Low Thyroid? My Mom?!?!?!

This is kind of a continuation of the other day's post.  It was getting so long though that I figured this topic deserved a post of it's own.  However, it is very late and I am very tired so I can't make any promises that what this blog post says makes much sense or that I have not repeated myself a million times.  Happy Reading lol

The other day at supper mom comes out with this.  "On [insert show here] today they said that to have low thyroid your [she couldn't remember but it's the TSH] number has to be less than 5 before medications.  But this lady was saying that any number under 2.5 was actually low thyroid and should be looked into if you have symptoms of it".  I just said 'Oh, really?' to see where she was going with this.  She then suggested that I go and find my last bloodwork and look at the numbers "Just to see".  She told me that they listed off a bunch of the 'warning signs' of low thyroid (thinning and losing hair - check, weight gain not able to be shifted - check, extreme fatigue - check, tachycardia - check, etc) and that it seemed to fit a lot of what was going on with me.  I was dumbstruck!! 

When we started the whole sweating issue path I originally was 99.9% sure that I had low thyroid.  It is very prevelant in the family, my grandmother is at all of us girls to have our levels checked frequently and she always says I must have low thyroid just because how I appear when visiting her, I have also had a friend of the family who has thyroid issues say that I had a textbook case of it.  I have had the hair and weight issues more increasingly over the year and it just seemed to answer a bunch of questions.  I wake up most days with hoarseness and it can come on at any time for not reason, I have also been having more and more issues with swallowing.  Most meats I can not get down unless having a large drink of water to help it down.  I have asked to have my thyroid levels measured countless times and am always told that they are normal.  I even went to my first internist appointment expecting to come out with a diagnosis of hypothyroidism and given medications and be on my way.  Well she also said my levels were normal and not the cause.  So at that point I dropped it and gave up on it figuring all these doctors (3 different doctors) couldn't be wrong and I must be mistaken and mom also dropped it saying it wasnt the problem and we (I) needed to move on.  So when she brought up this talk show and what the person said and then told me to go check my levels, I was stunned! 

I went down and found levels from a few years ago that showed my levels at just slightly above 2.5 and then my labwork from the massive work-up done last year and my numbers were at a 3.3!  So not only are they above the 2.5 level for being low, they have also increased in the few short years that had past!  Mom mentioned that they had suggested taking Viatmin C, Vitamin D and Zinc to help.  Well I already take all of those but I have increased my Vitamin D level to see if that helps.  Unfortunatly we don't know what else could help as it seems like a medication problem, not a vitamin problem.  I go to see my internist on thursday and mom wants to bring it up and at least get my levels checked again to see if they are going up or staying steady.  We also want to tell her how symptomatic I am and hope that she will agree to trying a very low dose of medication.  We all know that us EDSer's don't test 'normal'.  You can't take an EDSer's test result and compare it to a normal person's result.  You have to compare that result with previous results that that person has had.  That is why it is so important for us EDSers to get baseline tests of EVERYTHING pretty early in our health journey.  If my internist does not agree about trying it I may ask my GP about it.  He is usually pretty good about me trying things if I have a good solid reason behind wanting to try it.  And if that doesnt work mom and I are going to go into the health food store as we think we heard that they have a supplement there that is specifically for thyroid health.  If I can't get a doctor behind me than I am going to try it and see if it helps, and if it does that is just one more thing I can take to the doctor to show that some of my issues may be thyroid related!

Here is a breif list of symptom from (http://www.medicinenet.com/hypothyroidism/page3.htm):

• Fatigue - Definitly, can sleep 12 hours and still be exhausted and tire out very easily
• Depression - This is debatable, with the amounf of health issues I have I think depression is natural
• Modest weight gain - Unfortunatly I have gained 15lbs since Christmas
• Cold intolerance - Always cold and have blankets around
• Excessive sleepiness - Again can sleep more than 12 hours in one go
• Dry, coarse hair - That is also thinning and falling out
• Constipation - Yes but this could be from EDS or my medications
• Dry skin - Just this last year I have had to use lotion when I have never before in my life
• Muscle cramps - Yup, but again could be EDS
• Increased cholesterol levels - The last time it was checked it was high normal
• Decreased concentration - Again unfortunatly this occurs more often than I would like
• Vague aches and pains - Again debatable because of EDS
• Swelling of the legs - Not sure about this one

Anways, it is very very late and this is very very long already so I will leave it at that.  Will post on thursday as to how the appointment goes.