After 12 years of struggling to work full-time, getting sick with sinus infections all the time, dealing with a lot of fatigue, having occasional problems with concentration, and dealing with weak muscles that get injured all the time I have found out that I have hypothyroidism.  It is an amazing discovery and has the strong potential for making my life better.  I didn't know about hypothyroidism and I have suffered many more years than I needed to.  I have lost friendships.  Maybe, I would not have lost the ability to play the violin.

Hypothyroidism is subtle and an easily-missed diagnosis.  It creeps up slowly, making it a diagnosis easily missed by a family doctor or specialist who sees a patient regularly.  That is what happened to me.  From what I have read, often a doctor consulted for second opinion or a new doctor makes the diagnosis.

How I Was Diagnosed

I consulted Dr. Paul Brown in Seattle, a specialist in fibromyalgia, because I was considering following Dr. St. Amand's protocol (see October for further details).  Dr. Brown picked up on potential thyroid problems, ran blood tests, and referred me to a endocrinologist/thyroid specialist, Dr. Robert Murray at the Polyclinic.  My blood tests were in the normal range, with my TSH on the high side (2.73) and my T4 on the low side in late September.  My TSH was 4.6 in early November (I don't know why such a large difference, I had a TSH near 5 about one year ago but did not receive a referral to a specialist.) The normal range is very wide.  The specialist reviewed with me the symptoms of hypothyroidism and I had many.  The most pronounced being fatigue which had reduced my work hours to six hours per day at most.  Given the combination of test results and symptoms Dr. Murray conducted a more sensitive blood test, based on the TRH. Basically, the way things work is that TRH stimulates TSH which stimulates production of the thyroid hormones.  On the TRH test I got a score of 55 where 10 is normal and 20 indicates hypothyroidism.  A clear diagnosis was made and I was started on synthetic thyroid pills the next day.  This condition is treatable.  It usually takes six to eight weeks to feel better, and can take up to three months.  I've already started to feel better.  (See my Journal and my Thyroid Journal for more information.)

Contact Marie at: [email protected]