Hi All,
First, I have to say just reading this forum has been invaluable to me, in becoming more informed and not feeling so alone in what I've been experiencing the last year.
Im a 44 year old female. I've always been very athletic and very fit. I played competitive beach volleyball for most of my adult life, and never had a problem losing weight if I needed to, until 2013. This is a little long, so please be patient.
After going to a doctor with a cold in the early part of last year, they determined I had elevated blood pressure. Doesn't run in my family, I watch my sodium, and ALWAYS exercised and eat very healthy, so it was a little surprising. After about 2 months, I then noticed I wasn't able to lose a few pounds by amping up my exercise and diet, and my blood pressure was rising.
I finally went to my GP in May, and I was diagnosed borderline HBP. She didn't want to prescribe meds, instead trying the dash diet. I did, and surprisingly...I was gained more weight, losing hair, and found I was cold all the time. She tested my thyroid, only tested the TSH at that time, (I knew nothing about the other panels I SHOULD have tested). At that time my TSH was 2.36.She also tested my adrenals and they were normal as well. PM 4.3.
(never did the saliva test, I'm going to do that soon on my own.)
She thought everything was "normal" and sent me on my way.
What happened after that was crazy hot flashes, palpitations, (especially at night) , insomnia, and I started to develop some tingling in my fingers and toes, only at night though...never felt it throughout the day. She then did some diagnostics for lupus, and they looked normal as well. All the while, I could now "feel" my blood pressure, cant describe it, just knew it was not getting better, also came more anxiety.
Went back and she finally put me on a 25mg of metoprolol. My diastolic was still high, so she upped it to 50mg a day, still didn't control my diastolic to a normal range...then finally 100mg a day. Needless to say, being on that much metoprolol makes it VERY difficult to exercise. I still run on the treadmill 45 minutes, 5 days a week, but can barely keep up at 4 miles an hour with decreased heart rate from the metoprolol, whereas before I was doing 6.5 mph. I don't huff and puff, my legs are just tired.
Did a holter monitor and ECHO for the heart, both normal too.
Also started getting irregular periods, and got my FSH tested. in September, which was 13.5, which shows perimenopause is happening. FUN. Also at that time:
TSH was 3.18, it went up since the last time.
T4 8.9
vitamin d 30.7.
During this whole time, I've probably ballooned up to my all time high weight. All while trying to exercise more and cut out gluten, complex carbs and then sugar.
Within the past month, I started a very strict, low glycemic diet. Alot of proteins and vegetables. Gained even more weight. My normal temperature in the morning is about 96.3 now, hands are always freezing, dry/brittle hair and nails, brain fog, allergies off the charts (i'm allergic to everything, but I noticed I was sneezing MUCH more than ever) and my diastolic was still not below 85. Sooooo, dr. prescribed 25 mg of hczt, (I'm only taking half of it in the morning).
This last stretch had my doctor thinking to test my TSH again, and it started me on my own personal journey to research more than the TSH, and brought me to several of these boards. I know she thinks I'm nuts, and I didn't want to call her and ask her to run all these other tests, so I just ordered them on my own and paid out of pocket. Here are the latest:
TSH: 2.98
T4: 9.1
TPO ab: 17
Reverse T3: 20
Free T4: 1.26
Free T3: 3.0
After reading about hypo, and the new ranges for TSH that labs don't use, I just noticed that i'm borderline and perhaps that could be the problem. I faxed her my newest labs, and pretty much pleaded to her, that my symptoms
are pretty much all hypo related and I'm at my wits ends.
She called back the next day, and agreed that the TSH values alone are controversial (Wilsons Temperature Syndrome) and wants to start me on a very low dose (15mg of Armour) once a day. She wants me to monitor
my blood pressure even more now, and my heart rate, and I'm told Armour can affect those...but at least she was willing to listen to me and try this.
My questions now are:
1. Is 15mg a day to low a dose? I've read too low can be harmful too?
2. She wants me to test my TSH ONLY in 6 weeks. Nothing else! Of course, I'm going to test more, but what should I be looking for in those labs that I can provide to her as evidence instead of just relying on the TSH only, which is concerning considering all of the evidence that supports the other crucial labs for the free T3s/T4s.
3. My doctor, bless her heart, is actually very kind, and willing to listen to me, and seems to be progressive. I don't want to ruin our relationship by always doubting her, but the mere fact that she relies only on the TSH is concerning. Have any of you had experience in "schooling" your doctors and actually encouraged them to seek new approaches towards thyroid disorders? Or should I just go to an endo? By the way, most endos in this area (Pittsburgh) are very reluctant to diagnose on symtoms alone, so I feel I have a gem in this doctor I currently have.
Thank you so much for reading and any insight would be DEEPLY appreciated!
mischa