Follow up post to Waking at 2am with test results

[JenniferW]

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

I wrote a post over the bank holiday asking for help with my inability to sleep which included shaking.

I received lots of good advice and spoke to my GP who was happy to ask for the tests recommended by SlowDragon

There has been a delay getting the tests due to a shortage of nurses but I had the tests on Monday at 8.45am as recommended, no levo before hand, only drank water. The results are back and are as follows:

CRP<4 mg/L 0 - 6 mg/L

Ferritin50.2 ug/L 10.0 - 291.0 ug/L

25OH Vitamin D (Total)118.7 nmol/l nmol/l

Vitamin B12539.0 ng/L 211.0 - 911.0 ng/L

Folate>24.00 ug/L >=5.38 ug/L

Serum Sodium135 mmol/L 133 - 146 mmol/L

Serum Potassium4.2 mmol/L 3.5 - 5.3 mmol/L

Serum Creatinine55 umol/L 44 - 97 umol/L

Estimated GFR>=90 mL/min/1.73m*2 mL/min/1.73m*2

Cortisol588 nmol/L - nmol/L

Narrative for cortisol

A 09:00 am cortisol of >374nmol/L excludes adrenal insufficiency providing the patient has not had recent exposure to exogenous oral steroid or oral oestrogen (OCP, HRT).

Thyroid results:

TSH2.26 mU/L 0.35 - 5.50 mU/L

Free T414.3 pmol/L 10.5 - 21.0 pmol/L

So it looks like I need to up my levothyroxine (currently on 50mcg a day)

Vits D and B12 okay

Sodium low as ever, despite me drinking the adrenal cocktail and eating lots of salt.

Iron low despite taking supplements, in

Cortisol okay in so far as it goes? The doc did warn me that it was limited in it's value.

I think the methotrexate I take for Rheumatoid arthritis is causing the low sodium levels although it might be also be me, I had this problem with shaking and not sleeping for three motnhs in my twenties but we thought it was general unwellness as I was suffering from severe anxiety and some anti-anxiety pills helped me get back to normal. I wish I had known about salt then

Any comments very welcome

[Imaaan]

Hi ,

I struggle with sleep when my ferratin dips to the midway point or below.

Ferratin 50.2 ug/L 10.0 - 291.0 ug/L

[JenniferW in reply to Imaaan]

Thanks, that's useful to know

[Imaaan in reply to JenniferW]

No prob. Your b12 has room to improve as well. Your free t3 levels are missing and usually that's the hormone many ppl are low in

[mistydog]

You are low in a few things, just because you are in range doesn't mean optimal. As indicated by Imaaan they need addressing Imaaan

[JenniferW in reply to mistydog]

The difficulty is on knowing which are caused by the underactive thyroid and which have other reasons. I am a bit concerned by the B12, because last time I had this checked a couple of years ago I was slightly over the top of the range.

[Batty1]

I read some place that low sodium could be a sign of hypothyroidism but for the life of me can’t recall the article.

[JenniferW in reply to Batty1]

I've just found that mentioned on a health website, I had no idea.

[Batty1 in reply to JenniferW]

Me either … interesting but doctors don’t ever mention it.

[JenniferW in reply to Batty1]

You just get given the pills and told this will fix it, come back for tests.

[Batty1 in reply to JenniferW]

Sadly

[JenniferW]

I spoke to the doctor this afternoon and she's increased my thyroid dose a bit, so fingers crossed. She said they don't try to squash down the TSH to 1 any more, they go off symptoms.

She was most concerned about my croaky voice which I had put down to my thyroid but which she was more inclined to blame on Fostair, my current brand of asthma inhaler....

So that's another thing to keep an eye on.

I told her about the adrenal cocktail helping a lot with my sleep problems and she said that was really interesting and that as long as my blood pressure didn't go high she was fine with me eating as much salt as I needed.

She didn't mention the iron, and I forgot to ask, but as that can be affected by thyroid levels I won't worry about it for now.

Thanks for everyone's help and advice on this and the original thread, it's been much appreciated.