hi everyone. i joined the alt.support.thyroid group and someone there
kindly referred me to this listserv as another good source of information.
i guess i am not the "typical" hypothyroid patient--i'm a 29 yr old
male, and for the last 2 years i've been suffering from hashimoto's disease.
looking back i probably had it for longer than 2 years. i remember
the couple of years before i was diagnosed, feeling quite run down,
depressed, disinterested, etc.. at the time i just wondered if i was
lazy. thinking back to my days in college when i was a straight a
student, on the honor roll, dean's list, etc., i doubt i was ever lazy
at all.
then in late 02/early 03, i started to suffer joint pains in my feet.
slowly they crept up and got so severe, i was limping from my bed to the
bathroom. so i went to see a rheumatologist who took bloodwork and
diagnosed me with hypothyroid--my tsh was 39.
2 years later, i'm still in pain, still fatigued, exhausted, don't
have much of a life. my disease nearly tore my marriage apart as my wife
and i, in our 20s, just weren't equipped to be suffering from something
so debillitating. all of a sudden life was full of unfulfilled dreams
and baggage we never bargained for.
i've been on 30mg of armour thyroid and my tsh has been 1.2 for a
while. as you can imagine, my dr doesn't believe anything is wrong
with my thyroid and buys into the notion that this is fibromyalgia and
that we should stop looking into the thyroid and elsewhere. this
comes despite the fact that the battery of specialists i've seen
haven't found anything else wrong with me: neurologists,
endocrinologists, rheumatologists, emg specialists, etc.. i spent
thousands of dollars getting tested for stuff i didn't have, and even
saw a psychiatrist in case "this was all in my head". i needed
therapy for the depression becaues i'd become suicidal.
last friday i did get my doctor to acquiesce to letting me take a
comprehensive set of thyroid tests instead of just tsh: total and
free t4, and total and free t3. with luck, maybe these tests will
provide us with some answers. he says my armour dosage sounds kinda
low but we'll see. he seemed dismissive of t3 supplements which i've
heard really help many hashimoto patients.
so i guess the hunt for another dr begins soon. i've seen a couple of
websites for clinics in los angeles that deal specifically with
thyroid conditions. unfortunately they have all been boutique
specialists who don't take insurance and charge around $350 an hour.
hopefully my search will turn up someone in my area who falls under my
hmo, but i have to confess i am very disgusted, frustrated and just
plain distrustful of doctors lately. i understand that for the most
part, doctors are incredibly helpful and well-intentioned. my
experience with this matter, specifically, has been less than sterling.
thanks for your time, everyone. if you live in socal (especially orange
county) and happen to have seen a doctor you like, who has really
helped, i'm all ears.
best,
baron
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