The THYROID Thread

Mel - sorry for all that you are going through. Try to see if you can find a good endocrinologist. They really are the best route. Thyroid trouble is more tricky than most realize I was just talking to an internist friend of mine last evening who said that thyroid trouble triggers so many different problems. Best of luck to you!


I will speak with her this week about getting a good endo,thanks
Hugs Mel
 
.
So if this is the Parathyroid Glands acting up is there anything I can do the ease any of the symptoms? or does anyone have any thoughts?
Thank-you for listening.
Hugs Mel

Sorry you are having a hard time with everything...

I had my thyroid removed almost 9 years ago (wow I can't believe it has been that long)...but when they took my thyroid, they had to take my Parathyroid also. I have suffered through this since my surgery. My endo told me that 2 Tums equal the amount of calcium that a person should get in a day. I left the hospital after surgery on 10 Tums a day and 2 OTC calcium pills a day. She put me on a script of calcium/Vitamin D pill also (I was up to taking 10 of them a day). This still was not bringing up my calcium levels. I still would have the symptoms of a low day...tingling in my face and my thumbs would atrophy in towards my palm. Finally in April my endo told me that the inject-able Parathyroid hormone was approved and I started that in June. After some working with my endo and working the correct mcg of the injection, my levels are FINALLY to the normal level. I have not had a symptom since and it makes it better now that I don't take all the Tums and I have slowly backed off my calcium/Vitamin D pills.

I hope this helps you a little with what is available for Parathyroid issues.
 
bababear - welcome. I am sorry you are dealing with all these parathyroid issues. I think its important to get a good endo too. I go to a teaching hospital so they have quite a few on staff. I hope you can find one you will be happy with and does a great job of managing your care. I wouldnt let the internists I go to deal with my thy cancer stuff. Wishing you all the best.

macraven - did you get your blood work done? Hope it worked out for you.

Ds3 is taking me for the sono today. I have butterflies already. I always feel better after they dont call a dr. in and ask for more pictures, so that is basically the its all good sign around here.

I am sending my papers in to be excused from the jury duty today.I hope they call the dr. because he didnt sign it with a signature and it wasnt even typed md, so I am wondering if this was just a medical student who did this. Oh well, I am sure I will be hearing something sooner rather than later. I wish they would do things right the lst time. Of course dh didnt read it when he picked it up. I have a feeling this might have to be a do over.
 
LMP, i finally got up the nerve and went this afternoon for my labs to be drawn...

i've already have a blister over the needle site.
that happens everytime i get a draw.
the bruising will go away in a few days and it will then be a memory in the past.

except, have to have levels done for my Vit D levels mid september......


crossing my fingers that you can get out of jury duty!



bababear, hope you are doing okay and can find a doc that will help you treat your condition.
 


Good Morning everyone
My spirits are higher today, I have an appt. for scan at 1pm and will call for a follow up appt with my family doc. I have been busy trying to back read through the Thyroid Thread, alot of good information here.
I think I am going to give it a try looking for a new endo and request that a bone scan be done as I haven't had one in years,,actually since I got the RA.
I've seen so many specialists this year for other stuff I figure whats one more.
Long story short--simple spot of eczema--became infected--turned into cellulitis--IV antibiotics--allergic to antibiotics--another IV antibiotic prescribed----extreme allergic reaction--I developed "Steven Johnson Syndrome "--and full body lesions and rash. I am now almost 80% back to normal.My skin is still healing in spots.

Thanks for all your info and support,Hugs
Mel
 
bababear - I hope your scan turned out well. I hope you get good results from the bone scan too. I just did the bone scan not that long ago. I had to have reclast infusions once yearly for the last 4 years. They normally do it for 5 but I had so many bad side effects they say 4 was enough for me.

Well the sono was good all things considered. I didnt like my tech and this was not one of the 2 usual ones. Maybe this one is new? Well I didnt like her, she was kind of rough, all business and not very friendly at all. Plus she had a radiology student md maybe watching. Then he asked if he could scan me while she was waiting for the real dr. to read my stuff. He said they want the radiologists to get better at doing tests too and not just reading the results, heah, I am all for science and learning as long as its not invasive stuff etc. He was much more gentler and not pressing so hard on my neck.
So they didnt ask for any more pictures, so I assume all is well, PTL. I am so thankful to God for sure.

Now next week for the blood tests one day I guess.

I have been looking around for fall and dec. for the hotels for our disney trips and we cant even get the swan or dolphin with dh ff miles. I am thinking of having him call and ask what is going on. I told dh you are now the proud owner of 189K useless airline miles. lol. This is from the airline and not the actual hotel itself. They even got rid of the disney hotels. You used to be able to get them too but no more. I told dh maybe we just need a cashback card etc.
 
