Bee Bee
Doula expecting #2
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Bee Bee, I agree with everything you said! I am close to having my thyroid out bc of nodules and am curious as to how you feel having it removed. I havent been euthyroid for much of the last 7 years!
KEI, I'm sorry if we are confusing you or making it harder. At lot of us with thyroid issues learned really early on that we had to advocate and learn a bunch about this stuff the hard way, because we had bad doctors who didn't hear us out and bad experiences with getting the wrong/right information. I hope that you have a case that isn't as bad, but I know that oftentimes thyroids are finicky crazy organs that cause us lots of grief.
I have always had normal T3, T4, just low TSH. The low TSH was enough to justify my hypothyroid diagnosis and then later I asked for the autoimmune antibody test so that I could be certain that is was Hashi's (just for peace of mind).
When you say borderline, I'm assuming you mean "Subclinical" hypothyroidism which means you have no obvious symptoms and only slightly abnormal lab tests. But you seem to have obvious symptoms and labs which confuses me. However, I can tell you from personal experience when they first found mine it was a 5. I was diagnosed as "subclinical" and no one even tried to run an antibody test. My doctor just started treating it with 25mcg. 2 months later it was no better. I was upped to 50mcg. 2 months later it was upped again. And its been a battle ever since. I can tell you that sometimes I dont realize just how bad my thyroid makes me feel until its better and then I realize just how crummy I was really feeling.
I don't want to overconcern or confuse you. Or to act like I am a MD when I'm not. But Hashimotos is linked to other autoimmune disorders like B12, which I also have and almost everyone I know with the disease has also, and can cause an early gallbladder failure, like mine. its best to know for sure because when you do you can get to feeling a TON better!
His, try not to stress too much if u are already pregnant and have hypo. Its good that the dr found it. As I said, My level was 9 almost 10 when I was 5 weeks and I went on to have a very healthy and smart 2 year old girl!
I sincerely hope this helps and if not just tell me shut my trap!
First I want to verify what you said about having a baby with hypo. My sister did and he is 4 and perfectly healthy. She has had him checked for thyroid issues as well and he's fine. My sister found out she had a growth first and was told her levels were elevated (not sure what the number was) but not enough to worry. Then she got pregnant. Since she already had a growth, it started blowing up. By the time it started getting large enough to notice, she was too far along to remove it. By month 8, it was the size of a grapefruit. She got it removed essentially in the same week as her C-Section.
Her case was extreme but was also one of my main reasons to have my thyroid removed. I had several growths and I knew I was going to TTC, so I opted for removal in order to avoid a situation like hers. Also just because medication was not working. They had wanted to only take out the one side with the growths, but I told them to just take the whole thing out. I wanted to avoid any possible future surgeries or issues. Since you asked, I am feeling much much better since removal. What it seemed like to me is that my thyroid fluctuated it's levels on maybe a daily or weekly basis which is why my tests always came back different. The funny thing was that even when i was in the hospital, in recovery, I felt immediately better. I felt drugged, for sure, because I was. But I could tell the tiredness was just from the drugs, not my thyroid.
As I mentioned, I am hyperthyroid currently. So on the other side of the spectrum lol. They just started me on an arbitrary dosage when I got out of surgery, so 125mcg. And as I mentioned I am currently at 75mcg which is exactly the same amount I was on prior to my surgery. Even though my levels still aren't at the right amount, I still feel worlds better. I am less tired, I'm not cold all the time like I was, I can actually concentrate and my thoughts are clearer. I have also been able to lose weight finally. It's only been 10 lbs so far, but thats more than I was ever able to do the past 4 years, no matter what I did.