This was also unexpected

[annathepiper]

I just got a call from my doctor asking for a followup appointment to the physical I had with her last week. I was coming down with the cold/sore throat that kicked my ass over the weekend at the time--this was Wednesday the 26th. And I told her at the time that I felt like I was coming down with something. But...

She told me she thought my thyroid felt a little big, and she wanted me to go to their lab and give a blood sample so they could do a thyroid test. Apparently, now, she wants to talk to me about this. Does anyone know what I might expect her to tell me, if she's concerned about the results of this test? I don't know what thyroid issues might mean. Clue me in, folks?

Comments

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

the thyroid is a gland responsible for managing the levels of several types of hormones in the blood. it's one of the big "regulators" for metabolic processes in general.

thyroid problems are generally very manageable. sometimes they respond to diet or behavioral changes -- you just need to function within the limits of your particular thyroid. or if the gland is wildly outta whack, you can orally take the hormones that it would normally produce, or in the opposite direction, they can remove or disable part of your thyroid if it is being overactive. (you may recall that's what they did to drglam's kitty gregor.)

good luck!

[annathepiper]

Hrmm. I recollect this being occasionally mentioned to me by my previous chiropractor, who once or twice suggested that I might want to have it looked at--and this doctor said something to me about it the last time I had a physical with her, too.

Okay. So nothing to get terribly upset about, just something to investigate further, it sounds like.

Thanks babe!

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

indeed. when i was in grad school i went through the whole shebang myself, after my dentist noticed that my thyroid is "small, meaty, and irregularly shaped". turns out it was working just fine, it's just "small, meaty, and irregularly shaped" (kinda like the rest of me :)

[annathepiper]

*giggle* That seems oddly appropriate! :)

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

honestly, I just take a pill, it's no big deal, they're cheap, I get blood drawn maybe every 6 months. it's by far teh absolute easiest medical problem I have (and it's apparently pretty common in women). they may just monitor you; I push to keep my levels in a certain range (I want tighter control than my dr does) but my dr lets me do that, probably b/c I have other mood isses and I need all the regulation I can get.

low thyroid = you may be feeling listless an your hir would be a little weird and your skin might be dry

high thyroid (a little harder to manage but not that much) = you may be feeling squirrely and like, you can't stop eating but it just goes right through you

I've known people with problems in both directions and 'responding well to medication' is the thing everyone says.

good luck!

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

also, in my experience my 'low thyroid' depression feel significantly different from my mood disorder depression, my pm depression, or what's called 'reactive' depression (ie, feeling sucky about an actual event like a breakup or something). to me, it just feels like I'm underwater or something, like I can tell I used to have more energy but my mind never totally clears. I didn't know what was wrong and was ready to address it on other fronts (anti depressants? the pill? something else?) and then I had a thyroid test and everything was a lot clearer :)

[annathepiper]

Hrmm. Hrmm. I do have dry skin issues, but I have historically attributed that to climate. Hair weirdness in what sense?

And I have also had the "my mind never totally clears" thing going on more than occasionally, but I've attributed that to not sleeping enough. :)

It does kind of sound like there may be something here, though.

[annathepiper]

And oh yeah... can you elaborate on what you mean by 'squirrely'? That calls to mind a picture for me of being fidgety and restless, possibly having a hard time focusing. I get that way sometimes--I tend to call it spazzing. ;) But this, I've attributed to too much caffeine!

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

hair = dry and breaking off more easily I guess

my understanding is that the sped up ness is pretty striking and harder to miss than the slowness but I don't know; I only had the slowness and it was this pretty specific constellation of stuff (that I totally missed).

seriously though, don't panic, of the stuff that could go wrong this is the training wheels version :)

[annathepiper]

Heh--thanks for the encouragement, hon! I'm not panicking; at this point it's more of a question of intellectual curiosity, and trying to make possible connections with things I have observed over the years. :) Any bit of data helps!

Thyroid

[jiapa.livejournal.com]

Yup, Hypo (low) thyroid is just about the most common and easiest to deal with endocrine problem. I've got it. Lots and lots of people have it. I take a little pill every morning (they cost something like $7 for a 3 month supply; they're CHEAP!) and I stay perky and smart. If you're feeling draggy all the time, you may be hypothroid.

Re: Thyroid

[firni.livejournal.com]

Heck, my four year old has been taking Levoxyl for the last year or so. I'm amazed that a non-generic drug is so cheap. We could easily afford it even without the insurance.

Re: Thyroid

[annathepiper]

Good to know! Thanks!

Re: Thyroid

[firni.livejournal.com]

HyPER-thyroid is the one that really sucks. I'm not sure what they do to control it these days, but back in the 50s they shot my grandfather's thyroid full of radioactive iodine to kill it.

So I guess it's the same net result: thyroid pill every day.

Back in my early 20s, they ran an iodine-uptake test on me. It involved an IV of radioactive iodine, then having to hold still for 40 minutes while they ran the scanner. Then they told me to stay away from pregnant women for the next three days. OH GREAT, THANKS GUYS

Re: Thyroid

[annathepiper]

So far from what everybody is saying on the thread, hypothyroidism makes more sense with stuff I have observed about myself than hyperthyroidism--but we'll see what my doctor has to say to me.

Re: Thyroid

[rmd.livejournal.com]

i've been on it for a few years for low thyroid.

levoxyl (http://www.levoxyl.com) comes in a trademarked thyroid-shaped pill. no, really.

Re: Thyroid

[firni.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that makes them so easy to cut in half, I don't even have to use the pill-splitter. I love it.

Re: Thyroid

[annathepiper]

Thyroid-shaped pills... *snicker* Just in case you forget what you're taking the pill for? ;)

Re: Thyroid

[annathepiper]

Thanks, Amy! From what you and Anne-Marie are describing, there are certain aspects of my life that I have historically attributed to other things that might be explained by this kind of problem.

The dragginess problem comes to mind. I've experienced that, though have often attributed it to just not sleeping enough. :)

[kirbyk.livejournal.com]

So, can you arrange to take time off for the doctor, and squeeze in your interview phone call during the same time block?

[annathepiper]

Not a problem at this point--the interview's scheduled for 9am Thursday, and my doctor's appointment is 8am on Wednesday next week.

[talyrath.livejournal.com]

Could be as simple as an iodine deficiency.

[annathepiper]

I didn't know one could be deficient in iodine! How is this related, if at all, to thyroid issues?

[talyrath.livejournal.com]

Goiter is a swelling of your thyroid gland due to lack of iodine in your diet.

Modern society has solved this by marketing iodized salt -- the salt has enough iodine in it to keep you well, and everyone eats salt, right?

However, lots of people are turning to 'all natural' sea salt and stuff like that now, putting them at risk if they don't have another way to get iodine in their diet.

[annathepiper]

Ohhhhh. Interesting; noted and filed for reference. This, too, is a potentially intriguing datapoint. Thanks!

[cafiorello.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Keith is hypothyroid. Cheap, small pills, blood test periodically, no problem. Doesn't seem fair as I'm the one who's always cold.
Cathy

[annathepiper]

Heh! Thanks for the datapoint, Cathy. :) The responses I've got have put my mind at ease!