Chest tightness

[Bathsheba61]

Feeling rubbish on 50mg levo 3 months post hemithyroidectomy. GP suggests chest tightness could be due to being hyper. All symptoms same as before but feeling worse. Work doctor suggests the residual thyroid tissue could be producing to make me hyper and it would be better to remove by more surgery or blast it with radioactive iodine then treat with T4. Any one out there with similar experience. Waiting on 3rd set of results in 3 months. So much for close monitoring. GP also dismissed any chance of T3 and only interested in TSH level being between 2 and 3. Chest tightness is in hypo symptom list. GP not listening.

[humanbean]

Work doctor suggests the residual thyroid tissue could be producing to make me hyper and it would be better to remove by more surgery or blast it with radioactive iodine then treat with T4.

What an idiotic thing to say. Surely such subjects should be left until you've had blood tests showing that you are over-medicated (if you are, which I doubt).

GP also dismissed any chance of T3 and only interested in TSH level being between 2 and 3.

I wonder why your GP wants your TSH to be higher than that of healthy people? Let me guess. He thinks middle of the reference range is the ideal level. But the distribution of TSH in the healthy population is highly skewed.

Take a look at this graph, print it out and give a copy to your GP :

web.archive.org/web/2004060...

Notice in that graph that the Mode (most common value) is at TSH = 1.25 i.e. miles away from a TSH of 2 to 3.

The data for the graph came from this research paper :

eje-online.org/content/143/...

The most important part of that paper, as far as I'm concerned, is the right hand half of table 3. It shows, for example, that healthy women with no TPO Antibodies who are 40 or under have a median TSH of 1.30. Healthy women with no TPO Antibodies who are over 80 have a median TSH of 1.70.

People who have thyroid problems should not be forced to live with less thyroid hormone and a higher TSH than healthy people!

[humanbean]

Your chest tightness could be due to various different things.

1) Too little thyroid hormone, particularly T3.

2) Too little iron and/or ferritin.

3) Other nutrients being too low.

4) A remote possibility with a dose of only 50mcg Levo - too much thyroid hormone.

[Bathsheba61]

Thanks, very worried about my heart. GP didn't even listen to it or take BP.

[silverfox7]

Negligent comes to mind! No BP readings etc. he has made up his mind he is right but with no evidence. Please get your bloods done and post then and any others since your op so we can see what is happening. Don't forget the ranges as well as they differ from lab to lab. I do t know how long it takes things to settle after surgery and I expect we could all be different but I think you need advice from someone who has been in your position and can then comment on your present situation. It's not good thatcyou aren't feeling any better and he's not trying to find out why. We could all guess but like him it wouldn't be helpful!

[HLAB35]

If there are no other GPs at your surgery (i.e. you can't get a second opinion which you are entitled to) then you could get an out-of-hours appointment at your local hospital complaining of chest pains .. at least they'd probably check your BP and heart rate. Chest pains are serious and shouldn't be ignored. My mum's friend somehow made it to an A&E and got X-rayed - her lung was swimming in fluid from a heart condition; so much for the GP who thought it was anxiety.

[Bathsheba61]

Also lost a parathyroid gland and one retransplanted. Only had calcium levels checked once post surgery. Could I develop hypocalcaemia this far on (3 months). Have pins and needles which I thought were hypothyroidism. Could explain chest pains and breathlessness. Doctor phoning tomorrow.maybe. Nearly a week to get results back. They were ready day after blood draw. Sure no chance of calcium being there.