Help with bloods please...

[Jo01]

Hi everyone, I've just had some bloods done after three months on levothyroxine. I'd be grateful if someone could give me some advice as I still feel awful. Plus, and this is really upsetting me - my hair is falling out by the bucketload. I posted a blog about my journey to diagnosis in January if anyone is interested. To cut a long story short it involves me going from being a very happy in life triathlete to an exhausted, out of breath, muddy headed, insomniac, heart pounding wierdo - all within 2 years. This culminated in 2 weeks in hospital when my heart went crazy and a diagnosis of Cushings (now told that is not the case). Before Christmas I was finally diagnosed with hypothyroid, B12 and Vit D deficiency and offered counselling for my (non-existent) depression.

Since then I've been taking 125 of levothyroxine, 2 monthly B12 jabs and 20,000 a week Vit D.

I've also had one appointment with Doctor P who put me on adrenal support. I did start to feel better on this for a couple of months and then started to get more heart pounding so have stopped it for 2 weeks.

Ive just had my latest bloods and I'd be grateful if you could tell me what you think.

TSH

Serum T3 2.5 nmol/L (1.3 - 2.6)

Serum Free T4 26.1 pmol/L (12.0 - 22.0)

Serum TSH 0.04 mu/L (0.27 - 4.20)

Serum Vit D Total 25-OH Vit D >75 nmol/L (patient is Vit D replete)

25-hydroxyvitamin D2 level 7.3 nmol/L

25-hydroxyvitamin D3 level 82.6 nmol/L

Serum Vit D 89.9 nmol/L

Ferritin 284 ug/L(13-150) WHY IS THIS SO HIGH???

SERUM /IRON 19.4 UMOL/L (7.0-26.0)

SERUM TIBC 55.5 (45-70)

SERUM IRON TESTS 35% (20-50%)SERUM FOLATE 13.5 (4.6-18.7)

HAEMOGLOBIN ESTIMATION - 117 G/L (115-165)

RBC 3.93 10*12/L (3.80-5.80)

HAEMOCRIT 0.34 L/L (0.37-0.47) WHY IS THIS LOW?

MCV 87.3 (80-100)

MCHC 341G/L 341G/L (305 - 350)

RBC DISTRIBUTION WIDTH 12.3 (11.5-14.5)

TOTAL WHITE CELL COUNT 7.7 10*9/L (4-11)

NEUTROPHIL COUNT 2.8 10*9/L (1.8-7.5)

LYMPHOCYTE COUNT 4.1 10*9/L (1.0-4.0) WHY IS THIS SO HIGH?

MONOCYTE 0.8 10*9/L (0.2-0.8)

SERUM VIT B12 2000 (191 - 663)

Serum sex hormone binding glob >180 nmol/L (18 -114) WHY IS THIS SO HIGH?

SERUM CORTISOL 1109 NMOL/L (250-650)

I'd be so grateful if someone could give me their thoughts. I'm at a loss as to why I feel so crap still.

Thanks very much

Jo

[Clarebear]

Hi Jo - just wondering if Dr P put you on Nutri Thyroid too?

Looking at your results I wonder if you are a bit over-medicated? I think the sypmtoms of hypo and hyper can overlap - so your hear falling out could be due to being on too much thyroxine...

The other thing I am wondering about is reverse T3. Taking too much T4 can cause a build up of rT3, which blocks the T3 cell receptors and stops the T3 actually getting into the cells and doing what it is supposed to do, thus causing continuing symptoms of hypothyroidism in spite of good levels of FT3 in the blood.

I had similar results to yours about 18 months ago and felt dreadful. I strongly suspect that I had high levels of rT3, but can't be sure as I didn't have it tested at the time. For me the solution has been changing to NDT (Armour). I now have midrange FT4 and top quarter of the range FT3 and generally feel pretty well. I did have a rT3 test in the end through Genova, but this was after I had started on Armour.

I think it would be a good idea to give Dr P a ring and see what he thinks xx

[Jo01]

Hey Clarebear - no he just put me on the adrenal support. I haven't called him yet. I will do though. This is all so hard - yes maybe I could be overmedicated but yet I still feel fat, ill and hypo. I just am going bald now too. I'm also a bit worried about my iron - my ferritin is ridiculously high yet other bits are low. And I have no idea what a sex binding hormone is. Worryingly my GP just says I don't know - that's down to the specialist. However the specialist is one of the most unhelpful people I have ever met and refuses to speak to me until my next appointment in June. I'm currently trying to get a referral to a endo recommended on her so fingers crossed I will get somewhere then. This is all so so difficult - sick to death of feeling like this.

[Clarebear]

High ferritin I believe can be down to inflammation (or so I read on the STTM) website.

I would suspect high rT3, but unfortunately this isn't likely to be something that an endo will test for, hence why I did it privately.

Sorry don't know about SHBG.

Good luck with finding an endo - there are some good ones out there but also some not so good. Always good to ask for recommendations on here.

Hope you feel better soon. xxx

[Jo01 in reply to Clarebear]

Thanks very much - this site is really wonderful. I have referral for someone recommended on here so fingers crossed. J