Latest blood test results

[Guest guest]

Been to the doctors today, which seemed an utter waste of time. Someone had rung

to say I needed to see the doctor about blood results. First thing he did was

hunt for a pen and then produced one of those tick box forms for depression,

which confused me as I had come for blood test results. I refused to fill it in

telling him I didn't think I was depressed, but was getting hacked off with

feeling ill. Anyway he said everything is fine and he doesn't know why I feel so

rubbish. Then just sat there waiting for me to leave, so I did. On my way out of

the surgery I asked at reception for a printout of the latest blood tests,

saying the doctor told me to ask them to print one off for me, which she did. I

wonder if these results are all ok and why have a ref range if some results

above or below range are ignored?

Currently on 50 mcg Levothyroxine 

TSH 1.4 (0.35 – 4.94)

fT3 3.85 (3.6 – 6.5)

fT4 11.7 (9 – 19.1)

I had a lot of other bloods tested, here are some of them, which the Gp says are

all normal

Serum potassium 5.5mmol/L (3.5 - 5.3) Above average

ESR 4.0mm/hr (9 - 19) Below average

Heamoglobin 14.7g/dL (11.5 – 14.8)

Haematocrit 0.457 (0.36 – 0.46)

Folate 12.4ng/ml (1.8 - 18.3)

Ferritin 42.6ng/ml (10 – 204)

B12 2,000 (187 – 883) Above average – I knew this would be high as I

had just had my B12 jab

I really don't know where to go from here, I would be so grateful for any advice

what I should do next.

Thankyou

Tina

[Guest guest]

Hi Tina, for how

long have you been on only 50mcgs levothyroxine. This is a small dose. The

average dose is between 125mcgs to 150mcgs, with some people needing doses as

high as 300mcgs and even more. To be honest, I wouldn't waste my breath on this

particular doctor because s/he clearly doesn't have an inkling of how the thyroid

system works. If he believes that your free T3 ( the ACTIVE hormone) is OK

sitting below the bottom of the reference range, and that your free T4, which

is only a couple of points above the bottom of the reference range is OK, then

he clearly needs to update his education by doing a little more research.

Drop him a line -

the written word always works better than face to face consultation, and send a

copy to the Head of Practice and ask for your letter to be placed into your

medical notes.

List every symptom

you have and every sign you are showing. Check these out on our web site www.tpa-uk.org.uk under Hypothyroidism.

Take your basal temperature before you get out of bed in a morning for 4 or 5

days. If it is lower than 36.6 degrees C (97.8 degrees C) list these too.

Let him know that

YOU know (even if he does not) that for people who are not taking any thyroid

hormone supplementation, the free T4 should be just above the middle of the

reference range, which would mean that your fT4 level should be reading

around 14/15 and that free T3 should be into the upper third of the reference

range, which would mean that your fT3 should be around 4.8 to 5.0. For those

who ARE taking thyroid hormone replacement, your free T4 should be in the upper

third of the reference range with your free T3 the same.

If you have members

of your family who have a thyroid or autoimmune disease, list these. Ask that

your blood be tested to see whether you have antibodies to your thyroid. The

tests to ask for are TPO and TgAb.

If you have not

been tested for these, ask for blood tests to check your levels of vitamin D3,

magnesium, copper and zinc. Zinc is very important. You might wish to tell him

that YOU are aware that if any of these are low in the range, your thyroid

hormone cannot be properly utilised at the cellular level. Your ferritin is too

low at 42.6 - it should be between 70 to 90 for you to feel normal. You should

get some elemental iron from your health food store and take as recommended

with large doses of vitamin C i.e. 4/5000 mgs, or at least, to bowel tolerance.

Tell him that you

wish to get a second opinion from an endocrinologist of your choice and ask to

be referred to one you choose from the private list I will send you. Some of

these are NHS and others are private, but you can be referred outside of your

area. Your GP is not a specialist in anything, he is a general

practitioner only and you are entitled to a second opinion.

