Had to change doctors- DON'T WAIT!
 

After seeing the same small town doctor for 17 years, I finally changed doctors because he wouldn't listen to me. My thyroid tests always came back clinically low, AND I was symptomatic, but he wouldn't listen, just kept attributing chronic fatigue, weight gain, tendonitis, and dry hair/eyes/skin to premenapause and my stressful profession.
He laughed aloud when I asked to try the natural pig-derived thyroid replacement.

I finally switched to anew doc, who LISTENS and will be adjusting my thyroid meds up for the third time in about 5 months.
I hope to feel better soon.

I wonder what I could have avoided had I done this years ago :mad:
Now I struggle to maintain my work, have chronic soft-tissue inflammation, and have been unable to lose weight until I started Atkins Induction.
Don't suffer as long as I did- do yourself a favor, and if your doctor isn't listening, find someone who will!

Great advice!

Glad to hear you made the move...You have to be your own best advocate when it comes to your health.
Hoping for better days for you real soon.

Amen.

I got tired of my doctor's money grubbing ways. I have HMO insurance, so all I pay is 40 dollars for an office visit. He keeps calling me back into his office for every little thing. I can't get him to answer a question over the phone, I can't get any referals to other doctors without going into his office (even though we had the conversation twice already), etc. He just keeps billing my insurance company - and taking 40 dollars out of my pocket - as many times as he can.

When I talk to him about not being able to lose any weight at 1,000 calories or less, zero carbs, and working out 1 hour per day - he said I should cut my calories down further! I've waisted 7 years with this idiot.

Doesn't know what to do about the weight issue.... yup, that is a mystery..... pay at the window, please...... NEXT!

Don't Wait! ...RUN
 

I have been trying to talk to my HMO doctor about suspecting hypothyroid issues but he just ignored and told me to exercise and get more sleep. He says that TSH is the "gold standard" of thyroid diagnosis and 2.19 is "very normal" so he can only go by the numbers. I called the HMO and requested a new practioner for a second opinion. Unfortunately the one I wanted, a female osteopath, was not accepting new patients. They offereed to send to a nurse practioner. So, I had the appointment with her yesterday. OMG, she was not interested in my symtoms, kept asking me if I was a happy person and did I think I was depressed. I requested the list of lab tests suggested - but the free T3 and antibodies were not even available to be ordered from the family practice area. She only ordered a new blood count to screen for anemia and sent me home with some liturature on "fatigue". Didn't care at all that I said my brain fog is making me almost unable to do my job and it could be in jeopardy.

So I went out to my car, pulled out my phone and called the office of a naturopath to make an appointment. The receptionist gave the phone to the doctor and I talked directly to her for over 20 minutes! She explained how the coverage for alternative care from my HMO insurance will work and said that thyroid issues are somewhat of a speciality of their office. Hopefully, next Thursday will be the beginning of my road to healing.

Wow. Congrats on finding someone who will listen. I have an appointment with an Endocrinologist next Thursday. If I can't get any answers, I'm going to start dialing for doctors... You give me hope.

Thank you for sharing your stories.
As a follow-up, I'll tell you that even my new primary care doc, who started raising my t4 med, was completely ignorant of the t3 issue, so I ended up seeing an endocrinologist a couple of weeks ago.

She started me on t3/t4 combo, and we wait to retest and get results. She found that I have an enlarged thyroid (goiter) from it being overworked for so long and she feels I won't be optimized until I'm at TSH 1.

Meanwhile i just need patience. It took years to get this messed up, I expect it will take some time to feel better, lose weight, and regain my old self.
Best of luck to you all on your journeys to health.
Didi

This is a list of patient recommended thyroid practitioners. (Since it IS patient recommended, screen carefully...I generally tell people to stay far away from recommendations that talk about how they only did TSH, how they only gave T4, and, the one that really irks ME, lol, when the patient gives the doc 'brownie points' for having LISTENED. When you ask that patient what meds/hormones/tests the doc did, they say 'nothing, but he actually LISTENED to me'...I'm sorry, but I can get people to listen without paying a dime...).

http://www.thyroid-info.com/topdrs/

Hey, I know this thread is OLD but your story hit me - I'm getting angry with the stuffing around so many docs have done with my health too!! Have an appointment in 3 hours time with a hormone specialist, it's going to cost a bomb so I had better love his work!!

I hope you're going well, how have you fared with your medication? I've heard many stories and by all means it sounds like some experimentation is required to balance thyroid and adrenals. Good luck to you, fingers crossed for both of us : )