WOW! Hmmmm. Oh my! Those were the words coming from the Nurse Practitioner’s mouth at my first Endocrinologist appointment ever. She was reviewing my blood test results and apparently they were impressive! But not in a good way.
I was one year into my fitness journey and my weight loss had stalled. A friend persisted that I see an Endocrinologist. She knew that I had an under active thyroid and that I had been on T-4 medicine for it since I was 17. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as an Endocrinologist. Yet here we were staring at each other about to hear the results.
Apparently my Thyroglobulin Ab was the highest she had ever seen EVER. Now I enjoy winning. I do. Like when I won the raffle in first grade, or won the swim race as an 11 year old, or won the trip to Hawaii as a teenager; but somehow I didn’t think I wanted to be winning in the highest blood test reading she had ever seen.
The normal range for these results is 0.0 – 4.0. Guess what mine was? Greater than 2,200. WOW. Winner, winner, chicken dinner! And as you can see above my TPO was equally out of whack. Her shock at the numbers had me concerned, but essentially what it meant was that it was VERY easy to diagnose me with Hashimotos – an autoimmune disease of the thyroid. Basically my thyroid was NOT producing any T4 or T3 (I think I’m saying that right, but she used a lot of big words today.)
TODAY, however was a year and a half later. From July 2017 until September 2018, I had visits and blood work every 6 weeks as we worked on getting the dosage of my medicine right. For 30 years I had only been treated with medicine that helped my T4; this time I got an additional medicine for my T3. My husband and I refer to that as my “happy” pill. One week on that medicine and my entire mood changed.
TODAY she and I laughed as we remembered how high that blood test had been. I asked her if I would ever retake that test to see if the numbers went down. She said no. Basically that test told her how to treat me. BUT the great news is that for 6 months now all my levels are GREAT and I feel AWESOME. Because I am doing so well now, I can get blood work every 6 months instead of every 6 weeks and I can have office visits every 6 months instead of every 6 weeks. And when you pay for your own health care, that is a HUGE WIN!
So as my shirt says in the picture above, I am truly blessed as I continue to reclaim my life in EVERY category of life.
To learn more about the “Under Active Thyroid and Biotin” And “Once More About the Thyroid,” click on the article name.
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So did you get Hashimotos Disease under control? My boyfriend’s sister has it and feels there’s no help to get away from it. Any ideas?
I did get Hashimotos under control. My guess is I had it for years. I finally saw a specialist – an Endocrinologist – in 2017. I added a med to treat my T3. I had only been treated for T4. Once that med was added, my entire mood changed. I was a MUCH happier person. It took an entire year of every 6 week blood work and medicine tweaks to get it right, but it was worth it..