# Got my first results back. How bad is this?



## ineedanap (May 19, 2016)

Any conclusions I can draw from this? The dr. didn't tell me much, but he ordered additional blood tests and an ultrasound right away (just got those done this afternoon), and I have an appt with a endocrinologist already set for Monday.

T4: 0.3 (range .8 - 1.8ng/dl)

TSH 144.8 (range .4 - 4.5 mIU/L)

In addition, my vitamin D was super low (19) and all my cholesterol and triglycerides were both high.

This is all new, historically i've never had issues.

my details:

36yo male

no other meds

athletic

got blood done due to manifestation of normal hypothyroidism symptoms.

I'm curious as to what I should prepare myself for, what questions I need to be asking, and what I can be doing to get the symptoms to go away.

Thanks.


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## joplin1975 (Jul 21, 2011)

Um, that's pretty bad. Bad as in your thyroid is not functioning at all. I had a TSH of 121 once and I know I felt like death. You must feel awful too?

The most immediate thing to do now is to get that ultrasound to rule out cancer. Thyroid cancer is pretty easily treated, but it tends to be more aggressive in men.

High cholesterol and low vit. D are common with hypothyroid.


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## ineedanap (May 19, 2016)

Yeah, I'm a mess. death is pretty accurate.

odds on this being cancer? I know that's probably not something easy to answer, but... I mean I guess i'm asking if numbers this out of whack + a very quick descent from feeling great to terrible is more likely to be cancer or just hypo.

I just want to feel normal again. I was full speed into my triathlon training, and I miss my bike.

Ultrasound was already done. Appt on Monday with Endo. Nothing to do now but wait and chew my fingernails off.


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## Octavia (Aug 1, 2011)

Agreed. Those results are quite bad. You are VERY hypothyroid.


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## Octavia (Aug 1, 2011)

Odds of it being cancer are pretty slim, really. With my cancer, my thyroid labs were perfect. Hypo labs don't necessarily point to cancer...many, many, many people are just plain hypo. That said, if your ultrasound shows any nodules over 1 centimeter, you'll want to get those biopsied without delay.


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## ineedanap (May 19, 2016)

oh. wow, ok. So is that good or bad for things returning back to normal? Or does it not impact it one way or the other?

Is there anything I can do in addition to taking the levothyroxine for now to help my cause?

I'm assuming if i'm just hypo, the plan of action is medication to get things back to normal, vs cancer meaning I have it removed and then go from there.

I guess i still have a lot to learn about how all of this works.


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## Octavia (Aug 1, 2011)

You assume correctly.

Take the levo for now and see what the endo says about your ultrasound.


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## joplin1975 (Jul 21, 2011)

Yup, you've got it right.

Thyroid cancer is still very, very rare and its even more rare in men. And, as Octavia says, you can't really tell cancer by those basic thyroid labs.

What you do know if you thyroid isn't really functioning. So you have to figure out why. There are generally two reasons: 1) cancer or 2) an autoimmune disease (well, I guess there's #3, too, which is a combination of the two). Rule out cancer first (which is unlikely) and then worry about getting your meds regulated.

There's no reason you can't live a full life once properly medicated.


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## jenny v (May 6, 2012)

I'm betting it's autoimmune (meaning your immune system has attacked your thyroid and your thyroid has called it quits). I would press the endo to test Free T3, Free T4 and a full thyroid antibody panel.


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## WhatHappened (Nov 12, 2015)

those are the numbers that you really don't want to see. I can only imagine how bad you feel at this stage. What do you consider normal hypothyroidism symptoms? This disease takes time, take everyone's advice and be super consistent with your levo.

As far as helping your cause if you read through the forums, you'll see that we're big on vitamin D, B, and iron here. Start taking supplements but don't take them with your pill. Magnesium I got through the glasses of orange juice helped ease my muscle twitching and I think some of the pain. There is actually a forum for vitamins here and you can browse through that.

In Addition to cholesterol I bet your other lab work looks a little wacky . your creatin kinase might be elevated with numbers like that too ( muscle pain soreness so like you worked out way too much but all the time but your muscles never reset possibly difficultly gripping, picking up, opening soda bottle caps ). If you're having muscle pain and haven't been tested for your creatine you might want to ask about it. Add a little extra water to diet to flush it out of your system and help the kidneys and liver.

When you get properly medicated cholesterol goes down creatine goes down triglycerides go down.


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## Lovlkn (Dec 20, 2009)

ineedanap,

I'm curious - do you take any supplements to help with your athletic events?


