Any knowledgeable people that can explain to me a few things?

[smileplease]

I have been diagnosed with Hashimtos for around 18 months now and am 150mg Tyroxine a day, I am not the most medically minded of people and if i am honest am lost by it all. I dont understand the talk of t3 & t4 etc and well I dont think I am doing all I can to make my life better as if honest i just take my meds and dont question anything as the way it was put to me was this is what you have got take these and that is that no side effects were ever explained nothing (I am 30 btw so I know i should have questioned it more but i am always scared of the dr)

The thing is it was tiredness that started the tests that found this as i just thought i was anemic again and then i was sent to specialist they told me a little but not much and that was that.

It was only when i started to look on the internet that i found out a lot of what i thought was just me being well me isn't just me they are symptoms of this problem but then I start to get confused as there is just so much i dont understand about it all.

What are t3/T4 and what should i be asking my dr about them in relation to me?

My biggest problem is I struggle to keep up with day to day life I am tired 99% of the time, I just keep going as well you have to dont you but then the way i read it on the net there should be a way to get this under control but i dont know what path to take or what questions i should be raising with my dr?

i read somewhere that congative skills can be affected by this and that you can get a "Brain Fog" does anyone else get this i often find my concentration is affected and i struggle to achieve things that would have been easy once upon a time. Can this come and go? Past few months it hasn't been to bad but this week i can barely string a thought together writting this has taken forever!

I know its common that with the invisible diseases people just dont appreciate how hard it can be and this I guess is what doesnt help either, my husband just doesnt even take on board what a struggle some days are for me with this and well i just dont want to appear to be a drama queen i know a lot of people are worse off but recently i am really struggling with it all but have no idea what i am supposed to do about it and then i found this so i thought i would put it out there and see what advice comes back

thank you for reading i know i ramble xx

[sorrel89]

Hello there, you are absolutely not rambling...I really feel for you as I know exactly what you are saying about the cognitive skills and brain fog and exhaustion as you say it is so invisible but very hard hitting. I have been off work for 10 months with such symptoms, my GP and endo and consultant seem unsure and puzzled what to do about it and shooting in the dark but a thorough blood test would have been a good start and they cannot even manage to do that.... but no one seems to be thorough these days especially medics in this complex field and let you suffer in silence until you really make a fuss!

Unsure if there has been any research on cognitive ability or word retrieval studies and Thyroxine replacement. You are on a fantastic forum... I have only been on it for a number of days and feel that I have learnt so much but will leave it the the knowledgable to answer this question. What springs to mind is getting a detailed blood test and mineral analysis specifically vit B12 and Ferritin as well as Free T4 and Free T3 etc and up your iron stores with immediate effect as it takes along while to build up and it sounds as if they are low ...plus B12 and vit D3 and Vit C to help absorb the iron...sorry will back down now as do not feel qualified but I know exactly what you are talking about. I will watch out for other responses and info as I will benefit from it too. I wish you well and you are not alone...Take care xx

[mjack]

i understand because i havent got a clue with it all,just take my meds but going to start questioning the doctors, take care xx

[Clarebear]

Hello smileplease and welcome to the site I would suggest the first thing to do is to get hold of your thyroid blood test results and to post them on here together with the ranges (these need to come from your own report as they vary by lab). If you can get hold of all of them since diagnosis that would be even better.

The second thing to do is to have a look at the main Thyroid UK site - this forum is only a part of what is available. There are descriptions on there of all of the thyroid hormones (T3 and T4) and what they do. Here is a link:

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/index....

Nextly I would do as Sorel89 suggests and ask your doctor to test for iron, ferritin, vitamin D and vitamin B12. These are often low in patients with hypothyroidism and can cause symptoms similar to hypoT or even stop the T4 that you are taking (thyroxine) convert into T3 - the hormone that is actually used by all of your cells.

From your description I suspect that you either need an increase in thyroxine (hopefully your blood tests will help us here - often doctors leave patients under-dosed as they think that if TSH is in range then everything is OK. This is often not the case and many patients need to be on a high enough dose to bring TSH down to the lower part of the reference range or even suppress it to below 1) or you may need the addition of some direct T3.

Hopefully you will able to start feeling better soon xxx

[nostoneunturned]

I just wanted to give you a friendly welcoming word, seeing as sorrel189 and Clarebear have covered all the initial bases, but we here on this forum understand completely how exhausted and overcome by all the features of this illness it is possible to be, and really I just wish it was possible for your husband to be you for a week and then he would understand just how brave you are being in trying to appear OK. Other people can certainly be worse off, but knowing that does not help with your problems in the least as they still have to be overcome somehow while trying to get on with everyday life, meet all the demands on you, and still putting on a brave face.

You will get understanding and help here.