New with questions

Hi all, this is my first post, I have several questions and am not sure if this is where I should post or if thyroid issues is where, I’m dealing with both.
Here is my background story!
For the past 13 years I have been struggling with hypothyroid issues. There have been a couple times where I have became hyperthyroid as well, but my numbers bounce around a lot. Most recently my primary finally referred me to an endocronologist due to an enlarged thyroid and had an ultrasound done that showed just enlargement no cysts etc. my meds has been increased for 6 weeks at that time and my numbers were not adjusting well at all.
The endocronologist ran blood work to check for celiac and hashimotos at that time, celiac came back very unlikely and hashimotos was positive. He increased my medication at that time and referred me to the GI doctor.
The only thing that has been checked is my tsh which I think I need the rest of the profile checked as well.
Now while I was waiting for my consultation with GI I started to have bleeding and a lot of mucus with no stool when I had a Bowel movement, I went to urgent care once who told me it was constipation and to use miralax. This really was not helpful and about a week later it was actually worse so I called my primary doctor who had me go for a colonoscopy.
The colonoscopy found inflammation which the doctor biopsies and the nurse called and said it was proctitis and started me on cortisone suppositories for 14 days. After 13 days I sent a message to my GI doctor letting him no this has produced no improvement.
Today I was sent for blood work, a CBC with differential and C-reactive protein. My results were posted in my chart and the CRP was listed as <.4 and the CBC only showed below range on the wbc and rbc other than that my numbers are within range.
I started 40mg prednisone for 7 days, tapering by 5 mg every 7 days.
I’m not 100% what my questions are other than does this sound familiar to anyone else? Will the doctor have more info to share with me when I finally have my consult on the 23rd? What are some things I can do from home to help myself?

Ok this is all my blood test results from the last month
CRP <0.40
WBC 4.4
RBC 3.87
Hemoglobin 12.3
Hematocrit 37.7
MCV 97.4
RDW 12.7
Platelets 177
Neutrophils 2.06 and 46.7%
Lymphocytes 1.69 and 38.2%
Monocytes 1.69 and 11.5%
Eosinophils 0.10 and 2.3%
Basophils 0.05 and 1.1%
Immature Grabulocytes 0.01

TSH 14.35

Thyroid autoantibodies
Thyroperoxidase >900
Thyroglobulin 6.7

Celiac
IgA 226
TTA IgA <1.2

As you can see your TSH is extremely high, and need to consult with an Endo to start you on Levothyroxine or to adjust your dose properly if you are already on it!

I think this should be top priority for you!!!!

wishes for good health,

Then with this TSH you are NOT on the proper dose for you, you still need much much more.

Do you take it early morning on an empty stomach for at least one hour? this is the key for it to work.

You need an ENDOCRINOLOGIST to adjust your dose properly and to bring your TSH to between 1-3 .


wishes for good health,

Good, this sound as the right plan, continue following up with your Endo.

Best,

Please feel free to try the gluten free diet, but ONLY AFTER you have really ruled out celiac disease. It could be a reason why you might not be absorbing your thyroid medication.

You do not need to see an ENDOCRINOLOGIST, you need to see a competent doctor or nurse who understands thyroid disease and Hashimoto's. That endocrinologist that you saw does not appear to be one. IF he was, he would have understood that to diagnose and treat Hashimoto's, a complete thyroid panel must be tested, not just TSH. Hashimoto's is much different than someone who is just hypo, since you are also dealing with the cause of the disease, autoimmune attack on the thyroid. It is not treated based on TSH or TPO. It is prescribed based on a combination of your symptoms, levels of FT4 and FT3, and TSH. That endocrinologist should have know this and not just increased your medication without knowing if you also need T3 supplementation, not just T4. But then again, most endocrinologists only prescribe T4 and ignore the need for T3.

Thank you for posting your test results. The laboratory range is needed to be able to interpret what your numbers mean.

In my humble opinion and my previous bad experiences with multiple endocrinologists which were similar to yours, I would not go back to that doctor. I would not waist my time or health, but this is just me. So far he's proven that he doesn't know how to properly diagnose or prescribe thyroid medication. There are nurses, primary care physician's, some medical doctors, naturopaths, functional or integrative medicine doctors who can help you. You just need to find the right one.

Your GI symptoms sound like they could be Celiac's. A blood test result saying "highly unlikely" means there is a chance of Celiac's. An endoscopic biopsy is needed to confirm whether you have Celiac's or you don't.

Autoimmune diet is recommended for Hashimoto's. This is free of gluten, dairy and soy.

Good luck!

I will second that endos are terrible at autoimmune. They dont know the tips that people here or a functional medicine MD or natural path knows. Hopefully these gastros know more about autoimmune digestive issues than you endo knows about hashimoto.

As stated above, eliminating gluten, dairy and soy from diet improves hashi antibodies, but you need to stay on this bad food for celiac testing.

Good move, skip that one. Money up front is a rip off. Many (not all) of the chiro wanna be Drs push the up front pay - big red flag.

Look on the website I mentioned. I have seen three functional MD's for lyme, two took ins and were also MD's. The one who didnt take insc was also still an MD, but only billed you for 300 per hour. This is upper mid west though (not high $ like the coasts).

Maybe look on stop the thyroid madness website for a good thyroid Dr in your area who will Rx pig thyroid and look at T3/T4, not just TSH. about 10% of regular inc accepting Drs will do this. Thats what I do for thyroid. I was all over the place in the past.

I just got my tsh back today and it was .01 with a range of .35-4.9 so now I’m on the opposite spectrum. With the celiac tests that I had done showing unlikely but still having the hashimotos come back positive the functional medicine dr I saw took me off gluten 2 weeks ago, what is the chance this affected this?

I saw the dr yesterday and he ordered ft4 and tsh for December 26th. He is questioning if the prednisone I was on for 6 weeks skewed the results