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[Guest guest]

Hi,

I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's in Oct 2007. I have been having

various health issues since 2005. I had severe iron deficiency anemia

in 2005 (ferritin: 3 [12-200]), which finally got resolved, but I

still had a lot of fatigue. In the spring of 2006 I pressed the doc

for help. My TSH was a little high (4.02) and had been rising (3.06 2

years earlier, 3.89 6 months earlier), so they put me on a trial of

Synthroid 75mcg. Within a week I was feeling much much better, so I

knew I was hypothyroid.

But they kept testing my blood and lowering my dosage until I was

only taking 12.5mcg. At that point I was feeling horrible again, so I

requested the thyroid antibody tests. (I don't they would have done

the antibody tests if I hadn't requested them. It pays to know about

this stuff and not just go along with what doctors say.)

Thyroglobulin was 46.9 (0.0 - 3.9), and thyroid peroxidase was 210.9

(0.0 - 3.9).

The doc then referred me to an endocrinologist, and I'm happy with

her. I'm back on 75mcg and feeling better again. I also had a thyroid

ultrasound done and was found to have a micronodular goiter (left

side 4.6 cm, right side 5 cm), which explains why I'd been having a

little pain and feeling like my clothes were choking me.

I feel okay about the thyroid treatment I'm getting; I am actually

more concerned about all the other things that are going on that have

never been adequately diagnosed. I think they must all be related

somehow since they all seemed to come on around the same time. I have

a weird condition that causes my muscles to twitch (benign

fasciculation syndrome), which is presumed to be autoimmune. I also

have something going on in the right side of my head that causes

pressure, migraine-like headaches and constant ringing in the right

ear.

I'm wondering about what caused all of this. Yesterday I had a root

canal. Turns out the tooth was dead, and an infection had been

simmering for years. Maybe the tooth infection was the trigger for

all my woes. Or maybe it was the throat infection I had just before I

started noticing some of the initial symptoms. Or maybe it was due to

stress; I had some long periods of extreme stress during much of the

9 years leading up to my illnesses. I guess we'll never know what

causes any of this, but being an analytical person, I like to try to

figure it out. No cause was ever determined for my anemia either.

Anyway, thanks for reading this far, and it's nice to be on board.

Jodi