Hello everybody. Thanks for your recent help. I got the tests that you suggested done and these are the results I do not know what they mean I don't think they look very bad to be honest. But I don't know what I'm looking at. It would be wonderful if somebody could explain them to me. I would appreciate it very much. I'll post them as a reply because the pictures are bigger in replies.
These were taken at 8:00 in the morning with no food or anything. Also no B12 or other supplement in my system for 24 hours. They told me I couldn't have anything for 12 hours prior and I hadn't had it for 24 hours.
Thanks you again.
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EllaNore
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Well that's it. I don't think they look too bad. My TSH looks quite different than it did in December. But I don't know what I'm looking at. Thank you all for any help that you give me.🦋
Hi there Your 'frees' (FT4 and FT3) look quite low, lower than would be optimal. TSH has risen to 5.16 which is far too high and indicates that your thyroid is struggling. Your antibody levels aren't raised so at the moment you're not showing autoimmunity. That could change of course as levels can fluctuate.
Personally I would say you are hypothyroid and that will likely continue to get worse over time. How are you feeling?
(The TSH is lower Tfox.. 5.16 was previous result)
Dec 2022 8.40 a.m.
TSH 5.16 mIU/L (0.4 - 5.5) 93 %
Free T4 (fT4) 0.80 ng/dl (0.59 - 1.61) 20 %
May 2023 8 am
TSH: 3.41 [0.27 - 4.2] 79 % TSH is better than Dec,
FT4: 1.0 ng/dl [0.9 - 1.7] 12 % fT4 similar / worse to Dec (you can't compare 'exactly' as a different test/lab was used.. ranges are different from Dec test)
FT3: 3 pg/ml (Range 2 - 4.4) 41 %
TSH is still not as low as you'd expect in most healthy people .
T3 is higher than T4 which might be normal for you , or it might be because your TSH is a bit high and that is asking your thyroid to increase ratio of T3:T4
Because the TSH has improved (gone down) since Dec, your doctors will not be able to consider Levothyroxine based on these results ..
However , given your symptoms and the previous 5.16 , i think you should keep an eye on it and retest in a few months.
Thyroidperoxidase ab (TPOab) 3.4 [<9 ]
Thyroglobulin ab (TGab) <1.8 [<4 )
Both these thyroid antibodies are very low , so they show no evidence autoimmune thyroid disease.... but because you have P.A already they should keep an eye on your thyroid results occasionally anyway .
OK Tattlybogle. Thank you. I thought they were better than Dec. Thank you very much. I was afraid my docs would not want to give me meds based on the latest results. thank you for verifying that. I have other blood work that is not quite right too. I seem to be falling into cracks with both Thyroid and PA. Nothing seems to be clear cut terrible or great. Yet I feel terrible not great. LOL
I wonder why my numbers are better right now? How can someone almost be Hypo? I wonder what is making it fluctuate?
I don't know what is wrong with me then. I think it is the enlarged RBC? But I am just at a loss. I don't know how to make myself better. I don't know where to turn. and now my docs are not going to believe me that I feel so badly. I almost wished it was 100% for sure. At least I would have an answer. I am just as lost as before PA.
Well thank you for verifying that it is not hashimotos or autoimmune.
just to be clear .. normal TPOab /TGab 'at the moment' doesn't prove you don't have hashimoto's (it make it less likely, but it doesn't 100% rule it out )
In research , a few people have been found to have clear autoimmune damage to their thyroid ( found by scan / biopsy etc) without them having any history of over range TPOab/TGab .
TPOab /TGab can fluctuate , so just because they are currently low , that doesn't mean they haven't been high previously , or that they won't be high in future.
But that's kind of irrelevant at the moment , because the thing stopping you getting treated is your TSH going back down, .. so even if you had thousands of TPOab today , you still wouldn't get treated unless TSH was over range, or fT4 was under range .
Don't fall into the trap of worrying whether they will believe you because they can't find an obvious reason ... YOU know how you feel .. trust yourself.
Thank you very much tattybogle. Thank you for explaining all that and clarifying. It is quite confusing. And it was so much information to learn when it came to the pernicious anemia and now to have to learn all about this It's just been a very overwhelming year. And the year before that I had breast cancer so it's just been a very long couple of years and I just really don't know what is making me feel what. All I want right now is to be able to walk without all this pain. I was hoping that these numbers might help that.Anyway thank you very very much for all of your help.
