Hashi's, What happens to the antibodies if you remove the thyroid?

[luvmy2grls]

Okay so the TITLE is the question!

What happens to the Hashi antibodies once you remove the thyroid?

The reason I ask, I am having a whole SLEW of neurological and other symptoms from numbness and tingling in my hands, feet and face, achy calves, twitching (or maybe more like spasms) hands, headache (daily, and migraines), balance issues, muscle fatigue (particularly in my extremities), feet hurt after standing for only 15-30 mins, acid reflux, constant sinus drainage, sensitive to heat, heavy painful periods, moody (angry,anxious)..  I am bother by each and everyone of these EVERY DAY..  

SO I finally convinced my GP to refer me to a neuro and he did some tests (brain MRI/MRA and some blood tests) and he says everything is fine and that all my symptoms/issues are because of the Hashi's..  I'm not completely sure I believe him but he has the medical degree and I don't so...............................  

I was diagnosed with hypo/hashi's in feb 2010 my TSH was 144.40 and my FT4 was 0.03(0.89-1.76) and I had Thyroid Peroxidase Ab >500.0H (<10.0)
Thyroglobulin Antibody 87.1 (<100.0)

I also have a Goiter (Right lobe 2.2 x 2.6 x 5.7cm no nodules, Left lobe 2.2 x 2.3 x 5.3cm no nodules, Thyroid Isthmus measures 6mm in AP dimension, The gland is Diffusely hyper vascular.)

So I don't want to sound like a ding **** here or anything and I certainly don't want to sign myself up for any surgery...  
BUT if one removes the thyroid, do the antibodies LEAVE, and do u NO LONGER have hashi's???  If this is what is causing all this grief to my body would it be able to return to a fairly "normal" state.  

I'm sorry if this is a dumb question guys,  I don't want to ask the doctor.  I don't want him to think I'm a few cents short of a dollar u know..  lol

Thank you!

[luvmy2grls]

ok, here are the labs and might I say I am quite confused...

Ft3 373 (230-420)
Ft4 0.08 (0.08-1.8)
Tsh 2.17 (0.4-5.5)

and on the copy of the lab it says " Dear Jennifer Keep armour at 90mg daily, on monday and friday take half tab extra. Dr. N"

So I'm wondering why I felt so great when I switched from synthroid to armour.. When I switched I went straight from taking 150mcgs of Synthroid to 90mgs Armour. Is it because I had synthroid in my system and the armour complimented it????

I mean if he is trying raise my t4 shouldn't he just give me some synthroid WITH the armour instead? LOL I dunno, I obviously didn't go to medical school! haha HELP! what should I do?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!

[luvmy2grls]

Thanks gimel for your quick response! I appreciate it!

I am currently seeing an ENDO who seems to be drug happy. LOL I guess some ppl would be happy and I'm not quite so sure if I am.. It just doesn't seem like we are getting to the root of the problem here and just trying mask my symptoms with other drugs or vitamins.

Anyways, I went to see and Endo because I wasn't happy with how my GP was "leaving" my thyroid levels and she was NO LONGER listening to my symptoms and just looking at labs and then she stopped looking at my labs and just did whatever the heck she wanted. sooooooooooooo I went elsewhere.

Recent labs from GP on 5/31/11
FT3 276 (230-420)
FT4 0.7 (0.8-1.8)
TSH 1.5 (0.4-5.5)
Vit D 38 (28-80)

I was taking 75 mgs armour and she said I was fine and to come back in 6 months to be retested. I said, "um, what about all of my symptoms"? and she said "Jen, ur labs look fine so we are going to leave your dose alone". and walked out of the room.

SO I was P.O'd and found the ONLY endo in town who didn't require a referral and went and saw him.. I took a copy of ALL of my labs with a timeline of the drugs and the dosage I was on with corresponding symptoms and asked that he raise my dose BACK to 90 mgs and he agreed. it was the easiest thing. He didn't run any thyroid tests that day but he ran a cbc and found the my ferritin is low but I'm NOT anemic and that my coritsol was low. SO I am now taking iron supplements. He had me take a cortisol challenge test which my baseline was low and the first draw was low then the second draw was fine. (i will post labs at the end of the paragraph) and so he was confused by that so he had me go in for a random 8am and 4pm cortisol test and those were fine, so he said we are gonna just put that on the back burner for right now.. He is perplexed  by the situation... He was testing me for "addisons disease"

Labs by Endo 6-10-11
Ferritan 7 (10-29)
Cortisol 5 (4-22)
Vit B-12 742 (200-1100)
Progesterone 10 (4.4-28)

Cortisol Challange test 6-17-11
base 3 (4-22)
30 min 20 (>20) the lab sheet has the BOLD for out of range
60 min 24 (>20)

Random "am" and "pm" cortisol draw 6-27-11
am 12 (4-22)
pm 9 (3-17)


I just went to the Endo on the 23rd ( I know how cool is that he is open 2 saturdays a month until noon!!!) and I'm waiting to hear back from them about my labs and to receive a copy in the mail.. as soon as I get them I will post them..

I am currently taking 90 mgs or 1.5 grains of Armour.

Thanks again!

[gimel]

From what I've read, once you have Hashi's, the level of antibodies may go down when there is no longer any thyroid tissue to be attacked, but you have the antibodies for life.  The antibodies don't really cause hypo symptoms such as you listed.  Rather than remove the thyroid glands, most Hashi's patients are able to gradually increase thyroid meds until they eventually stabilize at a level that is adequate to relieve symptoms

What meds and dosage are you taking?  

The most likely cause of your hypo symptoms is inadequate / improper meds.  You can determine if this is the cause by being tested for the biologically active thyroid hormones, Free T3 and Free T4.  If FT3 in particular is in the low end of its range, that is consistent with being hypo and needing to raise the level into the upper part of its range.   Many of our members report that symptom relief for them required that FT3 was adjusted into the upper third of its range and FT4 adjusted to around midpoint of its range.  Symptom relief should be all important, not just test results.