Trapped in hospital

[Honeybears_Mama]

Hi to All.  For about a year now, i have been on .2 mcg's of Synthyroid and .50 of Cytomel, but have not felt well at all. Brain fog, no energy, utterly exhausted and depressed and catching any virus  or infection that came my way. This past November, I became sick with the flu. Although I called my primary's office repeatedly to ask for an an appt. or permission to go the ER, nothing happened and I continued to get worse. I was admitted to the hospital on Dec. 15, 2014, for flu related illness. At that time, my primary stopped both thyroid meds because he said my TSH was way too high at 2.7 and told me that he was stopping them for the next 3 months. He discharged me on Dec. 24, 2014, at 5PM,  and sent me home with no antibiotics as he said the only thing wrong with me was asthma, which I have suffered with since birth, and he diagnosed me as having COPD from living in a building where everyone smokes, except for my son and  me. We have lived in the building for a little more than a year, while actively searching for a new place to live. By 10 PM of the day I was discharged, I had a fever of 105. My son thought I should have went right back to the hospital, but I would not as I had zero confidence in my doctor and wanted to find a new one. I was so ill and struggled to breathe so much that the only place I could breathe was to sit either my toilet seat or on a straight back kitchen chair.  I felt like I was drowning, but without water. Four days later, after continuing to have the high fever and being unable to breathe, I was readmitted. A doctor from the ER who I met in Dec. 2013, when I was admitted for my Crohn's, said it made sense when I had told my primary that I had coughed up what I referred to as graffiti sputum because there were several shades of green, a few shades of yellow, grey, black and red. I have now been here almost thirty days, with no thyroid medicines at all and although I no longer have the physician who was my primary because he quit me when I expressed concern about all that I had learned from the ER doctor Dr. Beg. My new primary, although a much more congenial man, seems to be as clueless as my original primary was. He believes my 2.7 TSH to be too high and says he is keeping me off all thyroid medicines for the next three months at least. I tried to talk to him about my T3 and T4 levels, but he just keeps repeating the same thing. In the meantime, I am cold down to my bones, and experiencing alll of the symptoms that I always have whenever I am in a state of hypothyroidism.
I am being released tomorrow with a hospital bed and oxygen, but no thyroid meds. There are really not many physicians in the area, from which to pick a primary. Do you have any suggestions for me regarding educating my primary on TSH, T3, T4, and do you have any suggestions about what to do about the next three months. I was originally on Synthroid,  but then learned about Cytomel and have been on it since 1998. It makes a huge difference in  my cognitive and emotional well being. I am sorry this is so long, but I thought it important to share what led me to the situation I am currently experiencing. Any and all thoughts and help are greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Barb135]

Your doctors are saying that a TSH of 2.7 are too HIGH and are keeping you off thyroid meds for 3 months?  Are you sure you understood that correctly?

TSH is counter-intuitive... When TSH is high, thyroid hormone levels are, typically low, which means if they think TSH is too high, they should be giving you thyroid hormones to bring down the TSH.  They would only keep you off thyroid hormones if they thought your TSH was, either, normal or too low... someone is confused about the role of TSH.

Do you know what your Free T3 and Free T4 levels are?

[flyingfool]

Your Drs in my opinion suck!  I would continue to look for another Dr.

It is TOTALLY incongruant and nonsense that the Dr would say that the TSH is HIGH and then deny thyroid meds.  That is COMPLETELY OPPOSITE.  A High TSH would suggest the need for thyroid medication!

Plus you have CLINICAL experience with knowing that addition of thyroid and expecially T3 has helped you.  

You really need to post up your actual blood labs related to THyroid and we can make better recommendations for you to consider.  Also please list your other Hypo symptoms other than "all of them".

You MUST get the FREE t4 and FREE T3 tests and not "total T4" and "total T3"  as the "total tests are outdated and of little value. So be adamate and do NOT back down from getting these tests!

I'm not a big believer in TSH other than a screening test.  And frankly a TSH of 2.7 is really deemed not that bad.  But again it is a screening test at best. The REAL test is the persons symptoms combined with the Free T4 (FT4) and Free T3 (FT3).  And both of those you want to be no less than the MIDDLE of the range and even higher on the FT3.

My wife's asthma symptoms are relieved when her thyroid meds and levels are up closer to optimum.  This may not be true for everyone, but when she started getting T3 meds and feeling better for a time, she was able to quit taking her daily asthma meds.  When she "Crashed" when a new endo removed her T3 she now has to take asthma meds again!  Coincident?  Maybe but it seems pretty correlated to me.

Just my thoughts.

[Honeybears_Mama]

Part of my text disappeared. I must have hit it with my IV arm. Dr. Beg ordedred a Cat scan, and it showed every part of both lungs are covered in vary ages of pneumonial infections that were all dismissed as  being colds.