Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Under-active Thyroid
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
Once again, many thanks for your input.
My results are back at the GPs but the next available "bookable in advance" appointment is next Thursday 27th. They do have "on the day" appointments which means entering the "being fastest on the telephone redial button" at appointment opening time! Plus my GP only does a morning on a Friday. Else, I'll be entering the Monday morning appointment lottery.
Watch this space.
Sean.
Except mine was, the earliest appointment is 3rd Feb because my doc only does an afternoon on a wednesday! And she doesn't have any free morning appointments either. but the diary isn't open for 3rd feb so I'll have to call on monday morning.
As with your surgery, it can take an hour or more to get through so by the time you do, all the appointments for the next 'open' week in the diary are gone - they only open the diary a week ahead.
Since my TSH is apparently normal I'm getting to the can't be bothered stage. I get so stressed just trying to get an appointment, and then sitting in the surgery for the hour or more past my appointment time....
But, good luck with it and be assertive!
Whatever you do don't give up. There is a reason why you are feeling carp and you really need to find out what it is. I know the NHS isn't wonderful with things they don't consider urgent (I'm waiting for a brain scan to see if I have a tumour - nearly 5 months now) but you need to follow through. If you're anaemic, it'll get worse untreated, if you have TD ditto. Take your own advice and be assertive!
Shirl - that's awful, you must be stressed out of your mind.
Unfortunately, it turns out that only some of my test results are back and not all of them. Of course its the thyroid ones which aren't back yet. :-(
However, my CRP, ESR and rheumatoid factor are all high so my case will be referred to a rheumatologist for advice etc.
My GP is going to give me a call when the remaining test results come back.
On the plus side, I managed to get some antibiotics for the sinusitis that has been killing me since Wednesday.
Shirl - I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you.
Mava - Stick in there!
This must be the medical equivalent of a marathon.
Good luck everyone.
Shirl, don't know what to say other than hope your wait is over soon and that the results are the best they can be.
I've just come across this thread and it's nice to know that there are other people sharing what appears to be a more common problem than you realise.
I started running in 2000 at the ripe old age of 50. Progress was good but by the end of November 2003, I found myself pulling myself out of a 10K feeling really ill with nothing to give. Thinking it was my old friend anaemia, I went off to the doctors, only to be told a week later, when the results came back, that it was Hasimoto's hypothyroidism. Since then I have progressed from Thyroxine 50 mcg, to the current (two weeks ago) 150 mcg. To make matters worse, I am going through the 'mentalpause' and having been on so many websites have also found that veggies, such as brussels, cauli, etc are baddies against the drug. Also, all the phytos that I have been taking to combat the symptoms of the meno are also baddies. Any advice anyone? My running, at the moment, is going nowhere as I still feel crap! Am I depressed? Yes!! Added to this, it is also hard convincing doctors that you feel crap, when you are informed that your FT4 is within the reference range - albeit at level 9.
Don't know whether to be happy or sad that so many are joining this particular club! I have the Hashimoto's variety too.
As mentioned previously I wouldn't stress too much about eating moderate amounts of the 'bad-for-thyroid' foods because they are good for other things. The only one I try to limit is soya because it's hidden in so many things (as textured vegetable protein, hydrolised protein, lecithin and heaven knows how many other aliases) that it's easy to overdose.
If you need something to alleviate menopausal symptoms (know that one well!), thyroid-wise there's probably not much difference between phytos and prescription HRT. Using either will probably just mean you need more thyroxine to compensate.
Hope that your new dose will do the trick - although your blood levels will be stable in about another 4 weeks, healing takes a lot longer. With an FT4 of 9 you had a lot of room for manoevre with an increase so hopefully you'll start to feel a bit better.
The real irony with this disease is that it makes you exhausted, depressed, emotional, unable to deal with confrontation - yet it's probably the hardest condition to get adequate treatment for - when you're at your lowest you have to try to find the strength to go into battle. I wonder how many can't and just give up and end up having half a life as a result?
Shirl - that was me before this thread and your advice. You've given me the courage and the tools to take on my GP and try to take control and make myself feel better. I thank you for that more than I can adequately express. If the increase in thyroxine helps to lift the constant black cloud too (not bad enough to call depression most of the time)then that will be a bonus.
Margaret, I'm still managing to train and race but it does take a supreme effort of will much of the time and I'd love to know how much faster I'd be if I were 'well'!
Thanks so much! It was nice to open up my email and get two responses.
