty much what I said to one of the housemen I spoke to when I was being treated. I'd been told my bloods were 'within range' and I said that as far as the range went a patient would have to be comatose at one end of the range or so hyper they were jumping (like I was when finally diagnosed) at the other end of the range before anything was done.

The guy just looked at me like I'd dropped in from space. He didn't make any comment on my words of wisdom but what could he say - I was right.

[gabkad]

I was thinking the other day that medical students should be put on a course of carb.mazole (however it's spelled you think I'd have it down by now).... just for sh*ts and giggles to find out what hypothyroidism feels like. You know, a summer student project sort of thing..... report back about how wondeful summer holidays were like.... just for scientific interest. mwahahaha! (Yes I am cruel and unusual).

[faith63 in reply to gabkad]

That would be awesome. If i ever feel well, i will get a job at my Endo's office and put Carb in her Coffee everyday, until she is unable to report for work, then i will know i have done my job and then, on to the next Endo.. mwahahaha!

[gabkad in reply to faith63]

You'd get arrested. But the fantasy is nice isn't it....

[faith63 in reply to gabkad]

yes!

[Marz]

Could someone reply to one of the GP's on Mumsnet with the latest information from Diogenes - who is on this forum - about his recent research into the TSH test.... it was difficult for lay-people to understand - but hey should be easy peasy for Docs

[Churchie]

I'm not on mumsnet and don't know the protocols there but if you are how about giving the petition for research a plug. Seems relevant after some of the posts.

[Zephyrbear]

That JarofPickles shows all the classic signs of what is wrong with the worst of GPs out there! Go to her for treatment and you'll pretty soon end up in a pickle-jar all of your own! I definitely agree with Gabkad - I think it should be part of a doctor's training to 'go hypo' for a while, if only to have personal experience of how debilitating it is, leaving its victim a demoralised shell of their former self being questioned by their families and dismissed by the medical profession as 'women of a certain age' with somatoform conditions! Makes me want to swear *@"#"***~~### >_< !!! Guess that'll have to do...

[Hidden in reply to Zephyrbear]

She's suffering from the same arrogance-itis virus that afflicts so many GPs. They genuinely are unable to comprehend that maybe, just maybe, they're wrong and the patient is right.

[Zephyrbear in reply to Hidden]

Well, I don't know about your surgery but ours have started referring to us as 'customers'... perhaps it might be worth pointing out that old adage of 'the customer is always right'!

[Hidden in reply to Zephyrbear]

'Customer'??? Brilliant!!

[Clutter in reply to Zephyrbear]

Zephyr, thank you for your restraint

[greygoose]

And they are so smug and self-satisfied about it all! That's what really makes me see red : smug doctors. Well, smug people in general, I suppose. lol

No, seriously, if they had half the problems us hypos have, they wouldn't be so smug.

[Ansteynomad]

Nearly 70 posts on that thread now. Do you think she is getting the message now?

[faith63 in reply to Ansteynomad]

No i don't..they only believe what they were taught in school and what is in the journals..if they read them at all.

[Clutter in reply to Ansteynomad]

Nope, Anstey. She'll be firmly convinced we're thyroxine junkies and start spouting "a line of coke will make you feel good, too".

[potnoodle]

Typical GP in my opinion based on experience. Arrogant, dismissive, obviously doesn't listen or consider anyone else's opinion and totally ignored the posts she didn't want (couldn't) answer.

RockinD's post asking exactly what health conditions she would investigate when thyroid results were 'within range' doesn't seem to have had a response? I can guess the answer - depression, fibromyalgia and or CFS.

[Reykua]

Hi Ansteynomad,

Such an interesting post. You may like this one as well -

dailymail.co.uk/health/arti...

[Hidden]

Well and truly kicking off over there but, let's be optimistic, that silly GP might actually learn something if she reads all the posts. Pigs need to fly first though!!

[Zephyrbear in reply to Hidden]

That's always assuming she'll be able to take time out of her 'busy schedule' to actually read them in the first place... I for one am not holding my breath!

[BeansMummy]

I don't think the GP will take on board anything anyone has said. She is, after all, a doctor and is therefore above the rest of us mere mortals.