Possible Thyroid Issues

[ktheed]

Hi All,

I am new to the forum so this is my first post.

As a child I used to go to Great Ormand Street hospital in London as I was told I had an underactive thyroid and that I am blind in one eye as a nerve didn't connect at the back of my eye. They used to monitor my height, weight, they used a pincher thing that measure fat around my belly area on the side. They also had a range of beads to monitor the size of my testicles. At the time I was offered Levothyroxine for the rest of my life but I remember my mother refusing this as she said something about a drug that pregnant women used to take and it had various side effects, think my mother may have been over cautious.

That was when I was a child.

Now I am 32 and have always felt tired, really cold more than others around me. my legs and feet feel like ice all the time. Sometimes when I have baths I get out the bath and sweat for about an hour after until im cooled down. Even when attending job interviews I tend to get really sweaty with it running down my forehead. I struggle to get to sleep at night aswell, sometimes it can take me 2 hours to fall asleep. I partly blame this due to back pain im suffering with at the moment though.

The doctors say my TSH is within range being 0.5 to 5, mine is 2.59 and that my throid has fixed itself and I do not need Levothyroxine. I am due for another blood test tomorrow. I did notice out of all the result one red figure and that was Cerotone at 8.9, doctor said that just may mean I been a bit unwell.

I feel there is more to this as my dad dies at 39 of Ischaemic Heart disease and coronary atherosclerosis and his dad (my grandad) died of myocardial ischaemia and coronary atheroma (unsure of his age). I have read that Grave's Disease can cause heart issues.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

Any help or suggestions would very much be appreciated as this is a worry on my mind. I have had a recent heart CT and they said my calcium score is 0.

[ktheed]

My C Reactive protein was 8.9 and I;ve also read that elevated levels of this can lead to issues with the heart aswell: emedicinehealth.com/c_react...

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

With a TSH of 2.59 this means your thyroid is beginning to struggle. You really need FT4 and FT3 testing as well, also thyroid antibodies plus Vit D, B12, Folate and Ferritin.

If your GP won't do them then you can do a home fingerprick blood test with Medichecks or Blue Horizon

medichecks.com/thyroid-func...

bluehorizonmedicals.co.uk/t...

Post the results, with the reference ranges, when you have them and members will help.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Cerotone - do you mean C Reactive Protein? That is an inflammation marker so you may have an infection or some inflammation somewhere.

[ktheed in reply to SeasideSusie]

Yes Suzie, sorry its all a bit confusing, it was C Reactive Protein

[ktheed in reply to ktheed]

Could it be raised due to this dull aching at the bottom of my back, would that cause that ?

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to ktheed]

The CRP test just indicates inflammation or infection somewhere, it is not specific so your GP should do further investigation into what could be causing it. I don't know if your backache is the cause.

[humanbean]

I have read that Grave's Disease can cause heart issues.

Yes, it may well do. But Graves' Disease shows up with very, very low TSH. Yours is currently higher than that of a healthy person with no known thyroid disease, so the chances of you having Graves' Disease currently appears to be very low.

Graves' Disease causes hyperthyroidism (there is more than one cause for hyperthyroidism, by the way). Hyperthyroidism shows up in blood tests with very low TSH, very high Free T4 and very high Free t3.

Please note that hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) can also cause heart problems. It shows up in blood tests with high TSH, low Free T4 and low Free T3.

A calcium score of 0 is absolutely perfect. It means you don't have deposits of calcium lining your arteries.

With a TSH of 2.59 your thyroid is starting to struggle and you may well end up hypothyroid.

It really depends on what the cause of your struggling thyroid is, whether or not your thyroid problems will progress.

If you have positive antibodies then your thyroid will deteriorate over time, your TSH will rise and eventually (one hopes) you will be treated for hypothyroidism.

[ktheed]

I have just been to the doctors and he asked to keep the first sheet of this i printed out and has referred me to an endocrinologist. He also said to ignore the advice SeasideSusie

gave me as he thinks Free T4 and Free T3 is going to be done but he said antibodies are to do with over active thyroids.

When he said to ignore SeasideSusie

i did feel a bit disappointed as surely you all know what your talking about.

[silverfox7]

Well 90% have antibodies but a huge amount are hypo and fewer hyper so that's definitely wrong!