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I have been diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder: Hashimoto's.
I am non-sarcastically thrilled.
When I was a teenager, I was treated for hypothyroidism. My going theory these days is that the stress of puberty pushed my numbers outside of normal parameters, so they treated me until the numbers barely scootched back inside normal parameters.
Eventually, I was out of the care of my parents, and responsible for my own health, and so every year that I had health care access, I would go to the doctor for my yearly checkup and say "I have a history of hypothyroidism. I would like you to check my numbers because I want to keep track of it."
And so - for a number of years - this happened. My TSH numbers were pretty consistently around 4.25. (Huh, my memory is wrong on that, looking at back entries when grepping comment replies for 'thyroid' produces a 3.6something, a 2ish, and a 5.41 in entries I found.)
A few years ago, I am pretty sure from a conversation in LJ, I learned that some Official Standards had shifted the Appropriate Lab Numbers For Intervention from 4.5 or 5 to 3ish, and I started trying to get my doctor to Do Something about the thyroid. Since the lab reports said 4.5 was acceptable range, she said my numbers were in acceptable range, and that settled it. (This was, I believe, also the doctor whose response to me stating my history was something like, "You're hypo?" which I probably should have taken as a sign to change doctors.)
This was not the only reason I decided to change doctors, but it was a significant one. (She also had some issues wrapping her head around the poly thing, and so on.) So, I did some poking at the doctors' website, picked a new doctor on the basis that a) he had specialised interest in everything wrong with me except the thyroid (seriously: musculoskeletal issues, gastrointestinal issues, and mental health! also primary care gynecology! also dermatology, and I had a trivial, annoying scalp thing I wanted treated) and b) that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
whispercricket had a pleasant completely trivial exchange with him in the waiting room once.
(There isn't much story to it, just she was nursing FM while waiting for her doc, who basically has the office next door to my new doc, and he wandered by, proclaimed, "Breastfeeding! Yay!" and kept going. I relayed this to him, and he said, "I have no memory of this whatsoever, but it sounds like something I'd do!")
So, we did the new patient consulting thing, and among the things I said - as I always do - was that I had a history of hypothyroidism, and would like to check my levels. So he ordered me the tests (and a bunch of other tests, given that he was also diagnosing me with Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder at the time and wanted to check my metabolism in general) and I had a lot of blood drawn and made an appointment for three weeks later to go over results.
Three weeks later was Thursday.
So I come in and we start going over my labwork. My bloodwork is awesome, apparently, cell counts all good, red blood cells all a great size, my iron is solid, etc. etc. etc. One number indicates some sort of adrenal glitch, but it's very minor, and I comment that I have some symptoms of adrenal fatigue linked with PTSD.
My TSH came in at like 4.24. (Or 4.14. 4.something4.) And - unlike previous doc - his comment on this was, "This is within normal parameters according to the lab, but I don't like to see the number this high. Ideally, I'd like to see this number coming in between 1 and 2." Now, my goal was to find someone who would take this seriously enough to get the number under 3? So, score.
(Apparently my T3/T4 levels are pretty normal, which basically means that my system is doing the "run on a treadmill to stay in one place" thing, which is probably a hell of a strain on the overall system.)
Then he said, "Now look at this."
He'd run an antibody panel. Proactively.
"This indicates Hashimoto's," he said.
I commented that I was familiar with the name, very vaguely, but not specifics thereof. I said I'd look it up. Then we got into discussing how I wanted to be treated, with options of several synthetic thyroxines, the naturally produced stuff from pigs, and so on - and settled on a course of treatment. (The expectation is that my current dose will be too low and will need to be adjusted upwards, but we want to treat the system gently and see how it responds.)
Fifteen years of checking on this thing, I change to a new doctor, and go from zero to a prescription on my bedside table in three weeks. I had the pills within two hours of seeing my lab results.
I'm keeping this doc.
In unrelated but still semi-medical notes, meanwhile, I would like to draw the attention of particularlyfierceawakening and miz_evolution to Dresden Codak's Cyborg Pride T-Shirts, because regardless of anything else in the universe I suspect that you will be pleased to know that such a thing exists.
I am non-sarcastically thrilled.
When I was a teenager, I was treated for hypothyroidism. My going theory these days is that the stress of puberty pushed my numbers outside of normal parameters, so they treated me until the numbers barely scootched back inside normal parameters.
Eventually, I was out of the care of my parents, and responsible for my own health, and so every year that I had health care access, I would go to the doctor for my yearly checkup and say "I have a history of hypothyroidism. I would like you to check my numbers because I want to keep track of it."
And so - for a number of years - this happened. My TSH numbers were pretty consistently around 4.25. (Huh, my memory is wrong on that, looking at back entries when grepping comment replies for 'thyroid' produces a 3.6something, a 2ish, and a 5.41 in entries I found.)
