Thyroid issues &no help.

missshannybaby

Within the last few years my thyroid activity has plummeted. I'm heavier than I've ever been &I'm miserable. [Went from 115 to 170 in a couple years without any negative changes in my diet.]

I was gaining at LEAST 3-5 pounds every 2-4 weeks no matter what I ate or didn't eat. I started having other various thyroid symptoms [severe fatigue &brain fog, very dry skin, white patches on my upper arms, depression worse than ever, weak nails, severe dandruff due to very dry skin, etc] which is what pushed me to finally make an appointment.

Fast forward 3 doctor appointments from 3 different facilities later, I'm still suffering with no answers. My levels just aren't "bad enough", they keep saying. Problem is they haven't tested everything even though I've requested them to. My mother was misdiagnosed for 10 years before she finally had someone to listen to her &was diagnosed with Hashimoto's. I even told the doctors this &they keep blaming my vegetarianism for my weight gain &assuming I was just eating too many carbs. My old PCP literally blamed my 55 pound weight gain on me eating oatmeal with a banana for breakfast every morning. To prove my point I avoided carbs &sugar &kept my calorie intake below 800 cals a day for 3 weeks &still gained 5 pounds.

My words are all over the place [thanks, brain fog] but I guess I'm just desperate for answers or at least for someone to understand.

Thank you for listening.

LyndaBSS

Was this 3 endocrinologists?

Sharon_C

It took me a long time to find a good endocrinologist. Keep searching. Search outside of your town or city if you have to.

RelCanonical

Sharon_C wrote: »

It took me a long time to find a good endocrinologist. Keep searching. Search outside of your town or city if you have to.

I second this. Sometimes when you know something's wrong, you have to take charge of your own health and find someone who will actually help. The fatigue caused by the issue is probably what's causing most of the weight gain, i.e. if you're eating the same but your overall calorie burn decreased due to fatigue, you will gain.

missshannybaby

LyndaBSS wrote: »

Was this 3 endocrinologists?

Unfortunately not, just regular old MDs .. &I now know that that was a mistake.

missshannybaby

Sharon_C wrote: »

It took me a long time to find a good endocrinologist. Keep searching. Search outside of your town or city if you have to.

Thank you, Sharon. I'm definitely going to have go reach out further. It's hard considering I'm currently unable to travel far &my insurance doesn't cover much but something's got to give. I appreciate your response.

missshannybaby

RelCanonical wrote: »

Sharon_C wrote: »

It took me a long time to find a good endocrinologist. Keep searching. Search outside of your town or city if you have to.

I second this. Sometimes when you know something's wrong, you have to take charge of your own health and find someone who will actually help. The fatigue caused by the issue is probably what's causing most of the weight gain, i.e. if you're eating the same but your overall calorie burn decreased due to fatigue, you will gain.

You are so right about taking charge of my own health, RelCanonical. No one the four body like we do. The fatigue has increased but I haven't become less active if that makes sense? I'm extremely fatigued but I have no choice but to keep going due to the amount of responsibilities I have. I just cry &rest my head on the counter while cooking &cleaning instead of stopping .. hahahah. Gotta throw some humor in there these days. I sure will keep taking charge &I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to read this &respond. 🖤

missshannybaby

RelCanonical wrote: »

Sharon_C wrote: »

It took me a long time to find a good endocrinologist. Keep searching. Search outside of your town or city if you have to.

I second this. Sometimes when you know something's wrong, you have to take charge of your own health and find someone who will actually help. The fatigue caused by the issue is probably what's causing most of the weight gain, i.e. if you're eating the same but your overall calorie burn decreased due to fatigue, you will gain.

I meant to say "No one knows our body like we do."

AlisaRN

Definitely find an endocrinologist or a good ENT and request again. I went through multiple doctor's before I got diagnosed. It was so frustrating. Keep at it!

missshannybaby

Thank you so much, Alisa. I've been on it &so far no good but I'm not giving up because I can't afford to. I just want control back over my body. I appreciate your comment!

CMNVA

I will chime in with the others to find an endocrinologist. That said, I had my thyroid removed about 25 years ago due to thyroid cancer. Back then, one of the treatments to fully take care of it all was to go EXTREMELY hypo in order to ablate the remainder of the gland. I did this three or four times. It's extremely hard on your body and my TSH, each time, got up to about 140 for about 6 weeks straight. Yes, 140. Normal TSH is around 1.0-2.0. During that time, I may have gained about 10 lbs, which quickly came off as soon as my numbers got in line.

My endocrinologist at the time, was also a thyroid cancer survivor and had been through it all and had a very large practice of patients who routinely had "off the charts" bad hypothyroid numbers. His findings were that hypothyroidism does account for weight gain but it is minimal. Now, 10 lbs (to me) is not minimal but he was referring to people who think they are significantly overweight due to their thyroid being off. In his analysis of his patients, it accounted for 5-10 pounds. And those patients were significantly hypo. I think I also read somewhere that hypothyroidism may account for an approximate 2% reduction in TDEE.

It sounds like from the type of tests the GPs are running, it might just be a TSH test. They should also be running the Hashimoto's antibodies and the Free T4 and T3 testing to make sure they are all in range. *Generally* if your TSH is in range, the others will be too (if you still have a thyroid gland). If you are using thyroid medications to replace what you don't have, then the T3 can be off due to conversion issues. If your thyroid is not working properly, it can make you feel bad and then just slow you down, thereby reducing your energy expenditure.

I would like to know exactly what testing they ran to get their diagnosis of "not bad enough" and if they thought to look into other hormonal issues that would cause this.

Nama_Slay38

missshannybaby wrote: »

Within the last few years my thyroid activity has plummeted. I'm heavier than I've ever been &I'm miserable. [Went from 115 to 170 in a couple years without any negative changes in my diet.]

I was gaining at LEAST 3-5 pounds every 2-4 weeks no matter what I ate or didn't eat. I started having other various thyroid symptoms [severe fatigue &brain fog, very dry skin, white patches on my upper arms, depression worse than ever, weak nails, severe dandruff due to very dry skin, etc] which is what pushed me to finally make an appointment.

Fast forward 3 doctor appointments from 3 different facilities later, I'm still suffering with no answers. My levels just aren't "bad enough", they keep saying. Problem is they haven't tested everything even though I've requested them to. My mother was misdiagnosed for 10 years before she finally had someone to listen to her &was diagnosed with Hashimoto's. I even told the doctors this &they keep blaming my vegetarianism for my weight gain &assuming I was just eating too many carbs. My old PCP literally blamed my 55 pound weight gain on me eating oatmeal with a banana for breakfast every morning. To prove my point I avoided carbs &sugar &kept my calorie intake below 800 cals a day for 3 weeks &still gained 5 pounds.

My words are all over the place [thanks, brain fog] but I guess I'm just desperate for answers or at least for someone to understand.

Thank you for listening.

Get another doctor!!!! I was you, a few years back...every thing you described here. I too had the hardest time getting diagnosed, by then, it was too late... I now have Hashimoto's which is not death sentence, but it could of preventable if I was properly diagnosed and treated. There's a panel of tests that NEED TO BE done on the the thyroid, most docs or general physicians miss that, even some endocrinologists. You have to be demanding and do your research, I promise there is light at the end if the tunnel. There are so many individuals men and women who are walking around with dysfunctional thyroids and don't even know it. Our thyroids control everything our heart rate our metabolism, hair growth or lack thereof, skin issues, mental fog, irritation list goes on. My Hashimoto's is manageable, I take synthroid everyday, and I know my body well enough to know, if it goes whacky. Pay attention to the foods you eat too, plays huge roll. Wishing you the best.