Uh, oh Doc wants me ON meds for test????

[Guest guest]

I had my first visit with Dr. Pucillo's office today. I very much liked the woman doctor. She listened attentively and seemed to ask all the right questions. She gave me the slip to have thryoid blood tests done at Quest in the next day or so at my convenience. She ordered the full scope; all the thyroid 'stuff' including the FREE's. Although I had to remind her to put FREE T3 on the slip, she agreed it was totally necessary. She also completely agreed that my FREE T4 was in the tank and needed to be dealt with immediately so she wanted to see me this coming Monday after the blood test results come in. She also seemed quite surprised that in the last 6+ years of being hypothyroid no one did a scan of my thyroid gland.

Right now I'm only on 15 mg. of Armour (7.5 a.m. & p.m.) and around 12 mcg. of T3 individed dose. I didn't take my thyroid meds before my 9:15 appointment today figuring that they would want blood tests without me on meds. BUT, She said she wanted me to take my meds in the morning THEN have the blood tests to 'see what the meds were really doing in my system'.

Now I'm confused....don't most all of you have blood tests in the morning BEFORE meds? Isn't this going to skew my tests? Or since I'm on such a low dose maybe it won't matter much this time around????

I have a slip already to have blood tests run at Lab Corp on my own that I paid for through Health Check USA, so in essence I could run both this week and see how they differ. But I don't know if this is something I should do? Or, should I just NOT take the meds before, despite what she said and leave it at that.....the sin of 'omission', so to speak?????

Opinions????????

Regards,

Steph S.Get 5 GB of storage with Windows Live Hotmail. Sign up today.

[Guest guest]

Jan,

This is not boding well on Dr. Pucillo's office.....They said I could schedule an appointment with him (and not Dr. Zoraibi) after I'd seen her first.

In fact, she said I could have my blood test 'anytime' in the morning, which I didn't think sounded right. When I was in the office I felt so weak and was trying to relate my patient history to her, while all the time I just wanted to lay down flat (instead of sitting upright) on the exam table and rest!!!

I'm supposed to see her (Dr. Zoraibi) this Monday, then she's supposed to be out of the office until mid-December on vacation. That will be a good time to transition over to Dr. Pucillo. My guess is that she'll see the low FREE T4 (since I didn't take any Armour), the spiked T3 (from the 7.5 mcg. I took 2 hours prior to the test) and hopefully we can come to some agreement initially. It will become more critical I'm sure as the Armour gets increased from 15 mg. a day upward.

That's VERY interesting that you had a 20% spike even 8 hours after meds!!! That gives me some valuable additional information. I wonder if anyone else on this site has some data to share on these discrepancies from their own tests????

It's not like I need her approval or a prescription right now as I have 100 tablets of Armour @ 30 mg. and 100 tablets of Armour @ 15 mg. and I'm already on the low dose. But, I really want a doctor to help me with this transition and dosing and tests needed. Dr. Zoraibi was very nice but my husband's take on her was that she was young and seemed 'fresh out of medical school', which may or may not be the case. My hubby tends to think women are younger than they look (lucky for me). In contrast, Dr. Pucillo has been in practice for several decades.

I get frustrated......we seem to have to 'educate' these doctors! What is UP with that!!!!???? I'll reserve my opinion of the whole thing until after I've had a chance to develop a working relationship with Dr. Pucillo instead of his partner.

Steph S.

To: Texas_Thyroid_Groups From: texasthyroid@...Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:03:35 +0000Subject: Re: Uh, oh Doc wants me ON meds for test????

Free T3 in particular, but also Free T4 tend to spike at between two and five hours after dosing.

The one time I took my meds before the blood draw, both my Free T3 and Free T4 were 20% higher than usual at eight hours out from dosing. I can only imagine how high they might have been three or four hours.

Is this doc specific about how far out from dosing she wants your blood draw? If she says it does not make any difference, then she does not know what she is doing and will probably not know how to interpret the test.

I would not presume to tell you what to do. But I like the idea of doing it both ways as an experiment, since you have that option.

>> > I had my first visit with Dr. Pucillo's office today. I very much liked the woman doctor. She listened attentively and seemed to ask all the right questions. She gave me the slip to have thryoid blood tests done at Quest in the next day or so at my convenience. She ordered the full scope; all the thyroid 'stuff' including the FREE's. Although I had to remind her to put FREE T3 on the slip, she agreed it was totally necessary. She also completely agreed that my FREE T4 was in the tank and needed to be dealt with immediately so she wanted to see me this coming Monday after the blood test results come in. She also seemed quite surprised that in the last 6+ years of being hypothyroid no one did a scan of my thyroid gland.> > Right now I'm only on 15 mg. of Armour (7.5 a.m. & p.m.) and around 12 mcg. of T3 individed dose. I didn't take my thyroid meds before my 9:15 appointment today figuring that they would want blood tests without me on meds. BUT, She said she wanted me to take my meds in the morning THEN have the blood tests to 'see what the meds were really doing in my system'. > > Now I'm confused....don't most all of you have blood tests in the morning BEFORE meds? Isn't this going to skew my tests? Or since I'm on such a low dose maybe it won't matter much this time around???? > > I have a slip already to have blood tests run at Lab Corp on my own that I paid for through Health Check USA, so in essence I could run both this week and see how they differ. But I don't know if this is something I should do? Or, should I just NOT take the meds before, despite what she said and leave it at that.....the sin of 'omission', so to speak?????> > Opinions????????> > Regards,> Steph S.Access your email online and on the go with Windows Live Hotmail. Sign up today.

