Hello, haven't been on here for a while. I was wandering if anyone could help me understand my blood results. These were last taken in November just a week before I was admitted to hospital with suspected stroke. Thankfully i hadent had a stroke it was a bilateral occipital throbbing pain then followed by face and arm dropped and blood pressure at 145/90.
Blood results below for that November
Thanks
What dose of Levo were you on at the time?
Your TSH was too high for a treated hypo patient. The aim of a treated hypo patient generally is for TSH to be 1 or below or wherever it needs to be for FT4 and FT3 to be in the upper part of their respective reference ranges when on Levo.
Hello SeasideSusie, I was on 25mg levothyroxine before admitted then put on 50mg in the hospital when admitted and still on 50mg now. I haven't had a blood test since then and now I'm beginning to feel unwell again most days of the week with only about 2 to 3 days I feel alright. Symptoms arms throbbing neck throbbing and around my collarbone and down my left leg.
OK, so you were undermedicated by a long way on 25mcg (not mg 
) at the time.
As your dose was increased to 50mcg you should have been retested 6-8 weeks later to check your levels and another increase if necessary. Assuming your GP was informed about the dose increase, he should have retested your levels. Normal protocol when starting Levo (or a dose change) is retest after 6-8 weeks, then adjust dose if necessary and retest after another 6-8 weeks, repeat until levels are where they need to be for you to feel well, following the general advice about TSH needing to be 1 or below and FT4/FT3 in the upper part of range if that is where you feel best.
You need to retest now, following the protocol for increasing/retesting as outlined. I would also ask for vitamins and minerals to be tested if not done already:
Vit D
B12
Folate
Ferritin
All important and need to be optimal for thyroid hormone to work.
Thank you very much SeasideSusie I will call tommorow for an appointment. 😊
You can explain to your GP that you have taken advice from NHS Choices recommended source of information for thyroid disorders (which is ThyroidUK). Don't mention the internet or forums, they don't like it, but will find it difficult to not accept NHS Choices recommendation.
Hello SeasideSusie, I have now had the blood result back and I'm not sure what they mean and they say TSH normal so I take it thaks ok?. I can't get an appointment with the doctor until the 18th of this month. On the results they say normal but I still feel so shatterd and the still have the numbness and then throbbing from time to time in the arms and legs and neck. Fed up now starting to feel low but I'm still giving myself a good talking too to get up and push through it but my body says no and I just want to sleep after only being up for 2 hours now. Just managed to change the old photo of the blood result and ad the new photo of the latest blood results in the first post on this above.
they say TSH normal so I take it thaks ok
No. Normal doesn't mean anything other than the result is somewhere within the range. As I mentioned in my previous reply, the aim of a treated hypo patient is for TSH to be 1 or below with FT4 and FT3 in the upper part of their ranges if that is where you feel well.
Saying "normal" doesn't tell you where you lie within the range. So you need the number and the range. Your new picture shows
TSH: 4.01 (0.35-5.5)
So now you know that your TSH is far too high and is causing your symptoms. You need an increase in Levo to bring that down to around 1 by following the retesting/increasing dose protocol outlined above.
It would also be useful if you could get FT4 done and, by some miracle, FT3.
Hello again SeasideSusie
Had my appointment with the doctor yesterday and told her how I was feeling the symptoms I have she said that I'm in the normal range and wouldn't give me an increase. I explained that I'm always shatterd and the throbbing pain in my arms and collarbone and numbness in legs, pain underneath my left breast my pulse at resting is 118 bpm and as I was telling her this I started to get tearfully and just started crying. She then said she cant give me an increase and said that it seems I'm depressed to which I replied well yes wouldn't you be if you had all these symptom as they do get me down. She's prescribed amitriptyline 10mg. I only get down when I'm feeling these symptoms. I'm now thinking of going private and finding a doctor that specialises in the thyroid, do you know of a good doctor that does this private please ? Thank you for your help really appreciate it.
Are you going to ake the amitriptyline?
Dd you show your GP the information that SlowDragon linked to?
I'm now thinking of going private and finding a doctor that specialises in the thyroid, do you know of a good doctor that does this private please ?
I'm not sure there are any private doctors now outside of the NHS who specialises in thyroid. Dr Peatfield does but, of course, he can't prescribe and he's been unwell recently and I'm not sure if he is seeing patients again or if he is going to retire.
If you are thinking of a private endo, they will also be NHS endos so you will have to choose carefully as most of them are diabetes specialists and no very little about thyroid.
Email Dionne at tukadmin@thyroiduk.org for a list of thyroid friendly endos. See who you can travel to and then ask on the forum for feedback (which will have to be by private message).
I would suggest you get full testing done before seeing anyone privately, it will be much cheaper for you. You will need
TSH
FT4
FT3
TPO antibodies
TG antibodies
Vit D
B12
Folate
Ferritin
Or recommended labs do all these tests as a bundle at a very reasonable price, fingerprick or venous blood draw at extra cost.
Best value until the end of this month (£20 off) is Medichecks Thyroid Check Ultravit
medichecks.com/thyroid-func...
Same test with Blue Horizon is Thyroid Check Plus Eleven
bluehorizonmedicals.co.uk/t...
Thank you for replying, not sure whether to take it she said it not just an antidepressant it relaxes the neverves or something to that effect which will stop the pain. Yes I told her that ide been on the thyroid .uk and mentioned what slow Dragon suggested and she replied it's a complicated issue and that she didn't know enough about it and wouldn't give me the increase and that she would refer me to the doctor that I'm registered under at the clinic instead of seeing all different doctors at the clinic. Thank you again for the information I will get in contact with them to get the blood test done
NICE guidelines saying how to initiate and increase. Note that most patients eventually need somewhere between 100mcg and 200mcg Levothyroxine
cks.nice.org.uk/hypothyroid...
Official NHS guidelines saying TSH should be between 0.2 and 2.0 when on Levothyroxine
(Many of us need TSH nearer 0.2 than 2.0 to feel well)
See box
Thyroxine replacement in primary hypothyroidism
UNDER-ACTIVE THYROID?
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