Just got my latest test results today. For some reason, endo did not run a Tg, just the thyroid levels. All are borderline hyper (as they should be); however, he believes it is contributing to my all night hot flashes. Blood work revealed I am definitely in the the throes of perimenopause. He thinks I probably just can't handle the hyper-ness now. So, for a few weeks I'm going to lower my thyroid medication and see if I can get some relief (sleep) from the hot flashes. If not, I will go to my GYN and try to possibly work out some HRT.

Oh, my Vitamin D levels are slowing rising but I have NOT been good with my supplements. I have been getting about 15 minutes a day of direct sun on me though and so what is going up is happening naturally but I need to get better about taking supplements. Summer is almost over...
 


christine, i wish you the best on that.
tell me if i am incorrect but doesn't it take about 3 weeks when you change thyroid dosage levels before you can feel the change?

that has been the case for me when my dosage changes.

hope the sun has helped your vit d levels.
i'll be on the large script dosage for life on mine.
endo determined my body does not hold vit d in my body so i get a script for it.

Mr Sun is a lot cheaper than buying supplements........lol

don't know what to tell you about hot flashes and how to help it.
haven't had any so no experience with it.
from what you said, it must be miserable.
 
macraven,

Last October, I got the same hot flashes. It went on for 6 weeks. I lowered my meds and within a week they stopped. I stayed at the lower dose for several months and then went back up because I was feeling so well. I did fine for several month and they started again (but I have lost weight so that could be something). I tried to tweak my dose again just like last time but I didn't really see an improvement although I didn't give it much time knowing I had an endo appointment and I wanted to see what my values were WHILE I was "flashing!"

I'm now starting the reduced dose again and I will give it several weeks before I decide if it's going to work.
 
Christine, i hope you start to feel better real soon since you are increasing your dosage.
do you have pills in different levels or do you have to cut the pills you have when you change a dosage?


i just got a note from my endo and she wants me to increase my synthroid.
TSH dropped to 4.254 and T4 down to .92
have to have labs again in 6-8 weeks.

only problem is i don't have enough pills left this month without having a new script faxed to the pharmacy.

it's a little thing to take care of but with the medical system they have, it takes many days once you email the nurse to have a new script sent out.
last time i went through this it took over a week.
 
Wow, that's a shame you get such bad service as that. I've usually had same-day service with most of my medication refills.

I'm actually decreasing my dosage and going on .100 mcg Synthroid rather than .137 (5.5 times a week) of Levoxyl. But when I was cutting back, I would just take, say, six pills a week versus seven. Or 6.5 pills per week instead of 7 and just cut the one pill on the day I just decided to take half.

Increasing is a different story but if you had enough "stock" you could just add a half tablet to one of your days, but it doesn't sound like you do.

Any reason why your TSH is where it is. That's subclinically hypothyroid and your T4 is pretty darn low. Do you feel okay?
 
i have felt lousy since the endo cut my synthroid down in March.
i move so much slower now........lol

she dropped me from 150 mcg synthroid to .125 and then in March to 100.
i have never been at a dose that low in the past 27 years.

she was great when i started with her but now her client load has doubled.
i don't think she can keep up with all the patients she has.
it takes 8 months for an office visit with her now.

there have been a lot of
endos retiring over the past 2 years and since she is well known, many have gone over to her practice.
 
Christine - hope you can get the dosage straightened out so you can feel good. I have to take the 50,000 iu vit d script because my body is such a mess from the synthroid, osteoporosis etc. Would your endo consider a script. Did you ever have an actual vit d blood test. My endo always does that due to all my issues. I am sure the hot flashes are such a pain. I did have some and the heart palps a while back, told the endo and asked what I was doing about them and she mentioned hrt. I told her, no way nothing etc. She said, good for you. WTH??? is that suppose to mean. Now with my blood clot issues I know there is no way I could have hrt stuff due to those issues too. Sometimes I wake up hot but at least its not the heart palp or who knows. I am always in a daze if I wake up lol. Wishing you all the bet and that you can feel like you soon.

macraven - I hope the new med dose hep you feel better too. Wow, that is alot for the tsh. What would your endo like your number to be at?? I hear you about finding a good endo. Mine is gold and now I see they just added 2 more women endos where I go, I am guessing the load is getting more now with obamacare patients etc. That is long to wait for the meds. I have to call a nurse and they call it in, maybe in a day or two.

I am anxious to see what my next blood test will show since I am going to tell her I feel like crap but I dont know if that is because of the blood clot etc. They did reg. bloodwork in the er and all that was fine supposedly.

Sat on the porch and read a book with my leg up today, yeah I am living dangerously this summer, lol!!
 
LMP, you are so right!

this chicago based medical group has been affected by obamacare.
they also take medicaid which many have taken advantage of for better health care.

it was hard to find an endo and once i did with this present doctor, i was thrilled with her.
as i said before, she is over worked and having nurses handle some of the things she once did for her patients.

i had a clot before and that made me feel like crap.
it took me a long time after i had surgery for it before i felt more like myself.
keep your leg up and enjoy what is left of summer..
 
