Anyone else have the feeling of a large lump in throat after medication being lowered ? I have been diagnosed hypothyroidism for over 18 years and still the levels of my medication go up and down, when I am on 200 mcg? I feel normal, act normal and nothing hurts, then I have bloods and its 'oh no! your dose is too high! are you taking more so that you lose weight!!!!' F***k off am I! then bloods again after 12 weeks and its 'oh no! your dose is too low! lets put you back up again, anyway, this time round, I have the feeling of a lump inside my throat (if that makes sense) Nothing showing on the outside, just a feeling that something is stuck or pressing on my pipes inside, any advise before I ring the doctor and get some ball S**t told to me ??
no faith in the UK gp's any longer, they have nothing useful to offer and are blinded by blood results and not how someone is actually feeling!
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largerCindy
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Hi Cindy, welcome to the forum. Your story is, unfortunately, all to familiar.
So that we can say something constructive, we need to see your test results, so can you please post them, along with their reference ranges. If you don't already have them, pop along to the surgery and ask for a print out, we are legally entitled to them here in the UK and they can't charge for them. Don't accept verbal or hand written results, mistakes can sometimes be made.
For a full picture, ideally we need to see
TSH
FT4
FT3
Thyroid antibodies
and because nutrient levels need to be optimal for thyroid hormone to work properly:
Vit D
B12
Folate
Ferritin
Post the results when you have them and we can try and help.
ok, so I have just had my results back (after a fight with the GP to retest me) they are as follows....
T3 - 3.7
THS - 1.74
T4 - 17.9
Calcium - 2.44
something about Bone A/C 79 ul?
Albumin? 41
this is all they tested, they wont test Vit D for another 4 months as I had this done and was 14 back in January.
GP confirmed all results on this occasion are in the normal range? what do you think?
I still feel really poorly, still have a lump in my throat and really struggling this week with exhaustion, I believe my Hashi's isn't playing ball but i dont really understand the difference in symptoms between hashi's and Hypo as everywhere states they are the same thing.
I am sick of being sick so any advice or guidance will be gratefully received
So you know already that you have raised Thyroid antibodies and are diagnosed as having Hashimoto's?
You need coeliac blood test, just to rule it out before trying strictly gluten free diet
According to Izabella Wentz the Thyroid Pharmacist approx 5% with Hashimoto's are coeliac, but over 80% find gluten free diet helps, sometimes significantly. Either due to direct gluten intolerance (no test available) or due to leaky gut and gluten causing molecular mimicry (see Amy Myers link)
Changing to a strictly gluten free diet may help reduce symptoms, help gut heal and slowly lower TPO antibodies
As SlowDragon says, we need reference ranges to be able to interpret your results, they vary from lab to lab.
Vit D was 14 in January. Is the unit of measurement nmol/L, it usually is in the UK. This is severely deficient. Were you given loading doses of D3, totalling 300,000iu over a few months? Were you then put on a lower dose?
Sound Like you have autoimmune thyroid disease also called Hashimoto's diagnosed by high thyroid antibodies
The current over reliance on TSH test is completely inadequate.
On Levothyroxine for full Thyroid evaluation you need TSH, FT4 and FT3 plus both TPO and TG thyroid antibodies tested. Also extremely important to test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12
Low vitamin levels are extremely common, especially if Thyroid antibodies are raised
Recommended on here that all thyroid blood tests should ideally be done as early as possible in morning and fasting. Last Levothyroxine dose should be 24 hours prior to test, (taking delayed dose immediately after blood draw). This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip, best not mentioned to GP or phlebotomist)
Is this how you do your tests?
Do you have recent blood test results and ranges you can add?
Ask GP to test vitamins and thyroid antibodies if not been done
Private tests are available. Thousands on here forced to do this as NHS often refuses to test FT3 or antibodies or all vitamins
Medichecks Thyroid plus ultra vitamin or Blue Horizon Thyroid plus eleven are the most popular choice. DIY finger prick test or option to pay extra for private blood draw. Both companies often have special offers, Medichecks usually have offers on Thursdays, Blue Horizon its more random
If antibodies are high this is Hashimoto's, (also known by medics here in UK more commonly as autoimmune thyroid disease).
About 90% of all hypothyroidism in Uk is due to Hashimoto's.
Low vitamins are especially common with Hashimoto's. Food intolerances are very common too, especially gluten. So it's important to get TPO and TG thyroid antibodies tested at least once .
Email Dionne at Thyroid Uk for list of recommended thyroid specialists
tukadmin@thyroiduk.org
Roughly where in the UK are you?
New NHS England Liothyronine guidelines November 2018 clearly state on pages 8 & 12 that TSH should be between 0.4-1.5 when treated with just Levothyroxine
Note that it says test should be in morning BEFORE taking Levothyroxine
Welcome to our forum and you will learn a lot by reading others' posts and responses to questions.
Change your doctor or look after your own health. Adjusting up/down according to your blood test is the worst thing they should do. Once diagnosed and given levothyroxine, the aim is a TSH of 1 or lower with a Free T4 and Free T3 in the upper part of the ranges. NHS wont do the latter two but we have private labs that can do so. You don't need these every time but when you are not improving and have symptoms its well worth a test. GP wont but we have private labs that will do so.
Doctors seem to think that a TSH of 1 or lower means we are taking too much hormones and are trying to 'fit' your TSH into a range of sorts.
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