Success & frustration & thanks

[Portia1974]

Following on from yesterday's post here:

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

This morning I was successful in securing, from my GP, an increase in my Levo from 100 to 125mcg and a commitment that we will increase further if necessary to achieve an FT3 that is at (or near) the top of the range EVEN if TSH becomes suppressed and FT4 tips above range. (Thanks in particular to @greygoose @SlowDragon @diogenes and @gingernut44 )

I also managed to get a blood draw for my medichecks kit. Bonus.

This is great. Happy. And actually it was accepted without any argument that there was a good deal more wiggle room for improvement in my numbers. Fab.

But here is where my frustration comes in . I left happy having achieved the two things I went in wanting to achieve. I'm beyond grateful t have a GP that will listen to me at least. But also thinking, hang on a minute...that was too easy.....I've been coming in for the last year fatigued and struggling. Describing myself as "crawling my way through the day". If it's so clear that there was room to increase and absolutely no argument against doing so, why the dickens has it not been offered or advised or raised by a doctor at any of the many points in the last year when I crawled in asking why I was still so exhausted? Why was it me who had to buy the test, do the research and come to them and say "look I think this might help me"? Isn't that the job of the GP? Pffft! No point dwelling on that but it is frustrating.

Also, thanks to advice on here, a key realisation was understanding that my FT4 had never been more than 36% into range and should have been 70% into range as a minimum and the highest my FT3 had been was only 22% into range and should have been 50% as a minimum. Or to put it another way FT4 at least in top third of range and FT3 at least half way in range

. This is the calculator that was shared with me by @SlowDragon and enabled me to calculate this on all previous results too and is a really useful tool:

chorobytarczycy.eu/kalkulator

So yeah....thanks again Thyroid UK. You helped me get diagnosed a year ago and are helping me manage my treatment a year. Thank goodness for you because without you we'd be completely adrift.

[greygoose]

Glad to hear you got such a good result. Long may it continue!

[Buddy195 Administrator]

Hi Portia, I totally agree with you about excellent advice on this forum. I saw an ophthalmologist today re my TED and he said he has learned so much from his wife having Hashimotos. He lamented how little GPs know and that simply saying bloods are ‘within range’ is no help to patients who know their health is suffering. He agrees that my current bloods are far from optimal and I need to increase to get T4 in the top third and T3 at least half way. Like you, I’ve got some way to go to reach this.

[Portia1974 in reply to Buddy195]

Your ophthalmologist needs to be your Endo lol! I'm always gobsmacked then outraged at this "that'll do. It's in range " approach. It's just not good enough

And it's not just thyroid. It seems to permeate everything.