This is me, but with chocolate.
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So I’ve decided to be my own doctor—within reason. Last month I ordered myself an iron panel and as I suspected since about January, my iron is low.
I’m doing much better but the thyroid stuff is still nagging at me given my family history and that thyroid issues and low iron can be related—which the dr I spoke with about my low iron didn’t know. So I ordered a more complete thyroid panel than any of the doctors want to do, plus vitamin D &B12 as both could be related to either iron or thyroid issues.
If my thyroid is wonky I’m going to see my sister’s endocrinologist to try to make sense of it. She is 100 miles away but she is in network and might be able to refer me to someone here? If not I’m sure I wouldn’t need to see her more than twice a year. She is the one who sent my sister for evaluation by a surgeon after her thyroid nodules had been growing for years and her previous endo told her not to worry about it. My sister had thyroid cancer and not the kind that just stays in the thyroid. Thankfully it was caught before it spread and my sister is cancer free and feeling great.
If my thyroid is not wonky then at least I won’t have to wonder. I’ll retest in maybe 5 or so years or if my hair starts falling out again.
Meanwhile I will keep up with the iron supplements bc I’m pretty sure that I’ve been low iron for at least 2 decades. I have this weird iron deficiency that doesn’t show up as low hemoglobin. I donated blood regularly. Sheesh. That panel is only about $50 and I’m going to run it annually if my doctors won’t. Sheesh.
if you feel up to it on the thyroid, mrs f wants hers out and can’t find anyone to do it. always v low normal and has had nodules forever. somehow she can’t get a butcher to take it out and give her the synthroid to be regular normal.
Has Mrs. Frazier had a biopsy done?? Can’t they just prescribe her the Synthroid??? 
My mother saw a neurologist who lived 400 miles away for many years. She saw him once a year, and the rest of the time he talked to her pcp, who had the relevant tests done and sent the results along.
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You can get Synthroid for hypothyroidism. You have to take Synthroid if you have no thyroid.
My sis had biopsies for years and they missed her cancer. It was only when they removed the whole thing that they found the cancer.
Are Mrs. F’s nodules growing? That my sister’s were growing is why they finally took hers out. But also her old super conservative endo retired and she got a new endo.
I have nodules but they are tiny. I had to practically beg for a scan bc the dr didn’t feel my thyroid was enlarged.
Mrs F might look for a functional medicine dr? But they are usually out of network. I’m a little scared of them although it was a functional med type place that finally diagnosed me. I would go back to them but they are out of network now.
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she has a long history of struggling to find drs who do anything but continue to frustrate her. she has a host of other things going on (autoimmune things) and her interaction with the system is a monstrous source of stress.
Synthroid (T4) is not very effective for hypothryoidism.
The medical establishment is slow to change when it comes to pharmaceutical thyroid support.
Once you ingest T4, it needs to be modified in your body into T3 by the deiodinase enzyme (cleaves off an iodine molecule) in order to attach to the relevant thyroid receptors (T3 is metabllically “active”).
About 80% of your circulating T3 is from converted T4.
So if you take T4, you will not be able to overcome any issues with the T4-T3 conversion problem (this issue is assumed to be why when females enter peri-menopause or menopause at later ages, about 7 out of 10 have signs of hypothyroidism).
Athletes have been dealing with this issue for a long time under a different set of circumstances (overtraining), and there is a fix for this.
There is a prescription for a combination of T3/T4, which is much more effective as it avoids the T4 to T3 conversion problem, so you get higher levels of circulating T3 in your bloodstream.
I would ask your medical professional to consider this type of medication.
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You can peruse in medline:
Relevant T3/T4 medication:
Mayo Clinic Info:
Have read this and lots of other stuff and it’s why I wanted a complete panel vs. TSH only or maybe the occasional Free T-4.
Apart from a full panel, it may be beneficial to ask for the addition of the rT3 (reverse T3) blood test to the full thyroid panel as it is not commony included.
T4 can also be converted to rT3 instead of T3, and what ends up happening is that the rT3 attaches itself to the receptor and blocks the T3 from doing so. This then results in hypothyroid symptoms and is referred to Euthyroid Sick Syndrome (ESS).
That should hopefully give you a further data point in terms of understanding what might be going on.
Yep, rt3 included
I’ve been having jaw pain lately. It comes and goes. Sometimes it aches most of the day, and other times I won’t experience any for a few days. It’s usually minor pain, but occasionally is a little stronger. It’s never severe. I asked the dentist about it, and after a bunch of poking and prodding he diagnosed me with bruxism (clenching/grinding teeth at night). Seems odd to me that I would develop this problem later in life so I am a little skeptical, in particular because the recommended treatment is for the dentist to make me a custom fitted mouth guard for $800-900 that won’t be covered by insurance. I also don’t have a classic sign of bruxism, which is a line on the inside of your cheek where your teeth come together as occasionally that can get pinched a little.
I bought a cheap drug store night mouth guard to try out to see if it improves.
FWIW my dentist told me the same and I thought it was crap, but I got the night guard anyway. Turns out it made a difference. 
Do you have an invasalign place near you?
Instead of getting a Bruxism guard (they are larger and tend to be quite costly for no real reason) you can get a fitted clear retainer from Invisalign.
I use one for sports as I don’t like the big sports guards and it works well at night as well. Makes it easier to sleep, which can be a problem with the larger Bruxism guards.
A quick google tells me invisalign is much more costly.
I would skip the Invisalign. Their retainer maker, Vivera, really isn’t much different from the clear plastic retainers you can get from any orthodontist on site, or even online now. You can search for online retainers and get several options where they mail you an impression kit and send you a retainer, probably cheaper than your local orthodontist.
Has Invisalign gotten that much more expensive in the US?
Used them in 2009/2010 and it wasn’t too bad.
I paid $6k two years ago for my treatment. I guess it depends on what you think expensive is, but yeah, that’s expensive.
I might try that if I can sleep with this OTC one and it seems like it could help a little. The cheap OTC one I bought has you microwave the guard to get it soft and make a custom impression. I just did that, so it should be good for a test run tonight.
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