No Lab Results Yet

There were a number of blood tests that the new endocrinologist took at my first appointment with him last week. I'd say about 15 or so were noted on the lab report for the blood draw. Unfortunately, my endocrinologist is not in the office this week so I can't get the results until next week.

Everybody about the thyroid seems to be a waiting game ~

• Waiting for lab work.
• Waiting for appointments with new doctors (why does it take longer to get in to see a doctor as a "new patient"?)
• Waiting to see what the new medications will change.
• Waiting for biopsy results.
• Waiting for ultrasound results.

Waiting, waiting, waiting.

I guess having to wait a couple weeks is better than a couple months or years if we were under Canada's health care system. Oh wait, we might be if President Obama gets his way.

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New Endocrinologist, First Appointment Update

I had my appointment yesterday with a new endocrinologist. My opinion - eh!

On the positive, he took a ton of blood tests for not only thyroid hormone but for adrenals, ferritin, estrogen, etc. He is also agreeing with me that my TSH levels (which were at 3.7 in April) should be brought down to a 1 (I might aim for even lower once I get there but 1 is a start).

On the negative, he has no confidence in Armour as treatment for thyroid. He prefers Synthroid. Says there is nothing natural about hormone from a pig. (Hasn't anybody ever told him we drink milk from a cow too?) :) Anyway, he is willing to try a Cytomel down the road in addition if I need it but he prefers synthetic. On another negative, he doesn't want to believe that the symptoms I am still having are related to my thyroid. He mentioned chronic fatigue syndrome, fibro something or other. That's a load of crap!

He also said that because I've had four children, that my metabolism is not going to be like other women my age who have not had this many children. I don't expect it to be that of a 18-year old. I just want SOME metabolism. It's pretty much dead right now. His idea - cut back 100 calories a day to lose 2 lbs. a month and exercise. I explained that I wasn't eating a ton of calories and I was exercising. He told me to drink diet pop (sure, I'll load up on artificial sweeteners along with my artificial thryoid pills.) He thinks his idea to cut back 100 calories a day will work. He's young.

He said that there was a nodule on my left side that should have been biopsied and wasn't. I DO NOT want another biopsy. The last one made me SO sick for several days. He has to get my biopsy results to see if they did biopsy that side (they didn't). My doctor was supposed to have sent him my biopsy results sometime in the last two months! Obviously she didn't. Useless.

He mentioned the possibility of removing my thyroid. He believes it is barely functioning since I am at 112 Synthroid and with the risk of cancer... Seems to me everything else should be tried first before they cut a person's neck open and remove an organ and so far, I haven't found a doctor willing to do anything but the standard.

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Upcoming Endocrinologist Appointment

I have an appointment on Tuesday with a new endocrinologist for my thyroid disease. I don't hold a lot of hope for this visit. In fact, I'm wondering if I should even bother.

I am just so tired of people in lab coats with degrees on their walls treating me like whatever I say doesn't matter. I know I need a doctor who will treat my symptoms and not just my lab results. I need a doctor who will look at my labs and realize that even if they are within the wide range of acceptable, that there is an optimized level within those numbers and that is what I want.

I spent a couple hours online today researching information so I can go into this appointment knowledgeable enough to request what I need. One web site was Stop the Thyroid Madness. This site also has a book that I requested my library find for me.

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Low Dose Naltrexone

I was given a link to Low Dose Naltrexone to look up as a thyroid resource. The claim is that it can boost the immune system. Originally used in a higher dose to treat certain addictions, in lower doses, it is thought to improve symptoms in autoimmune disorders (MS, Lupus, Thyroid Disease, HIV/AIDS, Crohn's Disease and more) and even cancer!

Sound too good to be true? As a person struggling with thyroid disease and doctors who don't treat it right, I am certainly interested in finding out more about LDN. If you'd like to find out what it is, click here.

If you've used LDN for autoimmune disorders, I'd love to hear from you! Let me know if it helped, what symptoms you had, would you recommend it to others?

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Thyroid Biopsy Results Here

Yesterday, I finally received my thyroid biopsy results. The doctor has only had them since MAY 20TH. Nice of her to hang onto them so long while ignoring my phone calls and emails asking for the results.

Anyway, the results for cancer are negative so the cells they took from my thyroid were not cancerous. From what another doctor told me, biopsies aren't accurate because they only take a small amount of cells out of many, many cells so they could be missing it, but it is a relief anyway.

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