Across and Inside my Universe

Hypo- Not Hyper- Thyroid

The ob/gyn's office made a mistake and told me I was hyperthyroid, they even told my GP's office I was hyperthyroid, but the test result actually means low thyroid, when the TSH is high, the actual thyroid hormones (T3? and T4?  I don't know) are low.  So they allowed somebody who doesn't know what they are doing, to interpret the result, which is rather bad medicine . . . . I spent over a week thinking I had Grave's, since I have so many other symptoms that fit, and I had an episode on Sunday where I was flushed and was really hot for awhile and itchy and couldn't take being in a room that everyone else said was only a little warm.

I told my doc about all these Grave's-ish symptoms, the above and what I listed in the last post, except maybe the agitation, even though I'm low thyroid, because he should know about the other symptoms.

So it's a bit of a relief, low thyroid isn't as harsh or severe, although I'm a bit annoyed that the ob/gyn PA didn't do the more extensive thyroid bloodtest I'd requested, she only tested the TSH level.  I've been reading that it's important to request and get the full set of numbers, but some people won't run them.  

Still, I feel kinda cool about the fact that I'm the one who caught this low thyroid, they didn't think to test it, and I feel relieved it's not the more serious Grave's disease, though I wonder why the other symptoms.

Hopefully, they say within a week I'll feel the medication working, hopefully I'll feel less tired and less depressed.

I May Have Grave's Disease

I have had alot of medical appointments this year, many of them involving the gastroenterologist.  He did alot of blood tests last December, but not a thyroid test, so at my physical this week, after a friend had suggested, "Get your thyroid tested," I decided it would be a good idea for a couple of reasons.

One, it's been ten years since it's been tested.  Two, it affects alot of systems, so I thought it would be good to rule it out as being the cause of anything that's been going on this year.  I'm not a doctor, obviously, but I figured a physical is a good time to get things checked out and rule things out, so I figured why not dot one more I, cross one more t.

My friend had suggested the thyroid test, but the more extensive one as she had read that the regular one comes back falsely negative 75% of the time.  I don't know if I believe that, and when I mentioned that to the pa doing my physical (I thought I was going to be seeing the doc but I guess not) she didn't either.  I don't know which thyroid test they did, but they did one.

Lo and behold, my results are high, and apparently they are rather high.

I've looked on Web MD and Grave's disease is the most common reason for hyperthyroidism, though there could be other reasons, however, given my other symptoms, I suspect it will turn out to be Grave's, which is the immune system attacking the thyroid and the thyroid responding by putting out too much stuff.

The excessive sweating I've previously posted about, with picture, here.

Read the first paragraph or two of the post about being agitated and rapid mood changes, here.

Read the first half of the post, here. About gastrointestinal, being hungry and eating a ton and not gaining weight, losing a bit, I think I lost 10 to 15 pounds, and I was so freaking hungry and just eating eating eating . . .

Just now a few minutes ago as I discovered that agitated post it hit me in a new light, I was like oh my gosh NOW I understand why that summer and fall I was so extra agitated and switching moods like you switch your lights on and off . . . I put it like feeling like a stretched overused bungee cord, just feeling so used and exhausted by it, I didn't mention it to anybody not even my therapist because I didn't understand that something medical or mental illness or both was going on, I thought it was just ME!

This is a big problem with me, is that I don't mention pertinent things to doctors and therapists, apparently important things, because I think they are just ME, they don't register with me as things of note, they FEEL like me, you know?  But when you are in them there is some part of you that is like, wait this is weird . . . .  but it gets subsumed by the sheer force of what you are experiencing . . .  It gets drowned out by by pummeling of what you are enduring because you are drowning in this output I guess of what the thyroid is putting out, but you don't know that, you are living it and enduring it and it just feels like what you are, and when you already have mental illnesses you just think it's a part of them . . . .

I'm feeling bad that I didn't realize, that I didn't wake up from my stupor of my life to point this out to anybody, it seems obvious in retrospect but like I say you end up getting overwhelmed by it and you just keep floating through your life on the wave of agitation or emotional switching to the next mood, the next day, and you don't THINK about it, you are too TIRED to think about it because it is so DRAINING . . . . you are so tired physically and mentally and emotionally . . .

Which is a part of it too, it just drains you.  Being so tired, alll the freaking time.  Being so so so so so absolutely tired.

Yes I know I'm assuming I have Grave's, it may be another type of hyperthyroidism, I'm open to that, but I have so many symptoms of Grave's, and the majority of hyperthyroidism are Grave's . . . it is not like I want it, but I think chances are high.

The eye pain and itching too.

The rare rare only once to a couple times a year pounding heart with skipping beat, though it hasn't happened in over a year I think.

The sweating has calmed down the last year or two though.

The thing is the sweating started 8-9 years ago, maybe ten, and my thryoid was normal ten years ago . . . the sweating started when I started Effexor, and I thought maybe it was serotonin syndrome?  I told my first psychiatrist about it but it may have been a substitute, he was on leave for being disciplined by the state board, so I don't know if the actual psychiatrist actually ever learned about it or dealt with it.

Anyway we'll see, the gynecologist I had the physical with doesn't deal with this stuff I'll be seeing my GP for this to investigate further so later this week we'll see what is up, they are forwarding the test results on.