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Do I need to go see an endocrine? Hyperactive Thyroid.

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Thyroid Disorders
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Posted 3/31/2014 7:06 PM (GMT 0)
I recently had a baby at the end on June. For my two week followup appointment with my OB discovered that I had goiters in my throat. So I go for an u/s and sure enough I had two of them. I then go to a ENT to do a biopsy since they were big enough. Well they came back benign. But they did discover that I have a hyperactive thyroid. I have not seen a endocrinologist yet for this but I am wondering if it is imperative that I do soon. I am going back for my 6 month followup and getting more blood work to check my thyroid levels again. But I am experiencing severe depression, mood swings, irritability, dry/ brittle hair, hair loss, hand tremors especially when I am stressed or irritable, memory loss, Fatigue, no energy, weight loss even though I am not trying nor am I on a diet, Hand and feet tingling and numbness, constipation, and not to mention I have not had a period since my son has been born. I had one in Feb but none since then. So I know that does not help matters. I breastfeed him. Whenever he latches on I get panic attacks where I can not breath and I feel like I am going to throw up or pass out. I have told my OB about this and he suggest I see an endocrine quickly however my husband's insurance has changed this year and we have to meet a extremely high deductible first before insurance takes over. Plus with an endocrine being a specialist I know the bill will be much higher. However if this is important for me to be seen I will because my health is more important. I am really worried about my mood swings and irritability. I can go from being in a great mood to wanting to kill someone just like that. Then I don't want anyone touching me or getting near me. After I settle down I am fine again. It is really hard with a baby and a three year old. They need their mommy back and right now I just feel like I can't be there for them like I want to be and should. All this started while I was pregnant with my son. I had a very hard pregnancy with bad mood swings where I would throw dishes because I got in these unusual tempers. I am thinking it all had to do with my thyroid. Anyone else relate to this? Is there natural ways to heal this? Also if I do not get seen my an endocrine I hear a untreated hyperactive thyroid can be dangerous to your health. Can someone explain why this is?
Posted 4/1/2014 12:10 PM (GMT 0)
Your symptoms sound highly suggestive of hyperthyroidism, with perhaps a bit of postpartum depression thrown in there. In short, you sound miserable. I think the sooner you can see an endo the better, because if you are hypothyroid it isn't likely to get better without treatment - in fact it can get much worse. And yes, it can definitely be life threatening.

Hyperthyroidism speeds up everything in your body - including your heart. My normal resting heart rate is in the 60's; when I was diagnosed it was 120. This means my heart was working twice as hard and aging twice as fast. Also, your mood swings could potentially present a danger to your children.

You said your child was born in June, but from your comments it sounds like it maybe was January? If your six-month check is in June, I wouldn't wait that long. One possibility would be to see if you can get into your primary care physician and if he or she will order a thyroid panel for you. This should include TSH, T3, free T4 and thyroid antibodies. If you can get this done and post the results here (including the lab's reference ranges), both we and your doctor can probably help you more. This would also give an idea of how quickly you need to see an endo.

Good luck, and keep us posted.

Added: for your reading pleasure, since I know you have so much free time with an infant and a toddler, here's a link to a Mayo site that talks about possible consequences of continued hyperthyroidism:

www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hyperthyroidism/basics/complications/con-20020986
Posted 4/1/2014 4:28 PM (GMT 0)
Thank you for your response. My son was born at the end of June and then two weeks later is when my OB found the nodules in my thyroid. From there he had me go for an u/s and then to a ENT to do a biopsy. That was about 6 months ago when I had the biopsy. I go next tuesday to do a followup on blood work. I will get all that checked out to see what my thyroid levels are and as soon as I get that back I will post. I do have the ones that were done 6 months ago but they do not look that bad.
As of 9/12/13 my T3 was 2.8
T4 was 1.15
My TSH was .39
My Thyroid Peroxidase Ab was 9.
Posted 4/1/2014 5:03 PM (GMT 0)
Remember to get the reference numbers this time. The same numbers can mean different things from different labs. It'll be interesting to see if there have been significant changes since November. If not, your thyroid is probably innocent and you will need to move farther.
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