Hypo symptoms
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| Fri, 05-05-2006 - 3:08pm |
My GP discovered my thyroid was enlarged about 6 years ago and referred me to a General Surgeon at my local hospital for further testing (ultrasound and FNA). He always told me things looked ok and my TSH have always been normal. The last couple years I felt that it was getting bigger and would question him about as I saw him twice a year for ultrasounds. His only comment to me was this "Do you want to remove it for cosmetic reasons because there is nothing wrong with you?" Well of course I didn't, I'm not that shallow. Last fall I moved to a different city and it was time for my 6 month TSH test/ultrasound so I found a new doctor who was very understanding and said he wanted to refer me to an ENT. My ENT is a wonderful doctor. He sent me for bloodwork/ultrasound and contacted my old doctor for my records so he could do a comparison. He said his limit for removing a thyroid is that it is borderline when it is around 4 cm. After doing the comparison mine was over 8 cm. His recommendation was removal because it was constricting my windpipe. All other blood work was normal still. On March 28 I had a near total thyroidectomy (90% removed). The pathology report revealed Hashimoto's even though my antibody levels were normal according to the blood work.
I can't help but feel angry at my original doctor whose only comment was removing it for cosmetic reasons. What about how I was feeling? I was going through choking episodes several times a day because it was so big and I told him so but he said there was nothing wrong with me.
I am thankful for finding a doctor who would listen and willing to treat me. I haven't been back to see him since the surgery but I go in 3 weeks to have TSH checked as he put me on 75mg of Synthroid right after my surgery. Since my TSH levels were always normal, hypo symptoms are a new thing for me. I have to say it sucks quite a bit. I am bone tired and achy, constipated, my periods are screwed up, my hair is falling out and I am so cold. Its a beautiful day outside today and I'm wearing a fleece jacket.
Does anybody know how long synthroid takes to kick in or maybe my dose is too low. 3 weeks seems like a long time to wait when I feel so yucky.
I'd love to hear from others and how to cope with hypo symptoms.

My feeling from talking with other people is that many GPs do not handle thyroid conditions/symptoms very well at all. I'm sorry you had such a lousy experience with that doctor!
It took a couple of months for me to start feeling better, and close to a year to get my els right (BTW - they wanted to see if it was working by testing my TSH, which had always been normal & the reason I walked around for a LONG time undiagnosed -- LOL! So stay on top of what they're testing).
I hope you start feeling well soon!!
Hi kdd,