Hope this helps.

Luv - Sheila

Been to the doctors today, which seemed an

utter waste of time. Someone had rung to say I needed to see the doctor about

blood results. First thing he did was hunt for a pen and then produced one of

those tick box forms for depression, which confused me as I had come for blood

test results. I refused to fill it in telling him I didn't think I was

depressed, but was getting hacked off with feeling ill. Anyway he said

everything is fine and he doesn't know why I feel so rubbish. Then just sat

there waiting for me to leave, so I did.

Currently on 50 mcg Levothyroxine

TSH 1.4 (0.35 – 4.94)

fT3 3.85 (3.6 – 6.5)

fT4 11.7 (9 – 19.1)

I had a lot of other bloods tested, here are some of them, which the Gp says

are all normal

Serum potassium 5.5mmol/L (3.5 - 5.3) Above average

ESR 4.0mm/hr (9 - 19) Below average

Heamoglobin 14.7g/dL (11.5 – 14.8)

Haematocrit 0.457 (0.36 – 0.46)

Ferritin 42.6ng/ml (10 – 204)

[Guest guest]

Hi Nadia

There are MANY

reasons and many medical conditions associated with thyroid disease that stop

thyroid hormone from getting into the cells, where it does its work. I mention

these over and over and over again - ad nauseum - people must be bored with the

same old, same old but as each new member joins us, they need to know.

The

main condition responsible for stopping thyroid hormone from working, is, quite

simply, a patients thyroxine dose is too low because the doctor or consultant

refuses to increase it, because the serum thyroid function test results appear

OK. Sometimes, the thyroxine dose is too high, yet patients still don't feel

well. They continue to suffer. Some reasons for this:

They may be suffering

with low adrenal reserve. The production of T4, its conversion to T3, and the

receptor uptake requires a normal amount of adrenal hormones, notably, of

course, cortisone. (Excess cortisone can shut production down, however.) This

is what happens if the adrenals are not responding properly, and provision of

cortisone usually switches it on again. But sometimes it

doesn’t. If the illness has been going on for a long time, the

enzyme seems to fail. This conversion failure (inexplicably denied by

many endocrinologists) means the thyroxine builds up, unconverted. So it

doesn’t work, and T4 toxicosis results. This makes the patient feel quite

unwell, toxic, often with palpitations and chest pain. If provision of adrenal

support doesn’t remedy the situation, the final solution is the use of the

active thyroid hormone, already converted, T3 - either synthetic or natural.

Then, we have

systemic candidiasis. This is where candida albicans, a yeast, which causes

skin infections almost anywhere in the body, invades the lining of the lower

part of the small intestine and the large intestine. Here, the candida

sets up residence in the warmth and the dark, and demands to be fed.

Loving sugars and starches, candida can make you suffer terrible sweet

cravings. Candida can produce toxins which can cause very many symptoms

of exhaustion, headache, general illness, and which interfere with the uptake

of thyroid and adrenal treatment. Sometimes the levels - which we usually

test for - can be very high, and make successful treatment difficult to achieve

until adequately treated.

Then there is

receptor resistance which could be a culprit. Being hypothyroid for some

considerable time may mean the biochemical mechanisms which permit the binding

of T3 to the receptors, is downgraded - so the T3 won’t go in. With

slow build up of T3, with full adrenal support and adequate vitamins and

minerals, the receptors do come on line again. But this can be quite a

slow process, and care has to be taken to build the dose up gradually.

And then there are

Food allergies. The most common food allergy is allergy to gluten, the protein

fraction of wheat. The antibody generated by the body, by a process of

molecular mimicry, cross reacts with the thyroperoxidase enzyme, (which makes

thyroxine) and shuts it down. So allergy to bread can make you

hypothyroid. There may be other food allergies with this kind of effect, but

information on these is scanty. Certainly allergic response to certain

foods can affect adrenal function and imperil thyroid production and uptake.

