Last night's episode had a somewhat strange storyline. A boy, about 14, I think, and a little overweight, was brought in with bleeding head. However he continued to complain about abdominal pain and the soundtrack had lots of gut noises!
Accused of taking "drugs", which he denied, eventually mother admitted giving him "her" levothyroxine in order to make/help him lose weight. Done surreptitiously in (if I remember right) smoothies.
How come she had sufficient levothyroxine?
Why did they say he would have to taper off levothyroxine?
Has anyone ever heard of a mother accused of giving her son levothyroxine for weight loss? Wouldn't you want your offspring to be properly diagnosed and not just secretly dosed? How realistic is this as a storyline?
I thought it was a very strange storyline too Helvella. If they'd said she gave him Liothyronine for weight loss I could have understood it, but of course they're not going to mention that rather hot potato!
I have enough Levo spare to be able to do what she did as I take less than my prescribed dose but I still collect what's on my prescription as a bit of insurance if they ever decide to reduce my dose due to my suppressed TSH.
I think a lot of their storylines are unrealistic. When I went to A&E in an ambulance last year, I asked the lovely paramedics how true to life Casualty is, they laughed and said "not much like real life at all".
We know! There's something seriously wrong with the NHS and the treatment of thyroid disease, and the people in charge of sourcing medicines when a box of 30 tablets costs 2 euros elsewhere but in the UK costs about £250.
He was gurgling because she had him on a smoothie diet to loose weight for her wedding, as was a slightly large. She wanted him smaller for the wedding...he stated that.
Then later discovered she had been putting thyroid meds in them, as when she had started on them she had lost weight. She thought it would loose him weight quicker that way.
Also, if your levels of T4 are okay and your thyroid is functioning properly , I would’ve thought taking someone else’s Levo would just reduce your TSH and therefore your own thyroid would slow down production. So you wouldn’t gain anything - or lose anything in this case! 🤸🏿♀️
Probably it would give others who're not hypo an idea if they wanted to lose weight - easily - as I think they'd believe - as do quite a number of people - that thyroid hormones are weight reducers..
It does make me mad that people seem to think thyroid disease is all about weight gain and that levothyroxine helps people lose weight. If overdosed, I feel ill but don't lose weight, if underdosed I lose weight for feeling ill but I couldn't go on and it's too miserable, I certainly wouldn't drop my dose to lose weight, it makes me far too gloomy.
I have heard of a parent being accused of dosing their child and social services took the child away...however, the child was under a German Endocrinologist and being medically treated, not by the NHS. Perhaps better public information can dispel myths?
I sometimes think that’s why thyroid patients have so much trouble being properly medicated, someone, somewhere at some time in the past has convinced GPs and consultants that ‘fat’ people just want to take thyroid hormones to get slim, as a lot of us know weight gain is a symptom of being hypothyroid and weight loss can be a symptom of being hyperthyroid and now that that seed has been planted doctors have it in the back of their mind and see it as their ‘duty’ to protect us from ourselves.
Our cause definitely won’t be helped by a programme showing this stupid mother giving her son thyroid hormones to lose weight!
Just one more thing to deal with in the struggle to be adequately treated ☹️
Is it possible to write to the Scriptwriter to ask why such an idiotic scene was written into the episode ? Where did they get their information from ? Surely they should have some sense of responsibility ...
I believe Carol Carpenter (The Carpenters) took large doses of thyroxine in a bid to stay slim without being diagnosed with a thyroid problem. She was anorexic with a troubled mind and mistakenly believed it would keep her weight down. It proved to be fatal. Such a sad belief and a great loss of a beautiful singer.
The good thing about the Casualty program though was the message NOT to give drugs to children if they are not prescribed for them.
So Thyroid disease finally gets some exposure in a soap storyline and this is the storyline they come up with!! Disappointed and offended to be quite honest.
Thank you for sending me these, can't believe Holby said that man would be better in a few weeks on Thyroxine!
I wish someone would write a script where a thyroid patient has to source their own hormone replacement and suffers financial issues as a result, that would be more accurate unfortunately
Every now and again I get so incensed by something I hear or see on the BBC and go online and complain.
In my case it is always a waste of time because I get a reply - you can say you want a reply - justifying and backing up what the person has said.
First time I did it, it was something absolutely monsterous that Jeremy Vine had said - I don’t listen to him, Radio 2 happened to be on the car radio and I hadn’t changed the station - boy did they ‘big’ him up. I responded to their defence of him a couple of times then got fed up and said we would have to agree to differ with our opinions of him. I’m sure I’ve got a personal file labelled Anti-BBC Troublemaker.
So go for it Marz and tell us how they justify their mistakes - your complaint will be discussed with someone like the producer or their medical advisor and you will get a response. Might not (probably won’t ) be a response that will keep you happy.
I watched the Holby episode too. Great that awareness is being raised about a very common disease but I too laughed at the 'you'll be better in a few weeks ' 🤣🤣🤣. What kind of levothyroxine was the pretend patient given cause I want some!!??
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