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## ineedanap (May 19, 2016)

WhatHappened said:


> those are the numbers that you really don't want to see. I can only imagine how bad you feel at this stage. What do you consider normal hypothyroidism symptoms? This disease takes time, take everyone's advice and be super consistent with your levo.
> 
> As far as helping your cause if you read through the forums, you'll see that we're big on vitamin D, B, and iron here. Start taking supplements but don't take them with your pill. Magnesium I got through the glasses of orange juice helped ease my muscle twitching and I think some of the pain. There is actually a forum for vitamins here and you can browse through that.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the reply. I feel pretty terrible. I just had another set of blood work done, and met with the endo. My dosage was doubled to 150, and you're absolutely right, my CK is off, creatinine is high, and of course the cholesterols and triglycerides are through the roof. I'm on a weekly vitamin D dose, started myself on a vitamin B supplement, but haven't added magnesium or anything else yet.

Your descriptions of the symptoms are spot on as well. Typing long paragraphs makes my forearms hurt, using a screwdriver to completely screw in anything is torture, and walking up the 4 flights of stairs to my car in the parking garage at the end of the day feels like summiting everest. Coming from a guy who ran a half marathon 7 months ago, you can imagine how ridiculous this all sounds.

Just out of curiousity - is it reasonable to expect that i'll be back to 100% at some point? I mean I get that i'll have to take the medicine for the rest of my life, but do you really 'come back' from this? I guess (hope) you probably do, but man, it's hard to see right now.


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## ineedanap (May 19, 2016)

Lovlkn said:


> ineedanap,
> 
> I'm curious - do you take any supplements to help with your athletic events?


At different periods in my life i've dabbed in a fair amount of different supplements, but they've all been sporadic. Whey protein, BCAA's and caffeine have been the only two constants. I took creatine for a while, but could never figure out if it worked for me, so I gave up on it years ago. When I was into weight lifting, I used a lot of the 'pre-workout' mixes, but again, could never figure out if they did anything besides load me up with caffeine, so I ditched them too.


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## joplin1975 (Jul 21, 2011)

Yup, you should expect to feel well again.

It can take time to get there...and you may hit a few road bumps along the way, but with proper treatment, your quality of life should normal or pretty darn close.


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## creepingdeath (Apr 6, 2014)

TSH is in my opinion irrelevant.

I have had TSH in the hundreds and still felt the same when it was within range.

TSH can rise with other illnesses also.

I read about people who had annual blood work and were told to get to the hospital because TSH was 250.

These people felt great with no symptoms at all.

*:There is more to this nasty disease than me you or the medical community knows : *


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## WhatHappened (Nov 12, 2015)

I'm with Joplin. Properly medicated you can get normal or pretty close to normal. The trick is, properly medicated, and you are now part of the "you don't look sick" club. But you are. Full "normal" may not be in the cards for us. I'm convinced that part of recovery is attitude, and a little stubbornness and spite (of the illness),

I'm still hypo but a whole new person today. I often wonder if I feel so much better with a TSH of 10 and low FT4 because my starting point was so miserable. Patience is key, I like my doc, but I wish he had jumped me to 150 like yours did. They are taking the slow and far too conservative approach, but there has been constant improvement. Not sure what your weight is, but a 100% hormone replacement dose starting point is 1.7 mcg per Kg.

Typing was hell as well for me (you might want to read http://thyroidboards.com/forums/topic/14370-whoa-wait-im-a-boy/which was my very first post a few months ago. Just for giggles. I tell people I found 300 symptoms on the internet and I had all 500). I would call to avoid writing emails. I felt like I had carpal tunnel in both wrists, hands, and carpal tunnel in my upper arms and shoulders Bottle caps felt like they had steel ridges and I could no longer palm a coffee can (costco, but still). Feet and legs were a wreck (I still have a little neuropathy in the outer left foot), And so on and on and on. I thought I was a completely normal person before getting sick (which I thought happened abruptly), but I suspect I was wrong.

Drink some extra water and stay away from dehydrators like coffee and alcohol until your CK levels come down It is basically a toxin that shows up with muscle damage (from exersize and normal in small temporary doses), I am not an athlete and my muscles were sort of melting away 27/7. Not to worry, it can supposedly come back. The hair on my legs and arms did! I can now type and palm that coffee can. The water will help your kidneys flush it away and help support your liver from its toxic effects.

That said, I can't speak about how we may feel once everything gets back to normal. I have gotten better, but I do run out of steam still in the evenings. Depends on what I have done. I recently regrouted my bathroom, unthinkable last summer, but I was wiped out that night. But I'm still not at my full dose. I can get the world done, but I think it is mostly about energy management to some extent for me. I did not subscribe to spoon theory originally, but I sort of do now. Not that I get wiped out quickly, but that I just have to plan my bursts of energy. There is more than one athlete on the board. I'm just not one of you


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