Then we have hormone

imbalances. The whole of the endocrine system is linked; each part of it needs

the other parts to be operating normally to work properly. An example of

this we have seen already, with cortisone. But another example is the

operation of sex hormones. The imbalance that occurs at the menopause

with progesterone running down, and a relative dominance of oestrogen is a

further case in point – oestrogen dominance downgrades production,

transportation and uptake of thyroid hormones. This is why hypothyroidism

may first appear at the menopause; the symptoms ascribed to this alone, which

is then treated – often with extra oestrogen, making the whole thing

worse. Deficiency in progesterone most especially needs to be dealt with,

since it reverses oestrogen dominance, improves many menopausal symptoms like

sweats and mood swings, and reverses osteoporosis. Happily natural

progesterone cream is easily obtained: when used it has the added benefit of

helping to stabilise adrenal function.

Then, we must never

forget the possibility of mercury poisoning (through amalgam fillings) - low

levels of ferritin, vitamin B12, vitamin D3, magnesium, folate, copper and zinc

- all of which, if low, stop the thyroid hormone from being utilised by the

cells - these have to be treated.

As Dr Peatfield says

" When you have been quite unwell for a long time, all these problems have

to be dealt with; and since each may affect the other, it all has to be done

rather carefully.

Contrary

to cherished beliefs by much of the medical establishment, the correction of a

thyroid deficiency state has a number of complexities and variables, which make

the treatment usually quite specific for each person. The balancing of

these variables is as much up to you as to me – which is why a check of

morning, day and evening temperatures and pulse rates, together with symptoms,

good and bad, can be so helpful.

Many

of you have been ill for a long time, either because you have not been

diagnosed, or the treatment leaves you still quite unwell. Those of you

who have relatively mild hypothyroidism, and have been diagnosed relatively

quickly, may well respond to synthetic thyroxine, the standard treatment.

I am therefore unlikely to see you; since if the thyroxine proves satisfactory

in use, it is merely a question of dosage.

For

many of you, the outstanding problem is not that the diagnosis has not been

made – although, extraordinarily, this is disgracefully common –

but that is has, and the thyroxine treatment doesn’t work. The dose

has been altered up and down, and clinical improvement is variable and

doesn’t last, in spite of blood tests, which say you are perfectly all

right (and therefore you are actually depressed and need this fine

antidepressant).

The

above problems must be eliminated if thyroid hormone isn't working for you.

Luv

- Sheila

My latest blood test results are in:

TSH <0.01 (0.27-3.5) (usual for me)

FT4 17 (9-22)

FT3 8.6 (?? - 6.9)

Ferritin (in march) was 68 (don't have latest result yet)

I still feel crap and am getting progressively worse. I am taking:

100mcg T4, 20mcg T3 and 1 gr erfa in the morning (usually 7am) and 2 gr erfa

around lunchtime. I sometimes forget the second dose (usually once a week but

twice this week though). I have a slump around 1pm when not busy, and around

3-4pm when I am - regardless of whether I've taken my second dose or not.

I am constantly tired, sometimes exhausted, very low blood pressure (recent

afternoon reading during a 'slump' was 101/52), by basal temp the last 2

mornings was 36.2 and I have a host of emotional symptoms and very bad memory.

I have made a follow up appt with Dr P for mid september and hopefully (money

allowing) will do another adrenal stress profile - I did one 4 yrs ago and it

was ok-ish but have had a baby since then and feel constantly stressed out by a

variety of things including trying to run around after a nearly 3 year old with

my energy levels!.

I have another appt with my GP next week, when I'm sure she'll say I'm over

medicated!!

Anyway, just wanted a moan as feeling rubbish and totally fed up with it - this

has been going on for a year now and I just want to feel well.

Any comments always welcome.

Nadia

[Guest guest]

Hi there, slumping is usually the ADRENALS. you need to test asap/!!!! Angel.