Heart symptoms related to Thyroid

[AR-10]

I'm a 51 year old male.

I have Hashimoto's Toxicosis, which causes my thyroid hormones to swing up and down constantly, regardless of what Thyroid meds I am on. My TSH has been high and low dozens of times in the last year and a half. I have had numerous med changes and suppression therapy was tried with no good result. Now my GP is trying to find a surgeon and an Endo in the same city so that I can have a total thyroidectomy.

I have suffered heart symptoms off and on the whole time, and now the symptoms are continuous. I have had multiple EKGs run, an ultrasound recently that showed no damage or irregularities other than a slight bit of leakage in one of the valves, and an angiogram two years ago that showed no blockages at that time.

I was in the ER Friday and held in the hospital for 24 hours for monitoring and then released with no meds perscribed or suggestions other than to continue taking Toprol to control Tachacardia, and rest.

My symptoms are pressure, a constant dull ache, a few skipped beats here and there and the feeling that my heart muscles are just tired of beating and need rest. The Toprol is keeping the Tachacardia down to one second events, a little rev up and then it subsides.

Two different GPs have told me that it is because my heart is fighting itself, and not pumping efficiently, but no permanent damage is observed.

I am currently unable to work and the only way to control the severity of the symptoms is rest. That worked fine in the past, but now the symptoms are not going away.

Nitro makes the symptoms disapear for about five minutes, but I was told one should not take Nitro if one is not having a heart attack, and I am not.

What exactly is going on and what will an ENT surgeon think of doing a Thyroidectomy on me with this ongoing problem?

Thanks.

[Darcy Green Conaway, MD]

A high TSH usually means you have low levels of thyroid hormone in your body (thyroid hormone decreases the TSH levels)..so if your TSH was high, your thyroid was low and vice versa.  It is possible that you once had an overfunctioning thyroid that then resolved with suppression therapy and even got too low. In your situation the usual treatment for the arrhythmias is treating the thyroid condition.
As far as the surgeon goes, that needs to be asked of them because I simply cannot guess what an ENT surgeon may or may not want to do. Most times medical illnesses need to be stabilized before surgery, but again, that is a good question for the surgeon.

[AR-10]

Anyone?

My main concern at this time is what will an ENT surgeon think of this in regard to my ability to have surgery?

I am struggling trying to decide whether to go back on my Synthroid to be in better physical condition for surgery, if that time comes, or sit here without meds and continue to become more ill as my TSH rises.