How to approach my Dr - what has been an effective way?

[Recon]

I have gained some valuable insight about all things thyroid through this site. I am recently diagnosed - In April my blood work showed:

TSH 7.820 ulU/mL (.450-4.500 ulU/mL)

FT4 0.77 ng/dL (0.82-1.77ng/dL)

Thirty days later (with levothyroxine 50 mcg) these were my results:

TSH 2.090 ulU/mL (.450-4.500 ulU/mL)

FT4 1.18 ng/dL (0.82-1.77ng/dL)

I am feeling much better - and yet, when my doctor said "Thyroid was good" - I pushed back just a little - saying something to the effect that my FT4 was below half way in the range (about 38%) he didn't seem impressed.

So - inside this I have two questions - first, I really would like to see what my FT3 and other thyroid related tests may show (antibodies/related vitamins). Given his non-enthusiastic response to my push back on "my thyroid is good" - I wonder how I can approach this. I see him again in about 3 months and perhaps I can arm myself with some good backup. Somehow saying "I read this on the internet" doesn't seem like it will provide me with a good foundation.

My other question is this - I see from posts that it really does take about 6-8 weeks for the medication to be fully integrated into the body. The blood test was taken only 30 days out from when I started the medication. Can I expect that perhaps my FT4 might still rise, and the TSH still lower?

Thanks for your insight!

[tattybogle]

: )

Short answer to the easy question.. yes 30 day's is a bit too soon for TSH, so it is possible TSH might move down further.. it's also possible it will decide 50 isn't enough and go up again. 6- 8weeks would have been better for testing reaction to 50mcg.

The fT4 blood result will already be a true reflection of your dose, that only takes a couple of weeks, but since TSH affects your own thyroid's production of T4 then fT4 could still change too.

in answer to the harder question.. i'd say never use the word internet and particularly not the word Forum. Just educate yourself about the basic facts until you are confident using them and then refer to them without discussing where you learned them from.