Quote:
Originally Posted by Merpig
Well I went to the doctor today for my thyroid recheck. But it turned out the reason she wanted to recheck was that my blood test from two weeks ago when I went for a physical showed a TSH value of 9!!! Eeek, right off the charts. In the meantime I had a bunch of blood drawn and will be talking to my doctor about it again on Monday.
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Deb, this is nothing to play around with. If your doctor won't order a RT3 (and I'm assuming your doctor is an Endo), you MUST get an online test and get that number. If he's
not an Endo, get to one immediately. He or she WILL order that test and more, and you need much more before any treatment can start. Here's why:
With a TSH of 9 your doctor will want put you on Synthroid (generic or brandname; doesn't matter) -- which is pure yet synthetic T4. If you have no rT3 problem (and yes, you CAN have that even with, or sometimes because of what the high TSH is telling you) -- the T4 may work for you. Or not.
What's far better for MOST hypo sufferers though (assuming NO rT3 problem) is a dessicated thyroid med like Nature-Throid, which has all four of the thyroid hormones: T1, T2, T3, T4 -- and in the proper mix. I believe the T4/T3 is something like 3 to 1. Do NOT let your doctor give you the "low fat diets are best for you" equivalent for thyroid and tell you that "Armour and Nature-Throid doses aren't standardized" -- because they are. Read any thyroid forum on the net and you'll see the same messages from hundreds of thousands of people that you read on these forums: conventional medical wisdom in this area is 40 years behind the facts. Actually, according to the Endo who gave an online interview about this last week -- he said the practice and standards of treating thyroid in this country has not changed for forty years. And that's a quote.
But -- if you are rT3, you can't take T4 (it will make you much, much worse, and much, much fatter) OR Nature-Throid. You will need pure T3 (Cytomel) for about 12-16 weeks first, to completely drain the reservoir of rT3 without
any T4 getting in the way. Synthroid will ensure that your rT3 gets
worse. Once the reservoir is gone you can go onto Nature-Throid for several months after that, which will help the conversion of T4 into T3 -- because the cell receptors will no longer be blocked by the rT3.
And guess what? You can't even start Cytomel until you've had the results of a Ferritin test (NOT the same as an 'iron level') and a Cortisol saliva test. Why? Because if in addition to everything else your ferritin level is below 70 and/or your cortisol is too high or too low -- you've got stressed adrenals. From your struggles with weight that you've shared with us here, I'm guessing you do. And those need to be addressed and cleared up before your body can/will even
tolerate thyroid medication.
Like I said, this is very, very serious. You need an Endo who is living in the modern world. You need a battery of tests to see exactly what is going on with your entire metabolic system. The TSH is just the canary in the coal mine. It's signaling like mad that something is very wrong, and not just with your thyroid perhaps. If you don't discover and deal now with everything, and in the proper order, you may well burn out your adrenals and then almost no thyroid meds in the world will help you.
OTOH, if you get to a supportive Endo, and get the right tests, and get the treatment you need in the order you need, you will not only feel better than you have in decades, you will probably lose 100 pounds in the next year.
One thing you CAN and SHOULD do immediately, because regardless of which thyroid and/or adrenal problem/s you may have, they ALL require the same thing: more carbs! Getting onto zero or v. low carb went a long way to getting your thyroid to this state. Staying there now will only make things worse. Metabolisms with thyroid problems have been proven to require at least 50g of carbs a day. That's still low carb by any definition, but it should be just enough to keep you out of ketosis, which is what you want.
I truly hope you get the medical help you need, and will keep all digits crossed for you.
Lisa