Thyroid trouble?

[lys0127]

I starter tx 13wks ago normal heart rate, blood pressure. and normal thyroid? Now all abnormal. Gastro sent me to primary who order nuclear stress test. 12 week labs tsh 6.184 normal .450-4.5 t4 9.1 normal 4.5-12 hypothyroidism. recommends levothyroxine .05 I get pcr back tommorrow. Should I start this thyroid med? Will it increase heart rate more?Am I now going to be on this med the rest of my life? Why didn't anyone mention this? Is treatment worth possible side effect damage?

[mrvacation]

Dr did lab corp Quantasure pcr UND means< 2 Iu/ml?

[mrvacation]

what are pros and cons of thyroid treatment? I get pcr results tommorrow 12 week.

[hepcD]

My thyroid is damaged do to the interferon. I knew there was a chance of it happening and it did. I have hypothyroidism. I take synthroid once daily. I have a check up in February. I will ask doctor if i can start to wing myself off synthroid. I don't know if my thyriod is permanently damaged or not. Either way i am happy that i chose to do the tx. I was a little freaked out when i found out . My thyriod was giving me problems. I have since accepted it and have moved on to a very healthy life . Millions of people have thyroid conditions. They live normal lives just like you and me. It really isn't a big deal

[zazza]

Your TSH is not that high, and your T4 is still within normal range. I had the same problem at the end of my tx: TSH: 7.3 (normal range: 0.30-4.0), T4: 17 (normal range: 12-22), hypothyroidism. I was lucky, my thyroid went back to normal. Hopefully you will also be lucky, but for many people these thyroid issues do become permanent.

I knew ahead of tx about the risk of thyroid issues. Still I was shocked when it turned out I was one of the ones who got this sx. This really was the only sx I was scared of since I knew it could become permanent. But I read up on it, and people calmed me down, and told me that even if I would have to take that pill the rest of my life, it really was not such a big deal. So with the support of others I felt much better.

This paper is a good summary on interferon-related thyroid disease:

http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/reprint/89/8/3656.pdf

[annekynch]

A lot of us have had trouble with our thyroids during treatment.  Mine went really low then really high.  It's a good idea to treat it.  I've been weaning off the thyroid meds slowly
since i stopped treatment.  seems it is going back to normal.  let us know how you do with the pcr test.