thyroid scan

[brjoyce]

ive managed to find somewhere to have a thyroid scan done against my doctors wishes. i have hashimotos but she said iam wasting my time as they will find nothing. last june a cousin of mine was also told the same but the scan did find two growing nodules which she has since had removed along with half her thyroid plus the isthmus.have any of you with hashimotos/under-active had the same and what were the results?

[brjoyce]

hi barb sorry was unable to do link but will ask my daughter to show me when she comes over weekend. however would like to ask your opinion on those figues i sent (reply from jan 4th) would you in all honesty call that sub clinical /borderline?

[brjoyce]

imust admit iam a bit of a novice with computers so will explain on here. to cut a long story short i was tested in sept 2013 tsh was 8.03 and t4 just 10 our lowest lab range. was tested again in feb 2014 . TSH was  9.52 andT4 10.8 .dr said she would test again in april tsh was then 7.83 and T4 10.05. dr put me on 25mg levothyroxine. i had another blood test in july 2014 TSH was 4.02 andT4 15.3. gp refused me any more meds as she said thyroid had  'healed' two weeks later my daughter had to take me to A and E as i felt so ill. had another blood test 10 weeks later (had changed to a new dr by then) TSH had risen again to 6.81 and T4 had gone down to 11.4 so the new dr put me back on the meds.

[Barb135]

Please save me the trouble of having to hunt for your other post... you can post a link to it... simply open that post, copy the url and paste it into this thread.  That way I can click on it and go straight there... I'd appreciate it.

[brjoyce]

iam having another blood test this thursday actually as iam also pre-diabetic non of the doctors in my area test for T3. if you can get onto another post of mine which i called hashimotos and nodules it will give you an idea of the problems i had with gps and treatment.

[Barb135]

We find that a lot of our U.K members don't get adequate testing/treatment, due to the NHS guidelines, which, apparently, say that TSH is sufficient to test for thyroid conditions and if TSH is within the reference ranges, no further testing/treatment is necessary... This is very wrong and a lot of people are left ill because of it...

If you can post your Free T3, Free T4 and TSH levels, with reference ranges, if you haven't already, perhaps we can give you a better assessment of your status.

[brjoyce]

thanks for the reply barb very true she dosnt seem to want me to have anything. shes treating me as being borderline but i know its full blown as iam a nurse my-self seen it all before. ive even got private medical insurance but without a letter from the gp (which she has refused to do) so theyve refused to pay out.ive already had to change drs for the same reasons last year and iam out of the catchment area for the next one. i work in a very large acute hospital but even they wont help me without a referral. i will be however taking it up with the local MP so fingers crossed

[Barb135]

Many/most of us with Hashimoto's/hypothyroidism have nodules on our thyroids.  Most of the time they are nothing to worry about, but once in a while the characteristics are abnormal.  Less than 5% of all thyroid nodules turn out to be thyroid cancer, but it never hurts to have the scan just to make sure.

If your doctor doesn't even want you to have a scan, I have to wonder what else she doesn't want you to have.  Perhaps you need a new doctor...