thyroid help please

[crinkle]

Hi I feel I suffer with health anxiety and am fine as long as my health is fine. However at the moment I'm going through some problems with sciatica pain with my back and was getting bloods done for imflamation and got my thyroid checked and my gp is sending me for a thyroid scan. Of course I am panicking and going out of my mind with worry and thinking the worst. Does any one have any experience with thyroid or bloods and under the following

TSH 14.79 and T4 9.5

Can anyone help please.

[crinkle]

Does anyone know. I'm going out of my mind with worry.

[rbm]

Hi

I've had a thyroid problem for 9 yrs, my first blood tests were high as well, but after treatment started , symptoms toned down, even my anxiety. Your scan should be fine, tests aren't that high, they should return to normal in a few months with the right treatment.try not to worry i know it's hard...

[jimsmrs]

My thyroid went over active 2 years ago and was diagnosed with Graves disease. I went to my surgery and saw the practice nurse, as there were no GP appointments, with a thumping heart rate, sweating and by whole body was shaking and vibrating and when she took my blood pressure and pulse, my heart rate was 126 bpm. She took my blood and said she would fast-track them. I got a phone call 3 days later telling me to go in to see the Dr. My blood results were sky high. he wrote me a presciption for Carbizamole, an anti-thyroid tablet and Propronal, to calm my heart beat. He then referred me to a specialist, Who took more blood. he told me in my case, my Thyroid had to be destroyed by a Radio-active Iodine capsule. This I had 3 weeks later. Then another visit to the specialist, more bloods, then I was started on Levothyroxine as my Thyroid had gone under-active because of the treatment.

There are many reasons why the Thyroid goes haywire, sometimes it's hormonal, a virus,or even inflamation, like Thyroiditis, which a scan will pick up.

Also have a look at the British Thyroid Foundation website, which has loads of information about the different Thyroid conditions.

[crinkle]

Ok so if something is up with your thyroid it def doesn't mean cancer automatically. Do my results look totally out. Im in ireland so I don't know if that make a difference with levels. Doctor made out I should be exhausted with those results but I don't really feel that bad.

[jimsmrs]

No it doesn't automatically signal Cancer.

Exhaustion indicates your GP thinks it's gone under-active. As that's a key symptom, as is weight gain

Some health authorites in other countries do have different readings.

Try not to worry and make sure you attend your tests, make a list of questions you may want to ask the doctors.

[Blinkyrocket]

High TSH basically means that you don't have high adrenaline/histamine/dopamine etc. there are many hormones which affect TSH, all the TSH test shows reliably imo is pituitary function. I imagine "hyperthyroidism" is a problem of uptake of thyroid rather than overproduction.

[jimsmrs]

Hyperthyroidism is 'over-active' Thyroid and 'Hypothyroidism' is under-active Thyroid..

If the T4 is low, a high TSH level would show that the Thyroid gland, not the pituitary gland is responible for the Hypothyroidism 'under-active'

If the T4 level is low and the TSH is not high, then the pituitary gland is at fault and the cause of the Hypothyroidism 'under-active', so the treatment regime would be totally different.

[debs71]

I agree with jimsmrs.

Thyroid issues are not an obvious indication of Cancer. They are very common, and with adequate and careful treatment, can be easily rectified.

Your TSH is a bit high, which indicates hypothyroidism, so that is why your doctor said you should be struggling. You would typically be feeling weak, listless, sluggish....just generally unwell and under the weather. Your thyroid I think sounds like it is working overtime to try to produce hormones.

Please try not to get too anxious about this. You are on the right path with everything. I had a scan of my thyroid and a load of tests a couple of years ago. I had a very visible lump in my neck which appeared out of the blue and my anxiety went off the scale. Weirdly, all of my thyroid bloods were pretty normal, but still I was petrified and the scan showed I had a cyst on my thyroid, so even then nothing sinister. Thyroids sometimes just go off track, and need a bit of help.

Hope things get better soon.xxx

[crinkle]

Thank you all for been so reassuring. Also just realised I forgot that doctor put on my referral letter that my esr was 20. I was having bloods done to get as inflammation was seen on an xray for my pelvis and I'm having back trouble. They are saying it's sacroilitis. Does that esr results of 20 is that high or does it mean anything in term of my thyroid too. Does anyone have any experience of sacroilitis either.