Shirl - It is such a comfort to speak to someone else who has 'been there before,' and all that you echo, is me at this point in time. I too have wondered if I were to give up on running, etc, and wallow in self pity (not doing such a bad job at the moment) would this mean half a life. However, I still feel it better to continue the battle, but the one thing that worries me if the attitude of GPs when treating this condition. I have been informed by the GP treating me, that he "never prescribes over 150 mcg," to any of his patients. Yet, having been in touch with the British Thyroid Foundation, the norm appears to be 175 - 200 mcg. Still I'll cross that bridge (if I need to), when I come to it.
I had wondered about HRT but thought better of it due to the possibilty of added weight on top of the weight already gained from being hypothyroid. I do suffer from the horrible night sweats, but have also noticed that when the level of Thyroxine needs uping, the night sweats are twice as bad with no let up and no sleep for days and weeks on end.
Little Miss Happy - thanks for the words of encouragement. The problem with me at the moment is the fact that I have felt so bad after some runs, that I am almost putting a psycological block in the way and finding it hard to put on the trainers and get out there.
Thanks lmh for the nice words - they are really appreciated! I'm lucky I've had the luxury of time to spend reading and finding out all I can about having TD and I'm very happy to pass it on if I can. It just fuels my anger to hear of the peeps, on here especially who are doing everything right healthwise - nutrition, hydration, exercise etc. - and are still not getting the right help from their doctors. I hope you see some sunny skies soon on your increased dose.
Margaret - I hope that the fact you're here means you're not thinking of giving up running! Seriously, running helps so much with the hypo-related things like weight control, depression and just feeling good about yourself etc.
Try not to worry too much about what lies ahead. If your doctor is really that categoric and if you needed to go over 150 then there are some other ways to go - you could change your GP, get a referral to an endo, see a private doctor...... You could ask your doctor for details in writing backed up by his sources as to why he won't prescribe over 150 - I've never seen anything documented stating 150 is an arbitrary maximum for anyone.
On the HRT, I think you need to do what you feel most comfortable with. I went on the HRT because I couldn't cope with the disturbed sleep. I've never had any problems with it - I gained hypo weight rather than HRT weight and lost it all and more. Could some of your depression be menopausal rather than thyroid maybe? Perhaps asking your doctor for say, a 3 month trial of HRT might help?
Off to bed now - doing the Epsom Oddballs Perch 6.25m tomorrow!
I hope that all went with your run. If the weather is anything like West Yorkshire today, you will have had great weather.
I can understand LMH expressing her thanks to you - you are a godsend to fellow sufferers. I too have tried to access so many sources, both internet and otherwise, regarding info on hypothyroidism. Sometimes positive, but other times some research contradicts and cancels out other findings - so find myself going round in circles. I've also looked everywhere to try and find out about the negative effects on running with hypothroidism, and finding this thread on the runner's forum was the business! I wonder if Runner's World mag, has thought of running an article on this subject.
No Shirl, I don't really want to give up running. It's just that with the ups and downs of the thyroid problem, the losing weight bit hasn't happened of late. Before the hypo problem, the weight fell off with running and I did feel good. Now I find on many occasions, I have felt completely debilitated after a run, ie, blinding headaches, feeling shakey and breathless and all my joints feeling like jelly. Yet I know enough about hydration, overtraining, etc, to know that I am doing the right things beforehand. Perhaps it might be worth a 3 month trial period of HRT, and it is one I am going to give careful consideration to. Any idea how much this affects the level of Thyroxine?
Well must close once more, and thanks again for your much needed support Shirl.
Many thanks for your advice and comments.
I'm waiting for my thyroid blood tests to come back which will hopefully be very early this week.
I think I may have a foot in 2 camps. Fristly, my GP is referring my case to a rheumatologist due to my high CRP, ESR and rheumatoid factor results and secondly, I think the thyroid tests may indicate I'm borderline hypothyroid.
I have not suffered many of the symptons like many who have posted on this thread (Shirl, Mava, LMH, Margaret etc) but my energy levels have took a serious nose dive down, my skin is very dry and I just generally seem unhappy with life for no particular reason. Lack of weight gain is probably due to averaging 30 miles a week for the last 2 years and eating a very healthy diet. No - looking at me nobody else seems to think I could be hypothyroid either. I'm 6'4" and just over 11 stone.
On my original blood tests (just over 4 weeks ago) my GP was looking for anything that was causing the inflamnation to my back. The CRP, ESR, rheumatiod factor and thyroid tests all came back positive. Reading between the lines I don't think he quite beleived the results, so advised a retest 4 weeks later.
4 weeks later (2nd round of tests) the results are coming back the same - albeit still waiting for the thyroid ones (TSH and FT3), and he appears to be at a loss to explain what my body is going through.
Sean.
Do you know if you have had a thyroid antibodies test that might indicate if you have Hashimoto's? Reason for asking is that there is a whole bunch of research showing a correlation between RA and Hashimoto's (PubMed comes up with over 500 articles).
