UNDER ACTIVE THYROID

[kezza]

underactive thyroid i have now been told i am to go on the 75 mg of levothyroxin with a view to going onto a higher dose in march .

at the moment i have sore aching muscles throat cramp in the night that makes me wake up with pain in my throat and very dry mouth i also have been experiencing electric shock/tingling in my fingertips and wierd thumping in my chest this lasts for a few seconds though. i am restless at night with sweating and i have put on 2 stone in 2 months - i have a swollen neck that seems to flare up in the morning and slowly reduce in size towards the end of the day . i had an appointment with my G.P and i explained all these symptoms i am having only for him to say its all part of your thyroid problem! ---------------HELLO!!!!!!!!!! I NEVER HAD THIS BEFORE I TOOK MEDS IM THINKING

HOW CAN I GET SOME ANSWERS FOR GOODNESS SAKE ?

[Professor John Lazarus]

Your GP is almost certainly correct. There are many many symptoms and signs of hypothyroidism and not all patients have the same ones . Some have many symptoms and some have few.
The inmportant thing is to realise that they may last quite a while even though you are taking thyroxine but they will eventually go.

[ipman]

underactive thyroid i have now been told i am to go on the 75 mg of levothyroxin with a view to going onto a higher dose in march .

at the moment i have sore aching muscles throat cramp in the night that makes me wake up with pain in my throat and very dry mouth i also have been experiencing electric shock/tingling in my fingertips and wierd thumping in my chest this lasts for a few seconds though. i am restless at night with sweating and i have put on 2 stone in 2 months - i have a swollen neck that seems to flare up in the morning and slowly reduce in size towards the end of the day . i had an appointment with my G.P and i explained all these symptoms i am having only for him to say its all part of your thyroid problem! ---------------HELLO!!!!!!!!!! I NEVER HAD THIS BEFORE I TOOK MEDS IM THINKING

HOW CAN I GET SOME ANSWERS FOR GOODNESS SAKE ?

Hi Kezza

I'm pasting some comments I made on another thread as it looks like you might need attention from someone with vast experience of dealing with hypothyroid sufferers and getting them well.

"Catie - go see one of the highly regarded private practitioners. It's as simple as that and it won't be costly; they give good value for money in terms of the time and effort they will devote to you in order to get you sorted. Their priority is not to get you in range or whatever on blood tests but to address and resolve your health problems.

My wife saw one private practitioner who holds clinics around the country - we saw him in Stockport but he covers a number of regions. He spent an hour and a half going through everything, pinpointed her problem and gave her clear advice on what to do. His advice was virtually the opposite of what we had expected. We were expecting him to say increase her T4 intake or go on to Armour. His advice in her case was to reduce the T4 (which he felt was causing her problems) but add more T3. It worked and had the added and totally unexpected benefit of eliminating some aches and pains she had been having and which we hadn't related to the thyroid issue. He followed up the initial meeting by having her keep diaries which she sent to him over the course of 6 months or so for him to check how things were going and comment on further possible improvements. This added monitoring was all included in the initial charge of £150 (about 12 months ago). Moreover, following the visit, if needed she could phone his office with any problems and questions at no charge. The two private doctors our family have had contact with are caring and personable individuals whose concern is clearly to get the patient well again. Obviously they can't do it for free but, as I think will be clear from above, their charges are extremely reasonable.

Hope this helps - in proffering these comments, I am motivated purely by wanting to share with others what we have found out, by trial and error, in the hope that others will benefit also.

ipman"

[Cmich]

Gosh ipman that is really good news. I allways thought private healthcare was very expensive. I am pretty clueless when it comes to my thyroid all i know is that i am allways poorly. Most patients on this forum seem to have there bloodtests results.. Is this easy to obtain in your experience?.

[talkhealth]

Hello ipman

You say you are motivated to share information in order to try to help others. This is the very essence of what we are doing with our regular patient to patient forums - enabling patients to share information to help AND support each other. To this end we have set up a patient to patient thyroid forum for patients to openly talk with one another just as they do in many of our other patient forums.

Perhaps you, and some of the others in this forum, would like to participate in the thyroid patient forum - would welcome input on the kinds of sub-forums we could create to expand it too, as it was set up really on the back of all the activity in this clinic, which as you know is only open for one week.

Here is a link - http://talkhealthpartnership.com/forum/ ... .php?f=184 - it would seem there is a wealth of information you could share in this forum which sits in the public domain, unlike many other forums that you can't see until you've become a member.

Kind regards
talkhealth

[ipman]

Gosh ipman that is really good news. I allways thought private healthcare was very expensive. I am pretty clueless when it comes to my thyroid all i know is that i am allways poorly. Most patients on this forum seem to have there bloodtests results.. Is this easy to obtain in your experience?.

Hi Cmich

That's the message I've been trying to get across - the private doctors I know of in this medical area seem motivated by altruism, not money. Being in BUPA, I'm fully aware of how costly private healthcare can be but the people I'm talking about here are not in that category.

As to blood tests, you should ask your doctor and make it clear that you want TSH, free T4, free T3 and antibodies tested. You might not get all of them done (the labs seem to control things for some weird reason - to do with money I expect). But before you see your doctor, I would recommend that you visit one of the leading internet forums where you can ask questions and get very comprehensive and helpful answers from people who know all about the debilitating effects of hypothyroidism (i.e. fellow sufferers) and who are all motivated by the desire to help others. The site we recommend can be readily found by Googling thyroid and advocacy. If you haven't visited it previously, you will be amazed by the help and resources available, all for free courtesy of a certain lady and her helpers.

Good luck

ipman

[ipman]

Hello ipman
You say you are motivated to share information in order to try to help others. This is the very essence of what we are doing with our regular patient to patient forums - enabling patients to share information to help AND support each other. To this end we have set up a patient to patient thyroid forum for patients to openly talk with one another just as they do in many of our other patient forums.
Kind regards
talkhealth

Thanks for that talkhealth. I don't know how much you know about the plight of those suffering with thyroid-related disorders. I knew nothing until fairly recently and most people have no idea at all. For that reason, any opportunity to help others and publicise the outrageous way sufferers are treated is to be welcomed. Once this online clinic is over, I will certainly be taking a look at the link you drew attention to. I would add that you and your team have made a huge contribution in opening the issue up by setting the online clinic up and I for one extend my sincere thanks. I just hope, it will bring about a sea-change in the attitude prevalent in the NHS towards sufferers and eliminate the need for people to resort to self-medication.

ipman

[laladrew]

Kezza I second Ipman, seek the advice of fellow sufferers on forums and consider seeing the private doctors referred to . I also have BUPA but have got nowhere fast with the same docs who work privately and within the NHS. I am still waiting for the same symptoms to 'eventually go away' , five years down the line on thyroxine. They have got worse and are 100 times worse than being overactive which I was prior to surgery.

If the treatement worked you would not have to sit on a wing and a prayer for them to go away. They go away when you die too. Is that good advice?

[Cmich]

Ok, thankyou very much for your replys. I will definately be looking into the site and plucking up the courage to ask my docter about my bloodtests. I am afraid that with my fuzzy brain they might not listen, but surely they have to give you your results by law. Thankyou again.