monday post, part one: negative
August 27, 2010

Can somebody tell me how many years it is gonna take before clinical labs catch up with the TSH guidelines that changed in 2003?! I got my test results back from Aurora's lab, and they are STILL using the outdated .5 to 5.0 range. And given that my numbers are 4.43, this is the same old battle--according to them, I am in the "normal" range. Even though, according to standards established nearly a decade ago, by actual endocrinologists, my TSH is outside of the acceptable .3 to 3.0 range, and therefore high.

Now granted, TSH is a generally lousy indicator of actual thyroid levels. But that's when it comes back low, or normal. If TSH is high, then it's pretty much a lead pipe cinch that thyroid levels are low. Possibly REALLY low. Especially when accompanied by other symptoms, such as fatigue, deterioration in condition of hair, skin, and nails, easy bruising, feeling cold all the time, visual disturbances, sweet cravings, mood deterioration, hypersensitivities to light and noise...
Well, you get the idea. NOT happy, and in the process of trying to figure out how I'm going to go about letting the doctor know that.

Anyway--labs don't always tell you when you have problems. If you looked at my numbers overall, compared with the lab's defined acceptable ranges, I look quite remarkably healthy for someone of my age and size. And even the super-picky HRA for work could only point to my weight and stress levels as areas of concern. Also, they calculated my "health age" to be 48 (Meaning, I guess, that I am no closer to death than your average 48-year-old). Which is fine with me. Since I will turn 49 in about 6 weeks, and all.

Speaking of all that, I have nearly finished with their B.S.--got my $400 max premium rebate, and that is the end of my forced participation, so I am washing my hands of it. Well, once I call them and head off the "Health Advising" they want to lay on me. I know what they want to tell me--I'm depressed. And I will not deny that I've feeling the depression creeping in lately. But I have learned that this is DIRECTLY related to the thyroid levels for me, and I don't want them babbling in my ear about counseling and CBT and managing stress, when the truth is they do not REALLY know thing one about me or my medical condition.

This is a very sore spot for me, because the mis-diagnosing and MISSED diagnosing has caused me decades of suffering. I'm still not sure it didn't cost Sammy his life. I have to be very careful not to think too much about how many lives get ruined by doctors who want to call you depressed because it's easy, when the same symptoms are also a big blinking red light pointing to other biochemical deficiencies. It just wipes me out if I think about it too much--I get so angry!