Blood tests

[ninja1]

At the beginning of February I was feeling anxious after being poorly with seasonal bugs I had a total thyroidectomy 22 years ago due to multinodular goitre no cancer and have been stable on levothyroxine 100 I had some private bloods done as follows

Tsh. LOw 0.19. 0.27-4.20

T4 total. 135.2. 64..5 -142.0

Free t4. High. 30.31 12-22

Freet3 5.18 3.1-6.8

Gp reduced my dose to 50 as he said I was overmedicated and have bloods repeated 3 months later

I started to improve approx 3 weeks later as level had dropped a bit

Approx ten days later I felt things were too low so I repeated private bloods as follow

Tsh High 11.24 0.27 -4.20

Free t4 13.79 12-22

Free t3 Low 2.88 3.1 -6.8

Gp says don't increase meds but he isn't very good with thyroid issues I have no gland and I feel my medication has been reduced too much but he says recheck in 3 months I feel so hypo at the moment can anyone advise

[shaws Administrator]

When you had the private blood tests were they at the earliest possible time and did you allow a gap of 24 hours between your last dose of thyroid hormones and the test?

[ninja1 in reply to shaws]

Yes I had them done same time as previous ones and no meds for 24 hrs

[ninja1 in reply to ninja1]

I feel hypo I think they reduced them too much

[shaws Administrator]

You are right - you need an increase in your dose. TSH is too high, the aim is around 1. FT4 and FT3 should be towards the top of the range.

[ninja1]

Do you think maybe extra 25 for a couple of weeks would help then I can get private tests again as he won't do them till end April

[ninja1 in reply to ninja1]

My. Go says t4 in. Range and t3 and tsh not important. Well t4 is just in range . There knowledge is poor and worrying when they are in charge of your health

[Sweetart]

I have had total thyroidectomy,my drs know how much I hate depending on them for uping and lowering my levo.

What I would do in your shoes and this is just advice is... if you have some spare levo then up your dosage again until you feel better go to your next drs blood test and tell the nurse you were on 100,Dr reduced this to 50 you felt terrably low and( you have a blood test to show the dr) ,and that you have upped your dosage by 25 to 75 my nurse always takes notes,so when you see the dr again he knows what you have done.

[ninja1 in reply to Sweetart]

I showed him my blood test and he said TSH and Free T3 dont count it is T4 that counts, and I cant have bloods till end of April, I ve just paid for the ones i have had. Im sure his understanding of the ts is wrong. What use is t4 if there isnt enough of it to convert to t3. At the end of the day i havent got a gland

[Sweetart]

**100 -50 what was he thinking that's like pushing someone off a cliff

[ninja1 in reply to Sweetart]

Yes I think i will up to 75 for a couple of weeks then get some bloods ive never felt so ill in my life. My blood pressure is spiking, might go to a and e if this continues as no doctors appointments available until next Friday

[Sweetart in reply to ninja1]

Our A and E has an out of hours drs ☺

[ninja1 in reply to Sweetart]

yes our does do you think i should go

[greygoose]

Well, you can increase and decrease your levo as much as you like, but that is never going to get to the root of the problem, which is : bad conversion. In order to get enough T3 to make you feel well, you need to have your FT4 grossly over range - which entails its own set of problems. What you need is some T3 added to you levo.

[ninja1 in reply to greygoose]

I was converting ok when FT4 was high but was having panic attacks, when it reduced slightly i felt normal again but then it went too low but he insists its ok with low t3 and high tsh and i just do understand i think his comprehension is wrong

[greygoose in reply to ninja1]

I'm pretty certain it's wrong! He has no idea what he's doing.

But, no, your conversion wasn't good when your FT4 was high, that's the whole point I'm making. You had to have your FT4 well over range to get a decent level of T3, and that's not good. In someone that converts well, the FT3 is always higher than the FT4 in their respective ranges. Yours is always the opposite, you FT4 is always the highest.

And, it's not good to have all that unconverted T4 sloshing around in your blood, because that can lead to excess rT3. And you don't want that.

[ninja1 in reply to greygoose]

Thank you for that information, i think i will go private to the spire and take my blood tests with me

[greygoose in reply to ninja1]

You're welcome. And good luck.

[Sweetart]

I have just got a referral to an endo it took 10 years of complaining it's only this sites community and information and( Dr Michael mosley😚 trust me I'm a dr program) that made go my drs armed with the info and not leave until I was listened to.