Hashimotos? Feel like Gp has given up on me!

[Rock_chick1]

Can anyone here give me any advice. Im feeling despair and not sure what to do next. A little about my background. As a child I suffered from eczema, allergies, intolerance's and asthma. I have had flat out stress in my life for prolonged period. I have been very unwell for years and was told I had CFS. 3 years ago I had some thyroid tests which showed up a problem with hypothyroidism with positive thyroid antibodies. My Dr says she was a bit reluctant to start me on Levothyroxine because of my already fast heart rate. She did however after suggest I take a very low dose and it did make me feel worse although in all fairness maybe I didn't give it long enough. She has done a fair few tests over the past couple of years all of which have come back normal. Thyroid levels also (I have copies). My ferratin has only been from 24-34 in the past ten years and my stomach cant tolerate any forms of iron so I have been taking desiccated liver tablets and it has in 3 months come up to 48 which still isnt great. I do have a good diet and have been on an anti inflammatory diet and and working on healing a leaky gut as I think that maybe Im not absorbing nutrients because of my chronic gastrointestinal problems. My symptoms arent improving. Im chronically fatigued and drowsy, get very breathless on the lightest of exertion, dizzyness, very lightheaded and faint, extremely brain fogged. Im housebound at the best of times and bedbound alot of the time as although my heart goes very fast and the rest of me feels like its shutting down. I think what complicates things is I am going through he meno (on HRT) and also have anxiety, these things alone can have an impact. I now am so depressed as a consequence of my life being trashed. And this happy, bubbly me has turned into an empty shell who after all these years of being positive and pro active with my health cannot see light at the end of the tunnel. My Gp has basically said I dont have a thyroid problem as the last tests have come back normal and she has basically said she has done all the tests she can do. Shall I get some more tests done privately eg. Free T3 and RT3? Opinions would be greatly appreciated.

[NatChap]

So sorry you're feeling so poorly. Don't give up! Do you have copies of your blood test results?

[Rock_chick1 in reply to NatChap]

Thank you Natchap, the ft4 mostly stays around 11.3 to 11.5 pmo/l range is (9.0-24.0) and the most recent TSH level is 3.24 mu/l Range is (0.2-4.5). I would be happy with these results if I was feeling ok of course

[greygoose]

Well, firstly, there's no such thing as 'normal'. In doctor-speak, it just means 'in-range'. But, that's not the same as optimal. So, the first thing you should do is get a print-out of your results, with the ranges, and post them on here.

So, how much levo are you taking? If it's only 25 mcg, then that is likely to make you feel worse rather than better. It's enough to shut down your thyroid's own production, but not enough to replace it. And you're more than likely under-medicated. Anxiety is a symptom of under-medicated hypo.

Whether or not it's necessary to test your FT3 at this point, depends on the level of your FT4 and TSH. It's when the TSH comes down to around 1 that testing FT3 becomes a priority. But, wouldn't bother with rT3. It won't give you any extra information, and is very expensive.

[Rock_chick1 in reply to greygoose]

Thank you greygoose I didnt proceed with the levo as just half a tablet for two or 3 weeks made did worsen my heart symptoms. So I am not medicated. I just thought that maybe because my levels are now normal if it could be that I have a problem converting it. Im lucky that I dont suffer from any sleep problems. My problem is staying awake, I can barely function!

[greygoose in reply to Rock_chick1]

As i said, there's no such thing as 'normal'. What are your levels, exactly?

You cannot tell how well you convert until your TSH is down to about 1, and you have the FT4 and FT3 tested at the same time. Then you can compare them and see how well you convert.

Saying 'half a tablet' tells us nothing, because tablets come in different strengths. Can you say how much that half tablet is in mcg? It probably made your heart symptoms worse because the dose was too low, as I explained. So, really, your experiment with taking levo hasn't been allowed to prove anything either way, because you didn't stay on it long enough.

[humanbean]

my stomach cant tolerate any forms of iron so I have been taking desiccated liver tablets and it has in 3 months come up to 48 which still isnt great.

Actually, that's probably pretty good in terms of making progress. It took me nearly two years to get my ferritin from very low in range up to mid-range. A result of 48 is not likely to be optimal though, so as long as you are testing your ferritin and serum iron every couple of months I would suggest you keep going to get closer to optimal.

Also, a result of 48 is only meaningful if you also know the reference range that applied when the test was done. There is a big difference in having a result which is 10% of the way through the reference range and having a result which is 40% of the way through the range. So having a result of 48 with a reference range of 13 - 150 is not the same as a result of 48 with a reference range of, say, 30 - 400.

Some links you may find helpful :

rt3-adrenals.org/Iron_test_...

medichecks.com/iron-tests/i...

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

It is not a good idea to take any iron-related results i.e. serum iron, ferritin and transferrin saturation, over optimal.

[Cooper27]

One of the complicated things about Hashimotos, is that it gives us symptoms of hypo and hyperthyroid at the same time. Your racing heart is a symptom of the auto-immune disease, and will improve on medication.

Did your doctor start you on 25mcg by any chance? A lot of people feel worse on 25mcg, but start to feel better once dose increases to 50mcg. You could also get on better with a different brand.

Your thyroid numbers fall within normal ranges, but they're crying out for medication. Your TSH should be about 1, and T4 should be in the upper 1/3 of the range.