OK well, it goes to show, I know nothing about this. Thank you very much Titanniumfox. Ask me about PA and I know a little bit. This I know nothing. I have a lot to learn.
I feel terrible. My feet, hands and lower legs hurt terribly. I am breathless with little exertion. I am fatigued all the time and constantly panting to breathe. when I bend to pick stuff up or do whatever, my legs start to shake and get weak and I feel like they will collapse. I am very weak, very off balance. Dizzy,... My life has dwindled to nothing compared to who i was 5 years ago even. This has been going on since I was 23, I am now 61. I have been looking for answers all my adult life. I finally found I had PA/B12d 11 months ago, after my cancer treatment caused me to be unable to walk for months from my feet hurting and suddenly, I was so weak I couldn't walk with crutches or anything. So I crawled. I thought PA answered all my questions. But my feet and hands still hurt terribly and I am still quite ill feeling. Something is not right. My face is puffy and my eyes. My hands and feet as well. I have 97% of the symptoms on the Hypo symptoms list. But they are also symptoms of B12d/PA. I inject b12 every day or so. Sometimes I can skip a day or two. I have apathy where I just don't feel like doing much. then I have days where I want to do everything and I do a lot but i'm in terrible pain the whole time. But that's OK. It feels good to get stuff done. no matter how bad it makes me feel.
Do you think my numbers are enough for my docs to give me meds to fix it?
I have other blood work as well. Like MPV, MCH and a complete CBC if anyone thinks they need to see those.
I take vitamin D3 once a week. And I take B12 injections almost every day. And I took B6 about four times in the last 2 weeks. So I haven't been very consistent with the B6. But I just started trying it to see if it would help me. Anyway these are my test results I don't have a D3 test result. Maybe they should run that too. But I'm afraid to ask now because all of my test came back pretty good and now they're really going to look at me like I'm making stuff up.
I can't find my D3 results. I've looked for them several times and I can't seem to find them. Is it called something else on a blood test rather than D3? I'm taking 50,000 until every Wednesday. Plus I take a liquid calcium 600 mg with D3 everyday. Sometimes I forget to take my liquid calcium capsules.
I found the D3. pretty low. that was in May. of 22 I can't find a recent one. I guess I will have to ASK for one. Gotta do the doctors job.
Vitamin D, 25-Hydroxy 21 ng/mL
range 30 - 100 ng/mL
and here is a screenshot of any past folate and b12 tests. My folate was not bad in May 2022, then after injections it has gone to >24 which is high. I don't get that.
And this is my Iron ferritin past and present. I don't have a lot of past results as no one ever tested me for any of this before. But they should have.
It's my pleasure to help out. So I'm not sure if you're aware or not but ferratin can be raised due to inflammation in the body but also due to having not enough iron storage.
Do you recall how you felt on your 22 compared to the latest results?
I don't really recall. If it's not one thing it's another but I've been just weak and breathless and pain in my feet and calves non-stop. Sometimes I get a day that it's not too bad, but it always goes back to hurting terribly. I walk like a penguin especially when I first stand up. I don't know a lot about iron and all of that. And my doctors aren't bringing it up so I don't know how to treat it really. They already don't like that I self-inject everybody freaks out. It's just imagine what I'd be like if I didn't. Well, thank you. I very much appreciate any help.
Thanks. I posted the iron above. I am breathless and I do get heart flutters. And according to my watch, my heart rate keeps going below 50 resting, around the same time every morning. And my muscles feel so fatigued. Walking is very labored.
Lol... I just saw your response and left to get a screenshot for you and when I returned you had found your vit d levels. Yes its pretty low and your doc should have done a follow up since too much d3 is bad as too little.
I took 50,000 D3 once a week for a while but my levels started to really improve when I began taking 10,000IU a day 5 days a week. Also during that period I added in K2 and that was helpful since both work synergistically together. Also made sure I was taking magnesium since Vitamin D supplement/meds can deplete it. I took 330mg a day of magnesium and 120 of K2
I'm not sure why your folate jumped high after injection
Also pls make sure they gave you D3 instead of D2 because the doc accidentally prescribed me that once and I has to get it changed upon realizing it myself
I'm pretty sure that it's D3 that's what it says on my prescription bottle. I tried to take magnesium once and I did not feel good. I also didn't feel good when I took one folate pill just one and it was a 5 mg. It was the lowest dose I took it one time and didn't feel good. I also took a magnesium at a different time not with the folate and also didn't feel very good. I got very jittery and just felt terrible all day. I only took one of each at different times weeks apart so I never took another one again. I don't know why I feel so terrible but if I needed to take those I wouldn't feel so bad when I take them I would think.
