Thyroid disease

I don't think medical science knows all it needs to know about thyroid disease.

I can't speak to all the different thyroid diseases, just mine, hypothyroidism. For this, and over the past 18 years, I have been treated by, first, an internal medicine doc, then a general practicioner, then an endocrinologist, and back to an internal medicine doc.

My hypothyroid symptoms have been fatigue, mind fog, muscle weakness, depression, joint pain, and increasing weight gain with age. My thyroid disease was stable with the use of Synthroid for years, although I now realize it also made me jittery.

Traumatically emotional events have had an adverse effect on my thyroid disease, which causes an increase in the symptoms. Six years ago, I was having such trouble with symptoms of hypothyroidism that I left my gp, who was telling me my thryoid was doing fine, and went to an endo, who said it wasn't. I had a lot of thyroid inflammation, and the amount of inflamation was fluctuating. But the only treatment she had for me was to do my bloodwork every 2-3 months, and change the amount of synthroid I was on, to try to retroactively adjust to the thyroid needed for that period when the blood was taken (7 days prior), no matter what the current need might be, or what the need might be when the synthroid meds would have their full affect, 4-6 weeks later.

Towards the end of my time with the endo, I begged her to remove my thyroid, which she refused to do. I began to read webpages about fellow thyroid sufferers, and asked her to let me try Armour Thyroid. (ironically, I had asked her to prescribe Armour Thyroid for me when I first went to her, but she said my problem was this inflamed thyroid, and the solution was still Synthroid.) She refused to prescribe it, claiming it wasn't a standardized amount, from pill to pill. This is a claim the Armour Thyroid people refute, saying it is standardized from pill to pill, but not necessarily within the pill itself, i.e. if a pill were cut in two pieces, the two pieces would not necessarily hold the same amount of active ingredients.

So I left my endo. I hated to do it, I had thought she was going to help me. Instead, I learned what many fellow sufferers have discovered, according to the info I read on the internet - that if you have ongoing hypothyroid symptoms and problems, adjustment in Synthroid dosage may be all you get from an endocrinologist. They are generally not flexible, or very interested in helping you treat your symptoms. I told her I just couldn't live like this anymore.

I now weigh 60 lbs more than I did when I started seeing my endo. I have had serious mental health problems (clinically diagnosed depression, suicidal ideation, panic attacks, despair...). Muscle weakness and joint pain were my almost-constant companions, and I wasn't thinking too well of myself in general, or anticipating the future with much optimism.

I also hadn't been able to properly sleep through the night for years, often waking after a few hours, and not being able to sleep again until the next night, leading to poor functioning during the waking hours. Three and a half years ago, I began taking Seroquel in tiny doses to help me sleep, and that it did the trick. How wonderful it was to know that I would be able to sleep for hours at night, and would do so every night.

In Dec of 2007, I went to my internal medicine doctor, and explained my then-current state to her. She immediately offered to give me Armour Thyroid. I have been on it for 5 months now, and after a month, I tried to go without my sleep medicine, Seroquel. I had tried this before, during the past 3.5 years, but was not able to sleep without it. Once I was on the Armour, I was able to sleep through the night, and even if I woke up, I could go back to sleep again.

Another symptom I had I thought was just a function of being fat, but I think it was either a reaction to the Synthroid, or a symption of improperly treated hypothyroidism: I had swelling at my joints. I now can see the bones in my ankles and wrists, and indentation in the line between my neck and shoulders. I now have the energy to exercise, and started Jazzericse last week. Prior to this, it felt like gravity had a stronger effect on me than it did on most people, it held me down so strongly. Gravity's effect is less strong on me now.

My psychiatrist is currently reducing my dosage of the antidepressant that I feel saved my life a few years ago, Effexor XR. I first tried to go off it three years ago, but after being on a reduced dose for less than a month, all my depressive symptoms returned, and when I went back onto the dosage I'd had, it wasn't enough anymore, and I'd had to increase it, and add Wellbutrin to augment it. For the past 3 months, I've been reducing it steadily and successfully, but in very small increments. I actually feel better as I'm getting off it.

I feel a lot of the symptoms I've had have been caused by the thyroid problems and lack of proper treatment. I'm thinking there may be others out there who are have similar problems. This is why I've gone into such detail, in case there is someone else like me out there, not knowing what is wrong, and not being helped by their medical doctor, and looking for someone else with the same problem.

Excellent websites and chat forums for further info:

http://thyroid.about.com/mbiopage.htm

www.stopthemadeness.com

http://thyroidhost.proboards30.com/index.cgi?board=Talk.

To those of you also dealing with this disease, the best of luck to you, and don't give up.