BellaOnline Forums Health and Fitness Thyroid Health Newly Diagnosed with Hypthyroidism and need advice

Hello,

I am a 34 year old female who was recently diagnosed with Hypothyroidism. My story is a little different as the primary complaint with people who have this is weight loss, that is defintely not my problem, I have always been a slender woman and never weighed anymore than 126lbs, I am 5ft 8 so as you can see no weight gain problem. Today I am 114.5lbs...this all began for me in January of 2006. I went to a new doctor first appointment in 5 years as I had no insurance till then. She did the usual blood work as I told her I just wasn't feeling well.

After getting the results back she said all was normal, I asked her to send me a copy. When I got them back I noticed my TSH was 5.81 H. I asked her if this was a problem because my mom has Hypothyroidism and her brother has Addisons Disease. She said nothing to worry about at this point, I was "too young" to worry about that now. So, no further testing was done. I went about my business and as the months went by I started to get more tired, I was always cold and had a problem with my weight, I kept losing weight and feeling like I had become stupid overnight, my memory was terrible and I have always had an excellent memory. The the aching joints and muscle spasms and pain began and so I just doing everyday chores were hard work.

It came to July and then I started having problems with my food I would eat and hours later I would vomit the same food back up, it would sit in my stomach for hours and then eventually make me sick. I was miserable this continued till August. I went on vacation and the sickness problem became more severe, there wasn't anything solid I could eat, my weight went from 126lbs, to 110lbs. I also ended up in the Emergency room after a bout of sickness as I collapsed in my bathroom after vomitting and got a very rapid heart rate and dizziness, sweating and wasn't sure what was going on. The ER room did blood work and my potassium was low and other blood results were low and some were high. I was dehydrated so they hydrated me and gave me medicine and advised me to see a gastric specialsit. I went to see a gastro specialist in September and he did some blood work and he saw my previous blood test, and tested my thyroid and my TSH came back at 18.4 but my Thyroid hormones were in the normal range but on the lower end of normal. The range was 0.70 - 2.14 and mine was 0.79. He gave me medicine for Gastroparesis and it seemed to help me keep food down, and sent me back to my primary who prescribed .25mcg of synthroid and a come back in 2 months to test it again. I wasn't happy with that response, not after the careless way I was blown off back in January.

So I made an appointment to see an endocrinologist, I have a PPO so I don't have to ask permission to make appointments. I was concerened that I might have Addisons and end upin a crisis if I didn't get treatment and was misdiagnosed because I was not having problems with my weight. I had symptoms that related to underactive, while there was a question about my weight loss.

The endo tested me for Addisons and I was negative, he upped my synthroid to .75mcg and I have been on it a month, I have to go back in December to retest. However, I started feeling some relief, I could eat food again and I wasn't as fatigued. I still have my joint pain and muscle aches. This weekend I feel like i have relapsed or something, my food is laying heavy in my stomach and causing me discomfort, the gastroparesis has returned and I am so fatigued and very tired again. I am not sure what is going, I have symptoms all over the place....I am also being woke up at night sometimes with a rapid heart rate, sweating and dizziness and I thought I was having panic attacks or something. Does anyone else have the weight loss problem, I mean gaining weight with underative thyroid. I am losing weight I am still only 144.5 today and at my height I am not feeling healthy at all, infact today has been a bad day of pain and fatigue, nausea and headaches. I am confused by all these symptoms and why some of them apply to the thyroid and some don't. Does anyone else experience this also? I have a call in to my gastro doctor to see if he can give me more medicine for the gastric symptoms otherwise I wont be able to eat again.

Any help you have to offer would be nice so that I can at least get an idea how long this typically lasts. I feel so unwell all the time and I am too young to feel this bad, and my memory sucks I can't think straight, does that ever go away? Could I have some other problem that I am not aware of?

Thank you so much for your help <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

I have had hypothyroidism for years. I like you did not have a weight problem then but other symptoms were present. I was tired,depressed,bad hair,bad skin,cold extremities and really heavy, long periods. I did not have any real stomack problems except that I had at least 3 movements a day. When I was tested (a few times) I tested negative for thyroid. It took some kind of an xray on my neck to show the hypothyroidism. I saw an endo Dr for a few years and now my regular doctor takes care of me. I never threw up or lost weight although nerves can produce those symptoms. Your long time of sickness before being diagnosed may have made you anxious. Keep getting your medication adjusted until you feel better and watch your diet. Don't take your meds with Vitamin C and take them in the am not the pm. Keep researching your condition. Knowledge is power.

You wrote:

When I got them back I noticed my TSH was 5.81 H. I asked her if this was a problem because my mom has Hypothyroidism and her brother has Addisons Disease. She said nothing to worry about at this point, I was "too young" to worry about that now.

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One is NEVER too young to worry about either condition. If you have either, it can wreck your life. A 5.81 TSH is definitely something to worry about. Anything over 2.0 is serious.

Drop into http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/ There is a lot of information there as well as here. Also check out the yahoo group NaturalThyroidHormones.

The average doc is clueless when it comes to the thyroid, and endos are the worst.

You need to NOT wait until Dec. to get your thyroid hormones rechecked. If you have not already done so (I know you wrote this about a week ago) you need to call your endocrinologist ASAP. It sounds like he may have increased your synthroid too much. The waking at night, rapid heart rate, sweating, etc., are symptoms of HYPERthyroidism. This isn't just uncomfortable, but dangerous. You need your hormone levels checked NOW. It is common to wait 2 - 4 months to check hormone levels because it can take that long for them to reach a steady level in your body, but if you are being over-medicated it won't get better as time goes on, it will just get worse.

It is important to find a good endocrinologist. You may have one, I don't know. I found a great endo by following links at About.com. I was continuing to feel lousy even though my homone levels were supposedly normal. (They weren't, at least not nearly good enough) The endo I saw said most women feel best when the TSH level is under 2.0, and that sometimes you need two supplements - a T4 (synthroid) and also a T3. It makes sense. Your body normally produces T3 and converts it to T4. We must make T3 for a reason or our bodies would just produce T4 to begin with. I now take a slightly lower dose of T4 and also a T3, cytomel. My energy level is much better. I keep my TSH at around 1. Anything over about 2.5 and I am a basket case. And if it goes under .5 I have hot flashes, palpatations, insomnia, nervousness.

If your gastrointestinal problems continue go back to the GI doc. It could be something unrelated to the thyroid.

Good luck,
Claudine Crews

My husband was recently diagnosed with Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Thanks for the website and reference to the yahoo forum.

He is going to an endo but we are going to do everything we can natually to help his condition also.