It's well-accepted that having one auto-immune disease gives a slightly increased risk of developing others but the RA/thyroid connection seems to be stronger.
Just thought I'd pop in to let you know that I completed the Brass Monkey yesterday. A new PB for me - 2.03.08. Unfortunately despite eight hours sleep last night I'm absolutely shattered today, more than after the other halfs I've run. I've no idea if this is linked to anything more than the effort I put in but it seems excessive to me. I guess I'll just have to see what tomorrow brings.
I'm not aware of being tested for thyroid antibodies but after doing a bit of "googling" today I can see that they are both auto-immune diseases.
Anyway, I got a call from from GP late this morning. My second set of thyroid tests came back today.
My TSH has gone from 6.32 to 8.66 in 4 weeks and my FT4 (albiet the receptionist at Lister said they would test for the FT3) has gone from 10.8 to 10.4 over the same period of time.
I'm now a fully flegded, paid up member of the under-active thyroid club.
I start on 50 mcg levothyroxine meds tomorrow.
Sean.
Oh dear, bad news but at least you now know for sure and are getting it managed early.
50mcg is a fairly typical starting dose for someone in otherwise good health. Hopefully your doc has asked you to go back in 6-8 weeks to get tested again and see where you are.
It's a pity they didn't do an antibody test - I wonder if your rheumy will order it? It doesn't change the thyroid treatment but its useful to know because with auto-immune TD, it generally means that your thyroid will fail completely at some point, and it's as well to know of the increased risk of other auto-immune problems.
Reading some of the stuff about RA and thyroid - there doesn't yet seem to be a definitive conclusion as to why the connection exists although the evidence is clear that it does - they speculate variously that it could be the thyroid antibodies at work, that it could be the 'once you get one auto-immune disease you are more likely to get another' scenario or that it could be an inflammatory effect of the thyroid disease itself. Hope your rheumy can cast some light!
Welcome to the URWFRC Thyroidians Subdivision!
Once again, many thanks for your thoughts and opinions.
I have already filled in the form for the Med Ex card, I don't like to let the grass grow under my feet!
I will do some more digging about on RA and TD.
Anyway thanks for all your help.
Sean.
P.S. Congrats on the P.B, LMH.
Welcome to the club Sean. Probably not one any of us would have liked to join but it certainly seems to have some good members!
One of the things that amazes me is the difference in symptoms that we all present with, the other is that the docs don't tell you that your symptoms could be/are down to your impaired thyroid function!
Shirl, can you get thyroid goitres with an underactive thyroid?
Great PB - well done! Hope you've recovered from the tiredness OK.
It's very rare to have goitre with underactive function - there usually appears to be a very specific trigger - metastases from some cancers, lithium treatment, possibly soy consumption.
Main causes of goitre are genetic, iodine deficiency, dietary goitrogens, inherited defect in T4 synthesis and possibly some other substances that stimulate the thyroid - EGF and IGF.
Those with a goitre will usually show 'normal' thyroid function or be thyrotoxic - over-active.
Are you worried?
I've posted this question elsewhere on the site, before I knew this thread even existed. I'm hoping for some help:
I'm new to running and have been doing quite short distances to start (about 2miles) with no problems.
I've finally stepped it up to over four miles but have been stopped in my tracks by chronic headache for the rest of the day. It eventually goes away after a good night's sleep. I'm definately drinking enough water.
My body also seems to find it difficult to stabalize body temperature after a run. Four a couple of hours afterwards I can find myself feeling quite shivery and cold or quite hot and stripping off. Could this be due to my under active thyroid? I'm not sure if the thyroid is responsible for the stability of body temperature or not.
The temperature thing I don't mind so much, but I'm going to have to get rid of those headaches if I'm to continue.
I'm currently on 50-75mcg thyroxine (the doctors can't seem to agree which one is best).
Any suggestions or even the knowledge that I'm not alone would be gratefully recieved.
When the glands just under your jawline swell, isn't that usually a sign of infection/immune system stress? Are you maybe overdoing it - I wonder if overtraining would cause this, particularly if you notice it most when you're tired.
Not all feelings of fullness around the thyroid are goitre - they can also develop nodules and cysts. With Hashimoto's, it's not uncommon to have periods of 'flare' where the antibody attack seems to increase causing feelings of fullness, inflammation and sometimes pain.
Have you mentioned these to your doctor?
Hi Christine, I can't help with the headaches if your eating and drinking enough but I suffer with extreme temperature variations. I get very hot when I run and stay that way for up to half an hour later when I get very cold before warming up again after a hot bath and food.