Is this a hypo symptom?

[Andie222]

Hello

I have had a symptom for 3 years now and wondering whether it is a hypo symptom.

It is a random pain in the centre of my body (bra strap level) and I feel pain at the front and a terrible achiness in my back (kidney area), which stops me working. In fact I can’t do much. It usually starts mid morning and disappears overnight. I find a hot water bottle helps a little, but nothing else works.  

When I first started getting it I consulted my GP. She told me it was probably heart burn and prescribed omeprazole. I took it for 4 weeks and didn’t have any attacks, but as I sometimes go that long anyway, it didn’t tell me much. Thanks to this website, I then learnt that I probably had low stomach acid, so switched to apple cider vinegar. The number of attacks reduced to about 6 in the year but didn’t go away.  Recently it seems to have increased. I’ve had 4 days so far this year.

Does anyone else experience anything like this? Any suggestions welcome!

[Jaydee1507 Administrator]

Being hypo has so many symptoms it would be worth checking out your thyroid levels, also those of your key vitamins. We need OPTIMAL key vitamins for our thyroid hormone to work well.

What are your latest thyroid blood results?

What are your latest levels of ferritin, folate, B12 & D3? Your GP may do these for you but sometimes we have to buy private tests. See link for private companies and discount codes.

thyroiduk.org/help-and-supp...

[Andie222 in reply to Jaydee1507]

Hello Jaydee thanks for your message. My recent thyroid bloods were pretty good I think.

TSH 0.01 (2.7-4.28

FT4 18.7 (12-22)

FT3 6.1 (3.1-6.8)

I vitamin d tested (87) and am still taking 3000/day to increase this further. Ferritin last summer was 85 (13-150). I take a B vit daily so B12 is probably ok although I haven’t had it tested recently. Not sure about folate.

[Tlflom in reply to Andie222]

Your TSH says your thyroid is in overdrive. Your other levels say normal. You need aa good endocrinologist who specializes in thyroid.

The area of pain you mentioned can be referred from gall bladder or liver issue depending on the exact point of pain.

[tattybogle in reply to Tlflom]

Tiflom, Andie222 takes levo and T3, so in this case, (and especially with such a low TSH), the thyroid itself is not in overdrive ..the thyroid is now contributing 'nothing much' to the levels of T4/T3 ( it is effectively on holiday) .. the thyroid hormones are now coming from the Levo and T3 dose.

Andie ... a few yrs ago i became overmedicated on a dose that had been ok for years.. (after menopause it seems i just needed a bit less) .. it was not immediately obvious that it was overmedication .eg, my heart rate hadn't noticeably increased. but the main problem i originally went to the GP about was a really nasty pain in the kidney area that had been getting worse over several months (plus a very tense feeling in the bladder and some urinary incontinence.. they originally thought urinary infection / or kidney stones , but none found .. anyway due to some weight loss ,and the fact that i was also having more frequent bowel movements , and was very jumpy , and finding a fine tremor in my fingers we tried a reduced dose of Levo ( had been on 150 , went down to 125mcg) .. within a few weeks the pain had faded away ,, and has stayed gone.

My Blood results at the time were not much different to my 'usual' on 150mcg (usual TSH 0.05 had fallen to 0.018, the fT4 was a little over range , but it had been more over range than that before ,and since , with no problem) so by themselves my bloods didn't scream 'overmedication' either ...but with hindsight , it definitely was.

So perhaps it might be worth trying an experiment of a slight dose reduction (of either T4 or T3) to see if this pain fades away .

[Andie222 in reply to tattybogle]

thanks tattybogle that is very interesting. I would take some convincing that I’m overmedicated and I was experiencing this pain before I was started taking T3 and my TSH was much higher. But I will keep an open mind on that. I have booked a GP appointment (albeit for some time in the future!) to see if they will investigate. What I can’t get my head around is the fact it is intermittent.

Glad you managed to get rid of the pain and hope it stays away.

[tattybogle in reply to Andie222]

mine was intermittent.. i spent several months thinking it was just a variation on my 'usual' back/ sacroilliac joint problem playing me up.

[Tlflom in reply to tattybogle]

TSH is inverse to the thyroid out put. For the tested thyroid levels in the normal range make this a more complicated scenario. It should be unraveled by a thyroid specialist in endocrinologist. They can order different labs and other factors that can cause this discrepancy. Perhaps social medicine does not go to this effort?

I have found most of the people on this site to be interesting and helpful. Some of the stories I here are most concerning.

[Ruby1]

Could it be a muscular/skeletal issue? Floating rib? I’m not medical at all, just wondering if as it comes on during the day, whether something you might be doing could kick it off? How you are sitting/working?

[Andie222 in reply to Ruby1]

Hi Ruby

I don’t think so. I think it would be more frequent if that was the case, and I do see a osteopath from time to time for my neck so that would have been picked up.

[Teejay258]

Hi there,It sounds very much like gallbladder to me! Has that been checked? Sudden attacks usually back shoulder area and between the breasts area. I thought it was a heart attack when I first had one. T

[Andie222 in reply to Teejay258]

Thanks Teejay. I know nothing about gallbladders and no it hasn’t been checked. I’m going to do some research.

[nightingale-56]

I get this pain a lot and with me it is definitely muscular. Hadn't had it for quite a while until about a week ago when I had just done 3 hours typing non-stop and it was excruciating and definitely muscular. Think it is muscles just under shoulder blades, with an awful burning pain. Hope you get to work it out. Maybe FT3 a bit low.

[Litatamon]

If the front is around your breast bone, I had this for a long time - it came & went - but was ongoing in nature. It felt like a deep ache and pressure in that area.

It went with b12 shots & aggressive supplementation for vitamin d deficiency. I was severely deficient in both at the time, so no clue which one was causing it. It was definitely one of them as it has never returned and I am over three years out of the deficiencies being found.

All the best to you.

[Andie222 in reply to Litatamon]

That's interesting. It is just as you describe. My vit d level is ok (87) but still trying to improve it. I've been supplementing b12 for ages so woul expect level to be reasonable, but I can't be sure. Probably due a retest. I'm pleased you managed to get rid of it, even if you don't know how. It's a mystery!

[Litatamon in reply to Andie222]

With b12 here are the issues at hand -

You've been supplementing so it will be difficult to get a proper read. And medical professionals are grossly uneducated about it to begin with so insert sigh with all that.

But do know that most people with Pernicious Anemia find that tablets/pills do very little for them, although doctors push passive absorption ie. you don't absorb properly but small amounts somehow do get through.

So there is a chance for you to have issues at hand that would be alleviated through shots only. Also do note unless it is diet related it is not normal range "Oh good - done" like most labs. The need for supplementation is ongoing as absorption issues remain at hand, even some doctors do not understand this concept. Then there is something called functional b12 deficiency, that I do not quite understand beyond it involving normal levels but the b12 is not getting where it is supposed to go & needs to go.

Hope you get to the bottom of it, I know how strange the pressure and ache feels, and how specific the location is - especially being close to the heart. It was mindboggling at times for me.