[Guest guest]

If the doc is willing to work with you to get you feeling good, that is the bottom line, not the testing protocols.

These issues only become important if the doc is married to the lab results. Since you have tolerance issues, I think it will be a long time until you need to insist on staying on dose despite high Free T3 or suppressed TSH.

>> > I had my first visit with Dr. Pucillo's office today. I very much liked the woman doctor. She listened attentively and seemed to ask all the right questions. She gave me the slip to have thryoid blood tests done at Quest in the next day or so at my convenience. She ordered the full scope; all the thyroid 'stuff' including the FREE's. Although I had to remind her to put FREE T3 on the slip, she agreed it was totally necessary. She also completely agreed that my FREE T4 was in the tank and needed to be dealt with immediately so she wanted to see me this coming Monday after the blood test results come in. She also seemed quite surprised that in the last 6+ years of being hypothyroid no one did a scan of my thyroid gland.> > Right now I'm only on 15 mg. of Armour (7.5 a.m. & p.m.) and around 12 mcg. of T3 individed dose. I didn't take my thyroid meds before my 9:15 appointment today figuring that they would want blood tests without me on meds. BUT, She said she wanted me to take my meds in the morning THEN have the blood tests to 'see what the meds were really doing in my system'. > > Now I'm confused....don't most all of you have blood tests in the morning BEFORE meds? Isn't this going to skew my tests? Or since I'm on such a low dose maybe it won't matter much this time around???? > > I have a slip already to have blood tests run at Lab Corp on my own that I paid for through Health Check USA, so in essence I could run both this week and see how they differ. But I don't know if this is something I should do? Or, should I just NOT take the meds before, despite what she said and leave it at that.....the sin of 'omission', so to speak?????> > Opinions????????> > Regards,> Steph S.

[Guest guest]

Good point. If she's willing to work with me, so much the better. I got a call already from Barbie in Dr. Zoraibi's office to tell me my lab results. She wasn't aware I had an appointment on Monday but I was glad she called so soon. I had just had the blood test on Tuesday and this is only Thursday. Barbie said, "everything appears within normal range", which in light of how bloody awful I feel I just take with a grain of salt.

However, what a nice change from my previous PCP who would take up to 2 WEEKS to let me know the results!!

So this is interesting......I've only been on Armour since October 13th. Just going on 6 weeks. I took 7.5 mg. per day for a month, then upped it to 15 mg. per day (sublingual) just a week ago.

Already I've gone from a FREE T4 of .5 on 10/13 to 1.1 on 11/18. Remember I didn't take the Armour the morning of the test, just the T3. This is good news that it's coming up even on this low dose of Armour. Although, not suprising. My mother, who is 78 and in pretty good health, had her thyroid gland removed 50 years ago and seems to do well on a total of 30 mg. of Armour a day.

My TSH has gone from 1.71 to 1.55 (not much change)

My FREE T3 on 10/13 was 243 (without meds in the morning) to 281 (with 7.5 mcg. of SR-T3 2 hours prior to test). This is still low.....even with meds.

I felt awful even with my FREE T4 at 1.1 - 1.4 (range .7-2.5). It's never been any higher on any test in the last 6 years....soooooo. I assume I'm probably one of those patients that feels better with my FREE T4 in a higher range. Let's just pray that's the case!!

My central nervous system seems way overstimulated if I take more than 5-7 mcg. of the timed release T3 (SR-T3) at any given time, so I'm hoping as my FREE T4 levels come up a bit more I'll feel better.....

Steph S.

To: Texas_Thyroid_Groups From: texasthyroid@...Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:37:19 +0000Subject: Re: Uh, oh Doc wants me ON meds for test????

If the doc is willing to work with you to get you feeling good, that is the bottom line, not the testing protocols.

These issues only become important if the doc is married to the lab results. Since you have tolerance issues, I think it will be a long time until you need to insist on staying on dose despite high Free T3 or suppressed TSH.

>> > I had my first visit with Dr. Pucillo's office today. I very much liked the woman doctor. She listened attentively and seemed to ask all the right questions. She gave me the slip to have thryoid blood tests done at Quest in the next day or so at my convenience. She ordered the full scope; all the thyroid 'stuff' including the FREE's. Although I had to remind her to put FREE T3 on the slip, she agreed it was totally necessary. She also completely agreed that my FREE T4 was in the tank and needed to be dealt with immediately so she wanted to see me this coming Monday after the blood test results come in. She also seemed quite surprised that in the last 6+ years of being hypothyroid no one did a scan of my thyroid gland.> > Right now I'm only on 15 mg. of Armour (7.5 a.m. & p.m.) and around 12 mcg. of T3 individed dose. I didn't take my thyroid meds before my 9:15 appointment today figuring that they would want blood tests without me on meds. BUT, She said she wanted me to take my meds in the morning THEN have the blood tests to 'see what the meds were really doing in my system'. > > Now I'm confused....don't most all of you have blood tests in the morning BEFORE meds? Isn't this going to skew my tests? Or since I'm on such a low dose maybe it won't matter much this time around???? > > I have a slip already to have blood tests run at Lab Corp on my own that I paid for through Health Check USA, so in essence I could run both this week and see how they differ. But I don't know if this is something I should do? Or, should I just NOT take the meds before, despite what she said and leave it at that.....the sin of 'omission', so to speak?????> > Opinions????????> > Regards,> Steph S.Color coding for safety: Windows Live Hotmail alerts you to suspicious email. Sign up today.