thyroid misery

I know what you mean, I felt indifferent about everything. Lost all interest in anything really, any hobbies I had... I just managed to get up, go to work, get home and watch soaps and sleep... thankfully this is in the past for me, but again it took a while, it's important to eat well, sleep well, take additional nutritional supplements (my iron was very low, my Vit D deficient,...) and find the meds that work for you. Now the biggest hurdle is finding a doctor that will work with you, I had to go through a few, the trick is to move on. You go to one, you don't get anywhere, you just keep going to another one, until eventually you'll find one that'll work with you. I am now on a combination of natural thyroid hormone (pigs gland really), synthetic T3 and a low dose of hydrocortisone. Works for me now, but I had a very long journey to get here. I went off gluten and dairy for a year, but it didn't make much difference really, I got myself tested for coeliac and thankfully I don't have that, some people really benefit from it and feel much better, some people here really are doing well on the paleo diet, I haven't tried that one yet.... I feel brilliant on raw fruit/veg juices... but as I said, you need to figure out what works for you. If you read through some of the previous posts (I know it's a really long thread!) there is lots of advice on the type of blood tests one should get and the type of things one should watch, some people do better on taking the tablets at night, some measure their body temperature to keep track of their progress, there is a lot one can do to simply "self-monitor". But whatever you do, never accept someone making you feel like you're a hypochondriac, that you're imagining your problems and that you're just lazy and it's all your fault, and blablabla and really you should feel near perfect because your tests are in normal range....

I don't know much about this test but from googling it, it appears it's done to see if you have Cushing's disease (too much cortisol), but in order to interpret the findings you'd need the before and after results to the specific dose of dexamethasone given and also your ACTH levels. Did the doctor not explain the results to you?

I had an ACTH stim test to see if my glands are capable of producing cortisol - this is done to test for addison's disease (not enough cortisol).

harr wrote: »

Hi
Quick question does anybody suffer from bad constipation,I could go a week or more before having to use the toilet and often end up having to use Dulcolax because nothing else works and Dulcolax are not the nicest product to use.
Doc did put me on fibre supplement but no joy with that also taking lactalose and movicol.
Doctor is just putting it down the under active thyroid, can't go on taking laxatives forever as they will make the problem worse in the long term.

Here are a few things which might help:
Big cup of Hot water and lemon first thing in the morning
Some linseed on your breakfast (porridge, cereal)
I didn't find prune juice helped but some people do.
A very strong coffee sometimes works for me (I am not normally a coffee drinker)
Fybogel - don't taste great but better than laxatives.
A healthy balanced diet with lots if fruit and veg!
I never found a magic potion!!

Drink lots of warm water through the day. Eat prunes, it's the skin that's the best part. Dried apricots. Oranges, pears and grapes. Magnesium supplements, I use a spray that's applied to the skin. About a 2" square of at least 70% dark chocolate daily it loaded with magnesium.

Avoid too much dairy, white bread, white rice, pasta and bananas. Wholewheat versions ok if you tolerate wheat.

Plenty of exercise, a brisk walk is great for getting things moving.

Friend of mine had them, they were surgically removed and all is fine... try not to stress... have you gotten an appointment yet?