I wish there was a homeopathic doctor I could go to that would look at my blood work and tell me exactly what I need to take and how much to get back in balance.
This forum and you have been so much help though, so maybe I'll try magnesium again. I just think I'm afraid to take anything before I have any definitive diagnosis. I need some things to be diagnosed before I muddy the waters with more supplements. I already went down that road with B12. They start giving me injections before they did all the other tests. Then when they did run the test, they said I shouldn't have had any B12 in my system, so they didn't want to believe my test results. So I had to starve myself of B12 for a month (not long enough) so that I could get the test again and it still came back undeterminable. The first test was positive for pernicious anemia. So I'm reluctant to put anything in my body until somebody has definitively told me exactly what's wrong with me. And exactly what I need. So I'll take what you're telling me and I will do that once I find out everything that's going on. I have quite a few doctor's appointments coming up in the next few weeks. Brain MRIs, pulmonary, neurology, and hematologist #5 😳
So I think I should wait till I see all those people before I start self-treating more than I already am. Sorry for thinking out loud just trying to get it all straight in my head.
PS, I'm not getting notices either. So I missed 6 replies. Sorry about that.
Thanks for asking slowdragon. Just recently. I can post those. My folate is >24 and I never take it. I can't figure out why it is too high. I have other blood work that is not terrible but not great either, like my Monosites, MPV Neutrophils and my RBC is 4.07 range is 4.21-5.40. my RBC has been below 4.21 for years but they say it is not enough to cause me any problems! I am glad they think so,!!! I am glad they are in my body to know that!! NOT!! The tests are on my phone so I have to post them in a second.
As you have B12 injections it’s recommended also to supplement a good quality daily vitamin B complex, one with folate in (not folic acid) as may be beneficial.
This can help keep all B vitamins in balance and will help improve B12 levels too…..Rather than just taking B6 …..
IMPORTANT......If you are taking vitamin B complex, or any supplements containing biotin, remember to stop these 3-7 days before ALL BLOOD TESTS , as biotin can falsely affect test results
Have you ever had an iron panel done before? Your ferratin is on the lower side for me. Midway on that range is 81 and you're at 68. I would feel really awful with those results.
Really? Nobody's brought that up. I thought it was okay. But I don't know anything about that. My mom who is 90 last month has what I have and she's having anemia problems that they can't figure out. Her iron is low, so is her red blood cell count and her white blood cell count. And she's had a thyroid problem all of her life. And she has B12 deficiency like her mother and like I do but she's just finding out now about it. Because I just found out about it. So right now this is all new to me about the thyroid, and everything. I was focusing on pernicious anemia all this time and nobody ever said I was deficient in anything else. I think my red blood cell count is too low. And I think my MPV is too high. And I think my lymphocytes and my monocytes have issues everything that I have in red I feel has an issue. I feel absolutely terrible. Very very weak. I still struggle through and I get things done. Like I just cleaned out my little garden shed that I've been needing to do for years now and haven't been well enough to do, but I forced myself and it felt good but was very very very hard. I had to do a lot of sitting down. I really would like to find out what this is all about because I really feel pretty bad. Thank you for all of your help I really really appreciate it.
I'm not surprised no doctor has mentioned your ferratin. Doctors arent really interested in getting you to optimal levels.
I'm sorry about your mom and may both of your health improve. See if you can an iron panel done. In the meantime, if I were you I'd just start eating liver. My fave is lamb and chicken is mentioned on the thyroid forum .
😖 Lol, I can eat just about anything but I cannot stand the taste of liver. I just can't eat it, I've tried so many times. Thank goodness I don't live in the 1850s when people with Pernicious Anemia had to eat regurgitated liver. I have to wonder if I can't absorb B12 what else can't I absorb?
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Your 'frees' (FT4 and FT3) look quite low, lower than would be optimal. TSH has risen to 5.16 which is far too high and indicates that your thyroid is struggling. Your antibody levels aren't raised so at the moment you're not showing autoimmunity. That could change of course as levels can fluctuate.
Updated results TSH, fT3 & fT4, ferritin and folate
Pls help with tests interpretation for fT3 and fT4
TSH, FT3 & FT4 results
Blood test - fT3 fT4 and TSH
Question re FT3 and FT4 results