A few years ago, I am pretty sure from a conversation in LJ, I learned that some Official Standards had shifted the Appropriate Lab Numbers For Intervention from 4.5 or 5 to 3ish, and I started trying to get my doctor to Do Something about the thyroid. Since the lab reports said 4.5 was acceptable range, she said my numbers were in acceptable range, and that settled it. (This was, I believe, also the doctor whose response to me stating my history was something like, "You're hypo?" which I probably should have taken as a sign to change doctors.)
This was not the only reason I decided to change doctors, but it was a significant one. (She also had some issues wrapping her head around the poly thing, and so on.) So, I did some poking at the doctors' website, picked a new doctor on the basis that a) he had specialised interest in everything wrong with me except the thyroid (seriously: musculoskeletal issues, gastrointestinal issues, and mental health! also primary care gynecology! also dermatology, and I had a trivial, annoying scalp thing I wanted treated) and b) that
whispercricket had a pleasant completely trivial exchange with him in the waiting room once.(There isn't much story to it, just she was nursing FM while waiting for her doc, who basically has the office next door to my new doc, and he wandered by, proclaimed, "Breastfeeding! Yay!" and kept going. I relayed this to him, and he said, "I have no memory of this whatsoever, but it sounds like something I'd do!")
So, we did the new patient consulting thing, and among the things I said - as I always do - was that I had a history of hypothyroidism, and would like to check my levels. So he ordered me the tests (and a bunch of other tests, given that he was also diagnosing me with Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder at the time and wanted to check my metabolism in general) and I had a lot of blood drawn and made an appointment for three weeks later to go over results.
Three weeks later was Thursday.
So I come in and we start going over my labwork. My bloodwork is awesome, apparently, cell counts all good, red blood cells all a great size, my iron is solid, etc. etc. etc. One number indicates some sort of adrenal glitch, but it's very minor, and I comment that I have some symptoms of adrenal fatigue linked with PTSD.
My TSH came in at like 4.24. (Or 4.14. 4.something4.) And - unlike previous doc - his comment on this was, "This is within normal parameters according to the lab, but I don't like to see the number this high. Ideally, I'd like to see this number coming in between 1 and 2." Now, my goal was to find someone who would take this seriously enough to get the number under 3? So, score.
(Apparently my T3/T4 levels are pretty normal, which basically means that my system is doing the "run on a treadmill to stay in one place" thing, which is probably a hell of a strain on the overall system.)
Then he said, "Now look at this."
He'd run an antibody panel. Proactively.
"This indicates Hashimoto's," he said.
I commented that I was familiar with the name, very vaguely, but not specifics thereof. I said I'd look it up. Then we got into discussing how I wanted to be treated, with options of several synthetic thyroxines, the naturally produced stuff from pigs, and so on - and settled on a course of treatment. (The expectation is that my current dose will be too low and will need to be adjusted upwards, but we want to treat the system gently and see how it responds.)
Fifteen years of checking on this thing, I change to a new doctor, and go from zero to a prescription on my bedside table in three weeks. I had the pills within two hours of seeing my lab results.
I'm keeping this doc.
In unrelated but still semi-medical notes, meanwhile, I would like to draw the attention of particularly
fierceawakening and miz_evolution to Dresden Codak's Cyborg Pride T-Shirts, because regardless of anything else in the universe I suspect that you will be pleased to know that such a thing exists.
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And I am severely non-functional hypo at a TSH of 3.0, with the other tests (we haven't done antibodies, but have done everything else, repeatedly) smack in the middle of range. So, yeah. Range not everything. Treating on symptoms better. Yay awesome doc!
Treatment working can be proved by the fact that it is half-past eleven on a night of a con I am helping to run, and I am not falling over. (Even after a week of not sleeping in my own bed, four days of conference/convention level physical activity, and a very full brain.)
(I am in my room having had a bath, because I had the sudden moment of "Someone is going to have to make sure this room is reset tomorrow morning, and chances are very good that person is not me, they will be calling me anyway." So I am being sensible and coming to bed.)
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That sounds like a truly excellent doctor! I'm so glad you have someone who figured out what you need, without your having to whine and nag at him, even. And I'm sure it's a great relief to finally have a diagnosis to go forward with.
Also, the random "Breastfeeding! Yay!" story made me grin. Definitely sounds like a keeper.
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Sometimes it's a relief just to have a name for what's going on; that was certainly the case for my daughter when she got an actual diagnosis for a condition. (Actually, it has happened twice.)
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(Anyone claiming names have no power has probably never dealt with the medical establishment's reaction to a malady that resists classification.)
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