BellaOnline Forums Health and Fitness Thyroid Health Share Your Thyroid Story

mgal,

First, I'm so sorry, I didn't see your newer posts above. I check this forum for new posts several times a week (most days) and did not see the "new post" notice on this thread!
I hate to ask but if you can skip a couple of spaces over from your results above and list the reference ranges for those, we can better comment on them. Actually, to save you time, just list the ranges beside those that were flagged abnormal.
Lab results are something that help us learn more here, so thanks for sharing those and letting us know which were flagged.

ruth tylutki,

It's great to see you come on board here at the forum!

The weight loss and avoiding weight gain, is a biggy for hypothyroid patients, even when best treatment for it is received. It is one of the most common complaints you hear from patients.

I wrote an article on the subject although I didn't really have any secrets or special diet plans to share in it. I'm posting the link to that one below but would also recommend you check out Mary Shommon's book about diet for thyroid patients, which I'm posting the link to below the article link.

My article:
BellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!

Dear Jim,

I am giving you more information about my health history.


For your information, I am on contraceptive pill for the last 5 years due to suffering from severe acne,could that effect my tsh also?? and also i passed from lot of stress periods where from the last 5 years i lost about 7 kilos due not eating because of stress..first university than my job, etc but now thank god i am trying to take life as easy as possible cause i was suffering from acid in my stomach and my doctor prescribed me nexium.

Yesterday I went to visit another doctor and told me dont wry about my tsh level and that next I`ll do the blood test again.
What do you think??

For your benefit and also in order maybe to give me more information
i am going to send you all my blood test results that i had done
white blood cell count 5.30 * 10^9/l (3.5-11)
neutropholis 2.57 * 10^9/l (2.5-7.5)
lymphocytes 2.08 * 10^9/l (1.6-3.5)
monocytes 0.53 * 10^9/l (0.2-0.8)
eosinophils 0.09 * 10^9/l (0-0.4)
basopils 0.03 * 10^9/l (0-0.1)
red cell count 3.80 * 10^9/l (3.9-5.6)
haemoglobin 12.0 g/dl (11.5-16.5)
haematocrit 36.7% (36-48)
mean cell volume 95.6 fl
mean cell hb 31.3 pg
mean cell hb conc 32.7 g/dl
red cell distribution 11.5%
platelets 218 * 10^9/l (140-400)
mean platelet volume 11.1 fl
glucose 4.91 mmol/l (3.9-6)
bilirubin 7.0umol/l(1.72-17.1)
alkaline 36u/l(35-104)
ggt 12.5u/l(5-36)
alt 13 u/l(4-31)
urea 5.6 mmol/l(1.7-8.3)
creatinine 77 umol/l(59-104)
c-reactive protein (crp) <6 mg/l
epsteing barr virus igg positive
epsteing barr virus igm negative
rickettsia antibodies negative
tsh 3.01 miu/l(0.4-4)
fee t4 19.80 pmol/l(10.3-24.45)

mg

mgal,

Your levels all look pretty good from what I can see, although your neutrophils are near borderline low, so need kept an eye on and maybe retested every few months. These can go low with certain types of autoimmune diseases but not as common with treated autoimmune hypothyroidism. The systemic type autoimmunity more commonly causes "neutropenia", such as Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis. Another cause can be low B-12 and I see on your tests this wasn't included, so you might discuss with your doctor getting it tested. B-12 can be low in advance of causing pernicious anemia and a B-12 level test can rule out that you're heading that direction of confirm the need for B-12 supplementation.
Other than this, I again believe that TSH at 3.01 is a little high for a treatment level. Your Free T-4 is above mid range but would be good to know what the Free T-3 currently is which may indicate undertreatment or confirm that your dose is close to where it needs to be as your doctor is suggesting.
The contraceptive could affect thyroid levels to a degree ( I lack search on this area) but if you take it ongoing during treatment, your blood retests will reveal any need for dose changes for this or any other reason.
In my opinion that B-12 level would be important because thyroid patients are at increased risk for developing antibodies to the glyco-protein in the stomach (intrinsic fator) that absorbs B-12 from foods.

Thanks JIm for your reply.

