Congratulations Barb ma'am, thanks very much for helping people worldwide.
Finding the time to help others is not always easy when working full time as you were for many of those years. Your input and your calming influence have been huge factors in keeping this forum on track and very helpful to our many members. Thank you very much for that.
Amen. I have learned a lot and your advice and help to myself and so many others on this forum is a great service.
Thank you both... I appreciate your confidence and kind words.
Dear Bar, congratulations, wow 6 years?! Amazing, you have helped so many many people. Even if they don't write you can bet they are thinking of you.
Love
Dee
Sorry Barb, the b sticks and if I don't watch it, it doesn't "take" at all. I went to the doctor asked for everything re thyroid. All she did was the TSH
Why are they so ignorant? Sorry, just frustrated.
Much love to you and yours!
I know this thread is to recognize Barb for all her good work on the Forum, but I couldn't help but respond to your question. The doctors were trained that TSH is basically all they need to know in order to assess thyroid status. If TSH is >10 then it is overt hypothyroidism and they will treat the patient, but predominantly only with T4, which doesn't work for many patients. If TSH is above range, but <10 then it is called subclinical hypothyroidism, and a test of Free T4 is done. If, as usual, Free T4 falls with its range, which is flawed and much too broad, then the doctor will say that it is not the thyroid and it must be something else causing all the symptoms.
These practices continue because that is taught in med school. The predominant (but incorrect) belief is that hypothyroidism is very easy to diagnose and treat. Actual surveys have shown that doctors are so busy that they don't take time to find and read medical journals (in which they might find some evidence that current practices are outdated and don't work adequately for many hypo patients). Also, it is difficult for many doctors to consider that what they have been doing for so many years needs to be revised. And finally the major source of information for doctors seems to be the frequent visits from representatives of large pharmaceutical companies, whose vested interest seems to be maintaining the status quo.
If you need, or want, more information on all this I highly recommend the following link. I suggest reading at least the first two pages, and more if you want to get into the discussion and scientific evidence supporting all the suggestions on page 2. I would even give a copy of the full paper to your doctor and ask her to read it and reconsider how she diagnoses and treats a hypothyroid patient. If the doctor will take the time to read the paper she will have a hard time refuting anything, since the paper is based on extensive scientific evidence, and successful application of the suggestions and general recommendations.
http://www.thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/TUK_PDFs/diagnosis_and_treatment_of_hypothyroidism_issue_1.pdf
Thanks so much! I am sorry I went off topic. I truly didn't mean too.
I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas.
I guess because my TSH was .60, in range they did not test further.
Thanks for all the times you have helped me!
