thyroid

(I know, I'm not getting any better on the posting. But I'm sure I will now that I'm going to have so much more energy!)

I just thought I'd share the results of the thyroid business for anyone else who has done or will be doing the same - I'd be interested to hear what results and diagnosis anybody else got. I got a call from my RE's nurse with my thyroid results. She said they were "all in the normal range," which must qualify as a thorough explanation in some universe other than this one. If I were healthy, that would be all I needed to know. If I were healthy, I wouldn't be seeing an RE...

Anyway, once I asked, she did provide the exact results:

• thyroglobulin antibody: <1.8
• thyropyroxidase: 1.3
• T3: 2.7

She tells me they did not test T4, but I'm 99% sure that was on the requisition form and they should have tested it, so that's a little disappointing. She explained that each of the numbers was well below the normal cutoff, and that there is no "too low" (that may not have applied to the T3). I pointed out that I was given and have filled a prescription for synthroid (the generic, actually), and was told not to start taking it until I got my results. Should I take it? She had no idea, and said she would talk to the doctor and call back.

When she called back, she said that these results indicate that I do not have Hashimoto's disease (an inherited disease that, as I understand it, involves your immune system attacking your thyroid, resulting in hypothyroidism). I was convinced I had this, because I have at least four female relatives who are hypothyroid and my understanding is that only Hashimoto's, among the causes of hypothyroidism, is genetic. However, she explained, because my TSH came back elevated (not in this panel, in my previous p+7 bloodwork), I am hypothyroid. (But then, wouldn't my T3 have been low???) Therefore, I should start taking the pills (50 mcg/day).

All this is good information, of course, and I am ultimately relieved to hear that I am hypothyroid, because I don't think I've been imagining the creeping lethargy (not really debilitating, just sort of makes me lazy all the time). However, I do have a question. Would it have been unreasonable to expect the doctor to call me back the second time? We're talking about a reasonably important medication - something you definitely shouldn't take if you don't need it. I may, or may not, have a genetic disorder, and the nurse is apparently fuzzy on it. To my layman's brain, the results and the conclusion the nurse gave me are inconsistent and don't make sense. Also, the prescription only contained 31 pills (a strangish number), and since I'm not supposed to visit the RE for two cycles, I'll need a phone refill. Which she can do, but why can't she just write "5 refills" on the scrip? There's no black market for synthroid. I'm not going to pop them addictively. And I will need them (in some dosage) for the rest of my life.

Maybe I'm complaining about nothing or just wrong about the way doctors' offices work, but it doesn't seem quite right to me.

Anyway, I thought I'd be excited to take my first pill, but (after getting the calls yesterday) I waited until today. And before I took it, I could feel myself making excuses, things I had to do before I took it. I realized I was apprehensive - not because I thought it would make me sick, but just because swallowing that first pill felt like crossing over to another phase in life. I'm not sure why.

This also means that my diet and exercise kick have to start soon. I think I'll start doing my three hours of gym time a week next week - maybe I can persuade a coworker to go with me. And I have to start cutting out the starches - preparatory to cutting them out entirely. (I did pass up the buy-one-get-one sale on English muffins at the grocery store today, and it was hard.)