Christine - hope you can get the dosage straightened out so you can feel good. I have to take the 50,000 iu vit d script because my body is such a mess from the synthroid, osteoporosis etc. Would your endo consider a script. Did you ever have an actual vit d blood test.

I actually had another doctor prescribe me the high dose Vitamin D. I took it one time and it gave me horrible joint pain that lastest 3 days. I didn't want to do that again so I never took it again. I *should* be taking the over the counter stuff, but I just forget. I've had three Vitamin D tests. The results were 21, 22, and 25. The minor increases are due to me just spending more time outdoors. Now I know I need to get serious about the supplementation.
 
i have felt lousy since the endo cut my synthroid down in March.
i move so much slower now........lol

she dropped me from 150 mcg synthroid to .125 and then in March to 100.
i have never been at a dose that low in the past 27 years.

she was great when i started with her but now her client load has doubled.
i don't think she can keep up with all the patients she has.
it takes 8 months for an office visit with her now.

there have been a lot of
endos retiring over the past 2 years and since she is well known, many have gone over to her practice.


It takes me about 6 months to get in with my endo and he goes on and off about taking new patients. He likes to keep his practice small though. But when I first started going to him, he would call me back in about a day with test results. Now I notice that I have to call him so he does seem busier, but it's still not too bad.

It does seem very odd to me that your doctor is cutting you so much.
 
those are really low numbers for your vit d levels.
my lowest has been 7 and i am up to 17 now which is still not a good level.

if your body can retain vit d by sunshine, put on a pair of shorts and sit outside for 20 minutes each day.

the doctor cut my dosage level in the past as my numbers were climbing quickly.
now when i did leveled out, i guess and the cut back to only 100 on the synthroid, she realizes that my dosage is too low.
i had this problem with the internist years back and now it is happening again.

since i like the
endo, i'll stick with her as she is trying to stay on top of things for me.
 
Well I made an appt. to get my blood work done on wed., so we shall see. Even if there is nothing wrong I doubt I will find out since my dr. is on vacation until Sept.

One time a nurse did call me and some other dr., who I am assuming was covering for her, wrote me a letter and said everything was within normal limits.

I am still waiting to see if I am excused from jury duty. I have to read the rules. I thought I read if I dont hear from them I am excused???

My poor aunt who had hip surgery and got a blood clot now has mrsa and is really sick in the hosp. I wish I was well enough to go and visit her but its in another state, so I just call her on the phone every day. She is my moms best friend but I call her aunt.

We are looking at going to disney for the food and wine festival oct. 21-28. I dont really like the dates, but its the only time I could get the Swan for free.
 
Well I got the blood tests done today, so that is all I need before I see the endo. They have a nurse call you if they dont get your testing results before you come in. So I shouldnt have anyone calling me since I have been on top of everything.

As usual she always orders the works:
TG complete, TSH, Free Thyroxine Index, Comp Metabolic Panel and Vit D

If all this comes out normal well fine and good but I am still telling her I constantly feel like crap (tired etc) and see what she says. I dont know if the blood thinner is having any effect on any of this medwise (maybe an interaction) or healthwise.

Christine - reading anything good? I am reading a historical fiction book about a midwife in the late 1800's. I just won that book from a blog and I also won 2 or 3 more so I gotta get my read on, lol! Just finished 2 amish books that I won too. I am giving those to a lady at church.
Did you sell the car? I hope it worked out for you.

Hope everyone is doing well.
 
Well I got the blood tests done today, so that is all I need before I see the endo. They have a nurse call you if they dont get your testing results before you come in. So I shouldnt have anyone calling me since I have been on top of everything.

As usual she always orders the works:
TG complete, TSH, Free Thyroxine Index, Comp Metabolic Panel and Vit D

If all this comes out normal well fine and good but I am still telling her I constantly feel like crap (tired etc) and see what she says. I dont know if the blood thinner is having any effect on any of this medwise (maybe an interaction) or healthwise.

Christine - reading anything good? I am reading a historical fiction book about a midwife in the late 1800's. I just won that book from a blog and I also won 2 or 3 more so I gotta get my read on, lol! Just finished 2 amish books that I won too. I am giving those to a lady at church.
Did you sell the car? I hope it worked out for you.

Hope everyone is doing well.


Just reading some okay stuff. I did just finish Atul Gawande's Being Mortal, which is an enlightening book about aging and how to better treat the elderly. Good read. Now I'm onto some fiction about cooking.

I did sell the car!! The original buyers didn't call back so I put it back on Craigslist and sold it within an hour. Just after that happened, the original buyers called. Oh well. It's nice to not have so many cars in front of my house.
 

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