Thyroid Storm?
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Thyroid Storm?
| Wed, 12-06-2006 - 1:27pm |
Has anyone ever had a thyroid storm? What were your symptoms and how was it treated?
I've been feeling so good and then a few days ago I totally hit rock bottom out of no where. The dizzies are back, disoriented, I'm hot but cold. Heart rate is different. I just feel different.
LIke I said it totally came out of the blue. I took DS to grandma house for the week and when I got home I started getting dizzy and I just about passed out.
Nothing changed really I've been taking my meds like normal. Should I go and see the doc? I don't think it's a thyroid storm, but I still would like to know more about it.
Thanks for everything.
Kim

Hi Kim,
I think I would call your doctor and explain what is going on.
Hi Kim
I know it's been awhile since your post, but I thought I would go ahead and respond anyway. I really hope you were not having a thyroid storm. I had one and nearly died. Actually, it would have killed me had I not been in the hospital already when it happened. Mine all started about 18 months ago when I had my fourth baby. I had a horrible 30 hour labor at 36 weeks. I had two epidurals and neither worked. The baby was stuck face up so I had back labor the entire time. My water was broke the entire time, so I was on pitocin full strength to make my contractions come harder and faster. You would think my doc would have done a c-section when the baby just wouldn't come out, but he didn't.
My doc now thinks that the stress from all of this caused my thyroid storm. Almost a week after I had the baby, I woke up suddenly with the worst headache of my life. I thought my blood pressure was up or something so I went up the ER. My blood pressure was dangerously high. I was put in the hospital for 3 days until they could get my blood pressure to stabilize. Then I was sent home. A few hours after I got home, the headache was back instantly. My husband called the ambulance and they came to get me. My blood pressure was through the roof. At the hospital they decided to do a spinal tap to check and see if maybe I had a spinal leak from the epidurals. When they did this, they discovered my spinal and cranial pressure were through the roof. This was relieved by the spinal tap. Then they thought I was going to be fine so they sent my husband home.
Within an hour, my whole system went into failure. My heart, lungs, kidneys, and liver all shut down and I literally started to drown. I only remember pieces of it, thank god. The hospital called my husband and told him they were life flighting me to a trauma center. I spent 2 weeks in the ICU. I had also developed a blood clot in the artery in my leg. At this time, they still did not know what had happened. Evidently, many times with a thyroid storm, nothing shows up on bloodwork. It wasn't until 3 months later when I went into heart failure again, that my thyroid finally showed up as hyper. I was then put on betablockers. Within 3 weeks after this, my thyroid crashed and I became hypo. I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's. Looking back, I did have symptoms before I went into the hospital besides the headache. Everytime I would lie down, I would get short of breath and I had chest pain. I just ignored it thinking it was just from all the stress of having the baby and all that. I also had bad pain in the calf of my leg. I never would have thought I had a blood clot.
My point is...do not ever ignore your symptoms. Sure, most cases it isn't anything serious, but you never know when it could be. It's better to be safe than sorry. Of course, now I get totally paranoid all the time whenever I have chest pain, or palpitations. I still have problems with my heart. I am only 30 years old and I suffer from heart disease now. My doc says I could still suffer from another thyroid storm if I'm not careful. Thing is, he doesn't know how to prevent it other then for me to pay close attention to my body and trust my instincts.
I'm sorry this was so long, but I thought I should share my story. If you have any questions, please let me know.
Tina