Unbelievable, :-( here it is summer time and this is the second time during summer time I have sore throat with little fever :-( this year 2008. I think that is the fifth time to stay in bed feeling sick and taking the fifth box of antibiotics cause my doctor always prescribe me antibiotics last time was sick was in June before I did my blood tests the doctor gave me zinnat 500 mg 2 per day imagine i was feeling overdose now he gave klerimed. I am losing my routine work. Antibiotics are killing me and makes me feel more sick. Is it cause I have lack of vitamins the fact that I catch every single virus in the air? I am taking multivitamins, start them in April but also get sick.
By any chance, do you know a good doctor in the country of Malta??
I had the tests checked due to this cause of getting always sick and I have already visited 4 doctors especially regarding my tsh level told me not to worry everything is fine.

mgal

mgal,

I'm sorry I can't help in referring for Malta but possibly a member here would have better information on that, than I.
I've heard lots of thyroid patients complain that since having thyroid disease, they are more suceptable to viruses and colds and that these more often become bronchitis. This is true in my case since thyroid disease.
Antibiotics make me feel ill and very fatigued as well and I know fatigue is a possible side effect of some.
In my opinion, a good multivitamin is good and can help supplement any of them that are low and helps the body have more resistence to colds/viruses.
If B-12 specifically is low, it might require injections to get the level back up. Testing the B-12 in the blood is the way to find out if it is low and if oral or injections of B-12 are needed.

Can any members out there help mgal with info on thyroid Docs in Malta?

Well I'm not sure I have a Thyroid Story although I am becoming very concerned. After a very stressful past few years I have begun exhibiting many of the symptoms you indicate such as extreme fatigue, very dry skin, hair loss, depression and unfortunately weight gain. I guess I have had brain fog as well, I just thought it was old age. Do I need to see a specialist? My Primary Doc doesn't seem to be overly concerned just continues on with the anxiety meds.

Hi Jim,

Thanks loads for your useful information you give me as always :-)
This is my second day sick at home,tomorrow hopefully I will go back to work even though I still have a sore throat and not feeling 100%. But I cannot be able to take any more sick leave. Well to tell you the truth, it`s from the age of 13 years that happened to get always sick especially in summer time is the worse. strange eh. Anyway hopefully next Saturday I am going to the clinic where I did my blood test and hopefully finger crossed they would order the following blood tests, I think if I have the result of these it would be perfect to know exactly what the problem is.

TSH AND FREE T4 GOING TO DO THEM AGAIN IF IS IT POSSIBLE, AT THE CLINIC IS FREE OF CHARGE SO I AM NOT GOING TO LOOSE ANYTHING TO REQUEST THEM, THAN IF THEY TELL ME THERE IS NO NEED, MOST PROBABLY THAT THING ARE GOING TO TELL ME. hope not.

I am going to tell them to order me the following tests:
TSH, FREE T3, FREE T4, TPO ABS, TG ABS, AND REVERSE T3
AND ALSO B12, VITAMIN D ,FOLIC ACID AND FERRITIN.

Do you think that with these tests are enough, so finally a doctor would be able to tackle more the problem???

Pray for me please, that I would find a doctor that would order them for me.:-)

mgal

Deborah,

mgal lists the tests that are important in evaluation of thyroid function. Your Dr. may have tested you for TSH level and if it looked good, tested no further. There are thyroid problems however that aren't detected by TSH only testing, so for really good evaluation, those listed in mgal's post are the ones that help to rule out most possibilities or will detect them.
If your current Dr. won't seem to budge in evaluating your thyroid further, I would ask him for a referral to an Endocrinologist or thyroid specialist or even a really qualified MD who treats thyroid. Your symptoms could be thyroid and certainly sounds like a strong possibility but there are other hormonal problems, diabetes etc... that can cause similar ones. Thyroid is an important one to test along with getting a CBC - complete blood count and testing for diabetes. If the problem isn't detected, he would then move on to other possibilities.
Some people who don't have access to Dr.s who can order them testing, will use HealthCheckUSA, a company that sets up blood draws for Quest Diagnostics and requires no Dr. visit. I've used them several times. Their link>> www.healthcheckusa.com (not available outside of US).

mgal, as you can tell by my reply to Deborah, you have picked all the tests that should give thorough evaluation of your thyroid condition and treatment. You do have my prayers on this and glad to see you take advantage of prayer-help from others, I'm a firm believer in divine help and strength
.

Dear Jim,

Today Saturday went again to the clinic hoping that blood tests would be ordered, at least the good news is that I convinced the clinic doctor to order me at least B-12,Folate, and also CBC and ESR, cause as I told you before sometimes I suffer a lot from stomach upsets. Last time that I did the blood tests CBC had been indeterminate so they are going to check it again. That is the lucky side, the hard luck is that regarding the thyroid, I told the doctor at least oder me the antibodies test, told me there is no need it is within range. I told the clinic doctor to do it to be on the safe side, and told me the procedures are these and I can`t sorry :-(. The last thing maybe is to try and do them in a private clinic, I think that TPO ABS and TG ABS costs a fortune to do them private. Even though that it bit impossible to do them I visited nearly 4 docs and told me not to worry tsh is normal level.

regards,

mgal