Blood results

[keb5332]

Still battling to get well after my TT 3 years ago. My Gp was trying to convince the hospital go trial T3 but was struggling ad the health authority won't fund it anymore. Anyway still shattered, no energy, achey body weight gain the list goes on. He decided to test for vitamins ferritin and folate. I've discovered today he's left the surgery and had a letter to say my results were normal except for slightly low B12. Please can anyone advise on them as to me they look anything but normal!

[Jazzw]

Oh dear... That's not a slightly low B12 - that's a very low B12. A doctor who knew his or her stuff would be testing you for pernicious anaemia and considering prescribing B12 jabs. Plus your ferritin is horribly low as well - you're anaemic. No wonder you're feeling so rough - you're right, those results aren't normal.

There's nothing in that set of blood tests about the thyroid, but given your ferritin is so low you might well struggle with T3 until it's raised a bit.

I think I'd go back to the doctor and ask to be tested for pernicious anaemia and to have a full iron test done.

[keb5332 in reply to Jazzw]

I will find my last thyroid results and add them. I did seem to be converting ok from what I can remember but may benefit from t3 being added but the local health authority won't find new patients

[SilverAvocado]

Ferritin, folate and B12 are all at dangerously low levels. Generally you want these to be at least halfway up their ranges, and you will start getting symptoms when they're towards the bottom.

It's worth going back to your doctor and demanding they be looked at, as these are so very low. But doctors tend to know nothing about vitamins or nutrition. I don't know too much about it as I haven't been through it, but you can treat these yourself if you get no joy, including self injecting B12. There is a lot of information on this forum, and I believe the pernicious anaemia forum on Health unlocked is also considered good.

I also had my TT 3 years ago, so we are TT buddies In still not well, and have been in bed most of that time. You don't show any thyroid results, but if you make a new thread about them members will comment. Many here their buy own T3, as it's being withdrawn all over the place. I've had to start completely self medicating, ordering my own blood tests, etc in order to start getting better.

[keb5332 in reply to SilverAvocado]

It feels like 3 years of hell to be honest. Wish I had never had it removed but hindsight is a great thing. How do you cope day to day? What meds you on?

[SilverAvocado in reply to keb5332]

I had to give up work - more like was physically incapable of going back. I did a couple of half days per week lying on my bedroom floor for a while, but it was ridiculous. I live alone so it was just lying in bed struggling to get meals and water, at first.

Since Christmas I've started to get better as I've been taking dessicated thyroid (NDT), and ordering /payinyg for my own blood tests. I'm not completely better, now, but I can get up and walk around a bit, sit at a table to do things, and my brain fog and concentration are far better. I was just looking over my blood test history today, and I think I may get 2 or even 3 more increases before I'm at my maximum.

I've been lucky enough not to have vitamin deficiencies, but also its a puzzle why I didn't get better on Levothyroxine or T3, it's not something that shows up in any blood tests, as for about a year of being in bed my thyroid panels looked great.

[hunny59]

With those results, I'm not surprised you're feeling so awful. What never ceases to amaze me is when the labs clearly state on the result "abnormal - contact patient" yet the surgery still says all is fine, other than a "slightly low" B12.

To add to the other replies, the anaemia from low ferritin result in lower than normal levels in the MCV and MCHC and therefore tend to cancel out the usual markers for B12 deficiency/pernicious anaemia (which are high MCV and MCHC).

[keb5332 in reply to hunny59]

I am shattered all the time. Absolutely no energy. I work 35 hours a week over 4 days and hang out for my 3 day weekend

[shaws Administrator]

The others comments are correct in that your Vit B12 etc are so very low and it has been found that we can get neurological damage with lack of B12 which may be irreparable. It's a disgrace that you have to go online to find out how wrong doctors can be in ignoring the importance of Vit B12/Vit D (both pro-hormones) and if low can give us clinical symptoms.

Definitely ask for an intrinsic test re Pernicious Anaemia. It is important. Get Vit D increased.

We have to read in order to get ourselves as well as possible and it might be that we have tell the GP what we require. They might not do so due to guidelines.

My personal opinion is that if someone has had TT they should be offered some T3 to their T4. I have a gland but only got better on T3 only.

hormonerestoration.com/Thyr...

[keb5332 in reply to shaws]

Thank you for comments. I've been back to the hospital and they refused t3 as no new patients are being allowed on it. Apparently that's the local health authorities ruling. I feel like I'm Banging my head against a brick wall and all the time my health is suffering as well as my way of life.

[shaws Administrator in reply to keb5332]

You have only one option and that is to source some T3 privately (ask for a private message to be sent to you if you put up a new post).

The British Thyroid Association has always been against T3 (it's well seen that they have never had a dysfunction of their gland (or maybe they have and brain isn't working as it should - i.e. what makes patients well).

Now that the NHS is being charge about a £1,000 a month (I believe) for T3 that's good enough to ban it.

The way I look at it, when we are trying desperately to feel better it's like a jigsaw puzzle, just one or two pieces might fit the bill and we are denied the pieces.

You can tell the GP what you are doing when you go for your next appointment/blood test but the test will not relate to taking levo alone as that's why tests were introduced. T3 only will give completely different results to T4.