So TSH went from below 0.05 -> 0.17 -> 3.81 -> 3.28
Free T4 went from 1.3 -> 0.7 -> 0.6 -> 0.7
Free T3 went from 5.2 to 2.5 -> 2.4 -> 2.8
So my thyroid hormones went back up a hair after the 9-day hiatus and a switch to PTU. I just decided to take 50 mg just once a day because my hormones look so close to swinging hypo. A little exercise, now that nursing clinicals have ended (mostly), should help boost the metabolism.
The reason I fight going hypothyroid is that doing so can exacerbate the eyes.
I just saw my regular practitioner today and she was kind enough to give me my labs. The endo's office hangs onto them until Himself can dictate a letter to me.
In January my liver function tests were quite abnormal--which the endo never bothered to tell me. Now they are fine—probably because I am no longer on the prednisone, which really did make me feel bloated and ill. It can make LFTs look funny. My creatinine was also off kilter, which the endo never mentioned. I knew it, though, and was hoping it was just a fluke.
It looks as though I am going to have to assert myself with this endocrinologist, who seems to guard information and also seems too busy to really read my chart before seeing me. Since his clinic collects $300 for each visit, I'll have to make him work harder.
Twice now, he has recommended RAI—the radioactive iodine procedure that essentially kills the thyroid off (and creates a slightly higher cancer risk). It's a pretty backward practice, which only Americans seem to prefer. everyone else in the world does what I am doing, with drugs to reestablish a euthyroid state.
5 comments:
I have read - though can't remember where - that Graves' disease is often associated with abnormal LFTs, through some mechanism that isn't well understood. Mine were borderline abnormal two blood tests ago, though I wasn't told this and only know because I work at the hospital and therefore have (clandestine) access to my results. My creatinine and alkaline phosphate were also markedly abnormal, and again my endocrinologist didn't think this worthy of comment. I can only assume, based on some more very uninformed reading of my own, that abnormalities in these areas are often found with a Graves' diagnosis, so perhaps the results were to be expected?
Hi Emma,
Hard to tell . . . I took two curses of prednisone in a vain attempt to help the eyes, and each time, I got right upper quadrant and shoulder pain. Prednisone can affect the liver.
Addressing your LFT comment, I can buy that; apparently there is even a form of hepatitis and a tendency to sclerosis in Graves' cases attack the liver. Dementia, too. The immune system can really go nuts and attack other systems--much as it does in RA or Crohn's disease.
One thing we are waiting to test (and I have a feeling that I will need to remind my endo about this) is my growth hormone production. Low growth hormone (as I have) couldbe a product of thyroi dysfunction or as a result of anti-pituitary antibodies. Grrr.
What do you do at a hospital? I am doing a preceptorship at one right now and could look at my results, too, but the IT people would pounce and punish--very strict privacy laws about this, here in the US.
Whoops: "cirrhosis," not "sclerosis." I may have sclerosis of the brain at this late hour.
oh, nothing exciting: I'm a clerical worker. We have privacy laws too but there are ways round the IT flag-up system, for example by getting a colleague to look at your results for you. I think it happens quite regularly - hard not to peek when you know they're right there, a month has gone by since your appointment, and your consultant still hasn't got in touch to let you know what (if any) adjustments are needed to your drug regime.
That's pretty alarming stuff about the dementia and cirrhosis! yikes. I did a lot of reading when I was first diagnosed, and was brimming with scary facts. Since then I'd got rather complacent about the whole business as I'd been lucky that the carbimazole brought my thyroid hormones down pretty quickly (though they had been v. v. elevated - T4 more than twice upper limit of normal range) and I was feeling better within a couple of months. I was just beginning to be smug about how well I was doing when my hair started falling out! Now I'm realising that this is going to be a longer slog than I'd anticipated, but I'm hopeful that things will level out soon.
Emma,
The cognitive dysfunction is supposed to be worse with hypothyroidism, and less of a problem with hyper-. There are antibodies that do attack the brains of some Graves' patients, but I think they are the uncommon exception. Most people do much better once euthyroid, and the hot/cold emotions iron out once the immune system settles down--or so the studies tend to show.
Let's hope you have a speedy hair regrowth. Mine is still falling out in gobs. Doesn't look any thinner, yet, but I suppose it will. Tired of having hair fall all over everything.
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