Saw the endo on Wednesday............

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-14-2003
Saw the endo on Wednesday............
6
Sat, 11-27-2004 - 12:26pm
And you're not gonna believe what he had to say. I have bben feeling really cold lately and my joints are achy and sore. I was getting a little worried because I was so sore in the mornings it was hard to do anything with my hands and taking the stairs at college was really tough. On Wednesday morning I was really stiff and after walking on the treadmill for twenty minutes, taking a hot shower, getting dressed, getting the five kids up and fed, I took my temp and it was 96.7. I called the endo and they said he had a cancellation for that afternoon so I took it.
First of all, temp has nothing to do with hypo, some people are just lower temps, next, the cold is just poor circulation and I should deal with it, I am still gaining weight even on 1400 calories and exercise and he said (are you ready for this)I need to cut back even more. He said that if I don't lose on 1400 I should cut back a hundred or two. (it doesn't matter when I eat, if I just eat twice a day and don't cheat, I should lose.) He also said that if I don't lose then, cut back some more. He said some people don't lose on 1000 a day and that means they need to cut some more. He also told me that exercise also have very little to do with weight loss (maybe 20%)the rest is all cutting calories. He did not check my TSH since it was 1.248 only 45 days ago, but he wrote me a scrip for .75mg of synthroid (I was on .50) and he is running BW for RA. He will let me know what the results are.
Who is the nut here? Is it me? Should I really be this cold all the time? I am already wearing 2 pair of gloves when I go outside and it's only November.
I also told him that I had all the symptoms of PCOS when I was younger and that on the thyroid meds my cycles were still stop/start for 5 days but now they are closer together. (now 26 days)He told me that even if I still had PCOS now, since I am not trying to concieve, there would be no point in treating it. I had read that PCOS more often than not can cause diabetes so I asked about my bouncing blood sugars and the chances that I would become a diabetic and he said that if I just lost weight the chances would go down anyway. (Did I mention that we had just talked about how I couldn't lose the weight?)
I was told to replace soda with iced tea. (I don't drink cola anyway) Stay away from sugary snacks. (hubby is a diabetic so I already don't have them in the house)and my personal favorite cut back to two meals a day.
As always, any suggestions are welcome.
Mary
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-09-2001
Sat, 11-27-2004 - 9:55pm

Gee Mary - I think the stiffness and soreness sound related to hypothyroidism or perhaps even Fibromyalgia. I'll try to find a good basic link for you to see what all the symptoms are so you can see whether yours line up or not. Hypothyroid conditions DO bring lower body temperatures. It is kind of confusing to think that this doctor would say they don't. If your metabolism is slowed, it only makes sense that your body temp would be lower as all your major body functions would be slowed as well. Doesn't that sound like it makes sense to you?

Any doctor that tells you - or anyboy else - that you might need to eat less than 1000 calories a day to lose weight has NO idea what they are talking about. That is about the worst thing that you can do! I think you already know that.

The only good thing I think that has come out of this wacky appointment is that you got your meds increased!! YAY!! Because I think within about 2 to 4 to 6 - :) - weeks, you might see your symptoms starting to lessen and actually go away. You might even be able to lose weight.

Here is a link with a list of symptoms on PCOS - you probably know all these already: http://www.4woman.gov/faq/pcos.htm - but it may be good to go over it again to see if it's possible that you do have this. Can you see your ob/gyn about this?

here's the link on fibromyalgia:http://www.fmaware.org/fminfo/brochure.htm

I think your best bet is a new endo and a complete physical if you can do it. You have that one positive thing to hold on to, the increase in your meds. I hope that you will really feel some benefits from it - even though your TSH is already quite low. A new endo may be able to tell if you're having trouble converting thyroid hormone for use by the rest of the body. That might be the thing that's causing you so much trouble.

I have to say that I really admire your determination! I know we sometimes feel we have no choice or we may not be feeling great about having to keep pursuing our doctors about our conditions, but you're staying on track in trying to find out what's going on. It's only a matter of time before you do. Hang in there!! Cathy :)

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-14-2003
Sun, 11-28-2004 - 1:30pm

I remember well the PCOS although I am pretty sure that they never formally diagnosed me with it. I had my hubby check the pressure spots for the Fibro and I was sensitive to most of them, although I don't know how conclusive that alone is. The link did not tell me what other tests there are. I don't see an OB/Gyn, my regular doctor does that exam as well. But maybe next year when it is time to have that exam I will ask for one. I know my doctor was impressed when I was right about the Hashi, but she still thinks I might be a bit of a hypochondriac.
Oddly enough, I just realized that over the past month it has been pretty uncomfortable to get to sleep, I just can't get comfy. It's like my arms are in the way ever since I had the weird neck pain a month ago. *sigh*
For Christmas my hubby got us a membership to the health club and we went last night. I worked out for about 45 minutes and plan to go every day but Sunday. Maybe the occasional Sunday, but not all of them. Today I am sore and hope to work on my paper for class tomorrow. Know anything about Dr. Faustus?
Mary

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-09-2001
Mon, 11-29-2004 - 10:58pm

This might be easier than dealing with all the other stuff! The first one is a joke, I think! LOL!! Here you go, enjoy!!

http://www.drfaustus.co.uk/

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/doctorfaustus/

http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/faust/about.html

I wish you could get to another doctor to get a complete physical and have all these things checked out. I was thinking about you this morning!! If the extra medication doesn't do the trick, I wonder if it's not a problem with actually converting the T4 to the more usuable T3. Here's a site that talks about it:http://www.drpodell.org/natural_hypothyroid_therapies.shtml.

This looks like a good overall article: http://www.mbschachter.com/hypothyroidism.htm

Here's another good site on the fibro. http://www.fibromyalgia.com/fibromyalgia_questions.htm

It looks like besides the pressure points, it's a process of elimination to diagnose it. I think regular exercise may help.

I have to go to bed now! It's late!! Good luck with your paper. Hugs, Cathy

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-14-2003
Tue, 11-30-2004 - 1:19pm
So yesterday was day 5 on the higher dose of synthroid and while I was exercising at the health club I had to stop because I was dizzy- kinda. Then the same thing happened last night at bedtime and it took forever to get to sleep. Today I feel like my face is flushed. the skin on my legs is tingling, and I took my BP while I was sitting and doing nothing but reading and it was 139/92. That is impossible because I have low-blood pressure normally. Does that sound like a reaction to the higher synthroid? My TSH was 1.248 before the higher dose and from the links I got earlier, it sounds like what I really need is a dose of T3 instead of higher T4. I tried calling the endo but he never calls back, and my PC doc does not mess with this stuff, she refers out.
Mary
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-09-2001
Tue, 11-30-2004 - 4:01pm
Yes, it sounds like a reaction to the higher dose. You really need to get your doc on the phone!! How rude of him not to get back to you. I think the T3 is what you need, too. Can you talk to him about that? When you finally do get him? Cathy :)
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-14-2003
Tue, 11-30-2004 - 4:54pm
His nurse just called me back and said she didn't think it sounded like a reaction to the meds, but she will ask him and get back to me. I can't tell him that I read up on the T3 because then he WILL stop listening to me. I think his theory is that an educated patient is a hypochondriac. Hopefully he will call back today. Mary