People! This is super long but I hope it helps some of you. I have so much to say and that is only from scanning your posts! First, I am a former registered nurse. Second, I have Hashimoto's hypothyroidism. There are no family members with it. In my mid 30's I started with very long and heavy menstrual periods-like 5 days heavy and 5 days spotting. Wrecks your love life. Anyway, I had numerous treatments for that with limited success. Then in my early 40's I started skipping periods. I kept taking pregnancy tests even though I had had my tubes tied. It was then that I realized I was peri-menopausal. Naturally, they said that I was starting early because I was a smoker. According to doctors, everything is because you are a smoker! Years later I learned that those long heavy periods are common with hypothyroidism. Meanwhile, I started to put on weight and though I was a lifelong napper, my naps started being 2-4 hours long with 8 hours of sleep each night. I was always tired. I thought that all of this was hormone related. My OB GYN tested me for my hormone levels and just kind of casually decided to throw in a thyroid test. Thank goodness she tested for antibodies-which were off the chart, like in the thousands. My understanding from my endocrinologist is that you can maintain normal thyroid levels but it is as if you are a car going 35 mph with the accelerator floored.
I lost an entire summer getting my thyroid somewhat in line. He started me on a normal dose and within a month I started having heart palpitations. Apparently, it takes that long for it to just get into your system and have an affect. He had to start again on a pediatric dose. We slowly went up over a period of 6 months, but I slept for that entire summer, and I felt like a pin cushion as lab work was drawn every 6 weeks. There were lesson I learned along the way. You have to take your medication on a 4 hour empty stomach. My body doesn't like the cheap medicine, only the expensive Tyrosint. By this I mean that my body had unpleasant side effects. I learned that women often develop hypothyroidism around menopause. Hyperthyroid people often become hypothyroid because their thyroid gives out. Hypothyroidism causes the metabolism to slow so that losing weight is sooooo hard. Eat too little and your body goes into starvation mode, which slows the metabolism even more. Eat too much and watch pounds pack on even though you eat less than anybody! Your hair falls out if your thyroid is out of wack too. And I don't mean the mustache or our legs! Just on our head. Depression goes hand in hand with hypothyroidism. It is almost a given. Thank goodness that that is the one thing I didn't have! Let's see. Constipation mixed with bouts of diarrhea. Oh joy. Of course, over the years I figured out that that was compounded by an intolerance of high fructose corn syrup in soda that I was addicted to. Things like broccoli, cauliflower, tofu, soy, etc are no no's. They interfere with the thyroid or the medication, I can't remember which.
Then I quit smoking. My endocrinologist flat out told me that nicotine revs the metabolism. So I then had at least 2 things that were slowing my metabolism down. No nicotine, and hypothyroidism. By the way, when I quit smoking I developed canker sores that were so bad and lasted so long that I had to be given a lidocaine syrup to gargle. Numerous ex smokers have told me the same thing happened to them. They aren't as bad now, but I figure that the chemicals in the cigarettes probably prevented that when I was a smoker. Then there was the hours long naps again with the adjustment of my medication when I quit smoking. It takes a long time to get it regulated; at least it did for me. Last but not least, I developed heartburn that was terrible. Since I was an ex-smoker, the doctors could not blame the heartburn on smoking. Next they blamed it on the weight gain-35 pounds of it. So they did a heart stress test, (slightly abnormal), and an endoscopy with a colonoscopy. Everything was inflamed from tip to bottom as it were. Technically it was mild gastritis and diverticulosis. So let's put you on Prilosec. Within a very short time I was unable to even exercise. I felt like my bones where those of an old lady. They switched it to something else though I don't remember what. Lastly, they switched it to Ranitidine. I was so happy to only have my bones and joints mildly hurt, that I didn't complain. 2 years later, I decided that I was tired of hurting and just quit taking it. I drink Mylanta or take my Tums sometimes. I suffer through when I eat things that aggravate the heartburn. I told my doctor that their cure was worse than the disease. I was lectured about how unrelieved heartburn can lead to esophageal cancer. I responded with not moving due to pain would lead me to an early death anyway!
I hope that by sharing what has happened to me, that it might help some of you. I thoroughly believe that sharing knowledge is so very important. Good luck and good wishes to all of you.
No doctor told me ANYTHING like what you wrote. I was simply told my thyroid was low and I should take medicine. That being said, he also told me that the endocrinologist put me on such a low dose that it's almost not even worth it, 50 mcg. I don't know what's right anymore. I haven't ever been given a 'diagnosis' of anything other than bipolar disorder, high blood pressure, and anemia. I've never even been told I have hypothyroidism either, just that the numbers are off. I don't know if it's T3, T4, T9999. I just take the damn pills. I have no idea if it's helping or not. I don't do high sugar stuff although I do use sugar-substitute products, Diet Dew, diet citrus green tea, sugar-free vanilla creamer in my morning cappuccino. I use Stevia In The Raw for drinks, etc. as it takes so little of it to sweeten some tea or homemade dark chocolate hot cocoa (I use unsweetened dark chocolate baking powder). I rarely eat sweets, even the 'sugar-free' kind.
