Really need some reassurance and advice

[Heybella]

Hi everybody,

I’ve posted a couple of times here:

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

I tested positive for TPO antibodies last year but thyroid function looked to be ok. I’d gained around 3 stone seemingly quite quickly but I did attribute some of this to being on citalopram which I came off.

Have suffered with bouts of fatigue, and flu like feelings on and off since 2018 - was diagnosed with fibromyalgia.

I began to experience hot flushes and sweating regularly this year but put this down to being nearly 40 and female and perhaps my hormones are changing.

Just after Christmas, I started to suffer with an IBS/ gastritis type illness - more frequent bowel movements and stomach pain, with bloating and feelings of hunger but not normal hunger. Soon after there were days I had no energy at all and my anxiety hit the roof. I’ve had repeated feelings of doom, feelings of passing out. Weak feelings in legs, hot and cold

I went for blood tests and all looked ok apart from slightly elevated WBC and now my thyroid looks to be going strange (latest results attached).

the doctor diagnosed suspected Graves and has given me Carbimazole to take. I’ve been referred to an endo but I know from reading info here that the suspected diagnosis of Graves could be incorrect and so will await my endo appointment.

I am just really looking for some support of advice really - I feel terrible, I can’t tell what is anxiety and what is my thyroid. I’ve hardly moved off the the sofa this weekend, my mood is so low, have a constant feeling of something bad happening to me. Keep checking my heart rate (it’s only slightly elevated). I feel really down & I don’t know what to do

I haven’t taken any carbimazole yet - scared to do that as well.

please can somebody help?

[greygoose]

I can't really add much to what @SlowDragon told you on your last post, but:

- anxiety is not a disease it is a symptoms - very often a symptom of hypo

- your FT3 is only very, very slightly over-range which means nothing. It certainly doesn't mean Graves' and does not warrant taking carbi. If you took carbi you would very rapidly go very hypo - if you aren't already, and it sounds like you are

- TPO anitbodies are more likely to be Hashi's than Graves' - although can be positive with Graves'. Hashi's is an autoimmune disease that slowly destroys the thyroid by attacking it. The attacks cause thyroid hormone levels to swing between hypo and false 'hyper'.

Have suffered with bouts of fatigue, and flu like feelings on and off since 2018 - was diagnosed with fibromyalgia.

That's what doctors do when they have no idea what's wrong with you. So, as they know nothing about thyroid, an awful lot of hypos get a false 'diagnosis' of fibro just to get rid of them. Fibro is a syndrom, not a disease. A syndrom is a bunch of symptoms. Symptoms have to be caused by something, so as you have Hashi's your symptoms are more than likely caused by low thyroid. You cannot diagnose someone with a syndrom, that is not a diagnosis.

Fatigue, weight-gain, flue like feelings and all the rest are hypo symptoms. You've probably been hypo for quite some time, even if it isn't showing up in your blood tests. With Hashi's, levels fluctuate a lot so, as you can't test every day, you have to be lucky to catch them at their worst in the early stages. But that doesn't mean you aren't hypo.

Your doctor should know all this, but obviously doesn't. And, to be fair, there's not a lot he can do at this point because you do not need thyroid hormone replacement with your levels. But nor do you need carbi, so my advice would be not to take it.

What you can do is optimise your nutrients as SD suggested in your last post. Low nutrient levels will not only cause symptoms themselves but will impede your body from making full use of thyroid hormone.

[humanbean]

Are you taking any thyroid hormone treatments at all i.e. any Levo or T3?

Have you been diagnosed with hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) or hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid)?

Have you ever had a scan of your thyroid done?