Battling!

[Tiffin76]

Looking for some guidance. This group has been really helpful in shedding some light on my health issues. My story - 3 years ago was diagnosed with breast cancer right in the middle of the pandemic. 8 rounds of chemo (got Covid in round 4), surgery and lastly radiotherapy taking me to May 2021. Got the all clear and started building my life and health back up. This time last year I was knocking down walls on a volunteer project I was working on. Felt like it was all behind me.

In Feb and March of this year, started to feel unwell. Massive fatigue, weird muscle weakness in legs (can’t get up from sitting), breathlessness, neuro symptoms of vertigo, cold patches on legs, disturbed vision. The Royal Marsden (cancer hospital) were cautious enough to scan me from head to foot but after a long difficult wait, there is nothing sinister.

On advice of a friend who does have PA, got my B12 checked. I also have psoriatic arthritis (PSA) so have regular blood tests and my MCV, MCH etc were always on the high side or abnormal. Nothing was ever said about it. My B12 was 232 - not below the NHS limit of 200 so NHS GP offered nothing. I asked her to test for PA but it was negative. With this group I supplemented my B12 and got my levels way beyond 500 and guess what all the neuro symptoms all went away. Recently ran out of B12 supplements on holiday recently and my B12 dropped rapidly and some neuro symptoms came back. It seems that anything below 300 for me is too low. The neuro doctor I saw says my symptoms were nothing to do with B12!

Currently my symptoms are fatigue, muscle weakness, feet as painful as hell in the morning and if I sit for any length of time, puffy areas on face, eyebrow lack of hair, weight gain, feel the cold and I am susceptible to illness. I am convinced this is thyroid. NHS GP says TSH is normal so it goes no where. I have been seeing my husband’s private GP and they listen more but their last thyroid blood tests were taken at midday. Following advice here, I have been having private blood tests so 9am, off the biotin for a week, fasting. I take methotrexate once a week for PSA and folic acid on other days, so those levels are high.

NHS GP doing nothing, Private GP testing again in a month (will get an early appointment this time). I went for a full Monty private blood test last time, my FT4 is below the range for the first time. Can anyone see anything obvious from them - attached - so I can get my plan together.

[humanbean]

Recently ran out of B12 supplements on holiday recently and my B12 dropped rapidly and some neuro symptoms came back.

What dose of B12 have you been taking and what form of B12 were you taking ?

You would be better off aiming at a result for serum B12 of 1000+. The fact that you get benefits from taking B12 suggests you can absorb it so you probably don't have Pernicious Anaemia, but you could still have Functional B12 Deficiency. The solution for this is to keep your levels high. Since B12 isn't dangerous at high levels it is perfectly possible to do this.

Do you have a folate result? That needs to be kept at a good level as well, although not over range like the B12. If you've taken folate in the past what form was it in?

For the body to make use of any B12 you have you need adequate levels of folate, but if your B12 is low you should always supplement generous doses of B12 for a few days or a week before starting to supplement folate when you need it.

...

Currently my symptoms are fatigue, muscle weakness, feet as painful as hell in the morning and if I sit for any length of time, puffy areas on face, eyebrow lack of hair, weight gain, feel the cold and I am susceptible to illness.

Your feet being really painful in the morning is probably caused by a condition called plantar fasciitis. It is quite common in people with hypothyroidism.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant...

I had this condition for a long time and it disappeared very quickly with a sufficiently good dose of thyroid hormones. The "treatments" suggested by doctors (usually "eat less and move more") do absolutely nothing to fix plantar fasciitis in my experience.

...

Given that you've been through chemo and had Covid and might be hypothyroid, if you haven't had it done yet I would suggest that you get an iron panel done. Symptoms of low iron and hypothyroidism have a lot of overlap, and low iron is common in hypothyroidism as well. If your doctor won't do an iron panel for you then you can get it done with a finger prick test privately. Scroll all the way through the following link to see what tests are done - there are six of them..

medichecks.com/products/iro...

There is a discount code giving 10% off on this link :

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

You have to make an account on the Medichecks website, order the test, they send you a kit through the post, you follow the instructions, and then send the completed kit back to the lab for processing. Then they put the results on your account.

Once you have the results you can post them on the forum and ask for feedback.

...

The page of test results you have posted are for a Full Blood Count, and have nothing about the thyroid on there.

The things we need to see are :

TSH, Free T4, Free T3, TPO Antibodies, Tg Antibodies.

If you have had them done recently then also :

Vitamin D

Vitamin B12

Folate

Ferritin

(Ferritin testing forms part of an iron panel so it could easily get duplicated depending on your choice of testing if you are doing it privately.)

Before doing a test make sure you know the correct conditions for getting the most accurate results.

Last dose time is important if on thyroid hormones and/or supplements. Note that extending the time between last dose and testing time, above what we suggest, in hopes of changing your results for a doctor is really not recommended. Knowing that Test X returns an under range result after three days of fasting or skipping doses is NOT helpful.

[humanbean in reply to humanbean]

Ah! Just noticed you changed your page of results while I was writing my reply.

Did you know that you can put one picture per reply to your post? You have to click on the little rectangle with the mountain and the sun (to the left of the smiley picture) to add pictures to a reply.

[Tiffin76 in reply to humanbean]

I thought I had put all 4 photos on but realised it was 1 per post so changed to the most relevant😂

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Welcome to the forum

Breast Cancer treatment can increase risk of developing hypothyroidism

breast-cancer-research.biom...

sciencedirect.com/science/a....

Ft4 is BELOW Range

Ft3 low

B12 very low considering you supplement

Exactly what vitamin supplements are you taking

In week before blood test, when you stop vitamin B complex, you might want to consider taking a separate folate supplement (eg Jarrow methyl folate 400mcg) and continue separate B12

No vitamin D result

Come back with new post once you get early morning test results