# Just diagnosed yesterday



## lissdawn (Jun 13, 2008)

Hi everyone,

First thanks for creating a space people like me can come to learn. I was just diagnosed yesterday by my doctor as Hashimoto's and hypothyroid.

After reading everything I could since yesterday I realize i've had my symptoms for a very long time and just either ignored or blamed on other things--tired all the time, aching, no energy, gaining 40+ lbs over a year while eating healthy and low-level exercise, about 2 years ago i started getting anxiety/panic attacks which at the time my dr contributed to stress but they weren't triggered by anything and i really wasn't feeling stressed, just experiencing the awful attacks. Most recently (in the past 3-4 months) i've started feeling nausea a lot, extremely tired after eating etc (at first got checked for diabetes), my hair has changed from smooth and soft to almost course and dull looking, my periods have gone from 3-4 days with light-reg flow to 5-6 days with very heavy flow and terrible cramping etc. The final straw was heart palpitations that started about 2 months ago. I finally went to my dr and he wanted my thyroid checked. Low and behold! I went for the testing and got a call last week to come in for a follow up.

When I left yesterday morning to go to my appt i was literally thinking to myself great, he's going to tell me it's all stress and results are normal once again etc. (this is the first time he's checked my thyroid. Well, my results were this:

TSH 9.7 (range said 5.0-5.5 for normal)
FT4 10.2 (I can't remembeer what this one meant).

He immediately ordered i start taking levothyroxine, i'm on .025 mg and he wants me back for bloodwork in 6 weeks to adjust as necessary. I can't tell you how unbelievably relieved i am to actually be diagnosed with this! I know it's crazy, but after a few years of nothing showing up, being told it's just stress etc, it's so good to know it isn't all in my head and there is a scientific reason for all of this!

Now that i'm over the initial relief of finally having a diagnosis (and thankfully this can be treated with painless medication), I would like to know from others who have lived with this and are experienced what to expect? how long before i may start getting relief from symptoms? did you lose weight after starting treatment? And can anyone give me some more insight into what my results mean? How they compare to others? And are there any good books available that you would recommend? Thanks.


----------

