thyroid lab example from past (Graves)

[JennaShi]

cein this is picture is of a lab result from 11/09/2011. I didn’t test my antibodies until years later. In 2017, my TPOab was over 900 H, TSI ab in 5/28/2018 was 20.50 H. They’re still there, after 2 years of being hypothyroid. Even now, probably still there. I hope you get some answers.

[radd]

JennaShi,

Ouch, poor you. Simultaneous low TSH & FT3 evidences the devastating effects of having both Graves & Hashi . It can be extremely difficult to control as is so poorly understood by conventional medicine. 

Unwanted auto-immune inflammation (including thyroid antibodies) can cause further immune dysfunction, making us vulnerable to other disease/conditions. For instance you will find many people with Hashi/Graves thyroid issues often have RA, PA, Sjogrens, etc.

You have a long list of other disease/conditions in your profile. Have you taken measures to try reducing this inflammation such as adopting an anti-inflammatory diet, ensuring Vit D remains optimal, supplementing fish oils, curcumin or any of the other nautural anti-inflammories?

Also ensuring thyroid hormones are now optimal. Are you medicating and if so what? Have you recent iron and nutrient test results to share as these are essential cofactors in the making and utilisation of thyroid hormones?

If you post any results complete with ranges (numbers in brackets) members will comment.

You might find 'The Root Cause' by Isabella Wentz an interesting read.

[JennaShi in reply to radd]

Hi Radd,

I originally thought the same thing (having Hashi and Graves), but it turns out I only had Graves and it’s common for those with Graves to have High TPO as well :). Yes, I am taking measures to have optimal levels of VD, and other vitamins, as well as staying on top of thyroid levels. I agree how important it is to do so! Unfortunately developed quite a few other autoimmune diseases, including a long-standing but newly diagnosed Autoimmune Urticaria unfortunately such is life and am glad my thyroid burned in 2016. I had gotten the RAI treatment through my first Endo and she gave me extra and I still was Hyper after that (Rai treatment in 2012) for good four more years. She wanted to do the treatment again and I said no. I can post my results for anyone interested, my fav endo geeked out about it and I had no idea at the time how crazy my thyroid was. Thank you, I have read her book as well as another :)! Great books with good insight. I’m just passing along information that I hope and think might be helpful. I wish you well!

[radd in reply to JennaShi]

JennaShi,

It's common for people diagnosed with Graves to have Hashi antibodies, and people diagnosed with Hashi to have Graves antibodies. The dominant condition will be what you are treated for but antibodies wax & wane so its only luck if the most dominant is as such during lab tests.

We have seen many members misdiagnosed, even given the incorrect medication as conventional don't appear to have good understanding of these antibodies and then ignorance still often diagnoses by TSH, with little regard for antibodies if they are even tested.

TPOAb signifies you have Hashi antibodies as well as Graves. Sometimes TSAb (Graves) can be elevated but not presenting as such (ie decreasing TSH or elevated FT4/FT3) due to either a sudden raise in TBAb which overcomes the stimulatory effects of TSAb, or the thyroid gland has been fibrosed or atophied. 

This may happen in a Hashi diagnosis in people with (unknown) TRAb's and is called Ords, and is more common than people think. Its just when TPOAb/TGAb are elevated, TRAb's are not routinely tested. I suspect many members have a combo of unknown antibodies due to a lack of testing.

Sorry to hear about another newly diagnosed condition. Histamine conditions are very common on the forum and if you write a post with your condition as the title it will attract others with experience to respond.

[JennaShi in reply to radd]

Hi radd, thank you for taking the time to respond, I agree as far as common antibodies go and appreciate this group as I have spent alot of time in the past learning and asking questions. In my own personal case, I have Graves and not Hashimoto’s. My labs showed strongly so and I no longer have activity as my thyroid had burned out many years. It is unfortunate that alot of Gps and endos only test for tsh, I agree that testing for everything is important to get an accurate picture of what’s going on. I agree that is also important to find a dr who is more aware of autoimmune thyroid disorders, and that unfortunately mis-diagnosis happens and sometimes it takes along time for people to be diagnosed.

It unfortunately happens,

I’ve got alot to deal with but am thankful my to have one condition more manageable.

Regards,

Jenna

[pennyannie in reply to JennaShi]

Hello there -

If you don't know of Elaine Moore and her Graves Disease Foundation website you might like to dip in : elaine-moore.com - and Elaine covers all aspects of AI thyroid health and related topics.

It is Stateside and there is an open forum much this UK site where you might find better connected people in your time zone, zip code area which maybe of interest to you.

[PurpleNails Administrator]

Was this test year before your RAI treatment?   

What were doctors doing with treatment? 

The FT4 & FT3 were very low - You must have felt very unwell? 

Remaining hyper after treatment & repeating it occurs 10% of the time.  

So your doctors should have prepared you for the possibility. 

Were you treated or living with hyper levels after RAI? 

Hope your levels are correct now?

Most feel well with FT4 in top 3rd of range & FT3 at least mid range. 

 Doctors strive for a healthy looking TSH but after being hyper and intervention of RAI the HPT (hypothalamic pituitary thyroid) axis isn’t going to be functioning normally - is TSH always low? 

(Your ID is on photo you may want to edit)

[JennaShi in reply to PurpleNails]

I went back and looked, this lab was 11/2011, rai was 1/2010. I was told she (my endo) added extra and it still didn’t work. I was hyperthyroid until 2015. Yes, I was pretty unwell for a long time but did my best. Yes all is normal now. Thank you for the tip, are you talking about the bottom part? I just saw that.

[PurpleNails Administrator in reply to JennaShi]

the TSH was low but you were hypothyroid when this test was taken, you should have already been taking hormone replacement before FT3 dropped below range.

Specialist should know better but they are often just focus on TSH.

[JennaShi in reply to PurpleNails]

no, I was still hyper thyroid and no, she was looking at everything. This was a long time ago.

[PurpleNails Administrator in reply to JennaShi]

what are recent TSH, FT4 & FT3. Do you currently take a replacement?

[JennaShi in reply to PurpleNails]

I’m not trying to be rude here, I’m not looking for someone to review my labs or for advice on whether I was hashi or Graves. This was a long time ago and past history and labs dictated straight Graves. I was lucky to have an endo who knew what she was doing and what I had, otherwise 8 would’ve lost my life; I was pretty close to death. This was just to show someone an example of my past hyperthyroidism. Please keep in mind that this is one snapshot of the bigger picture (from comment above).