I saw a new endo yesterday. Spent an hour with him. He actually looked at my labs from the past year and both of my thyroid ultrasounds. He actually looked at the pictures and felt the same as previous endo's that my thyroid is heterogenous and that the nodule/lymph nodes I have are "normal" for hashimoto's thyroidits but to keep getting an ultrasound every year to keep track of the nodule to make sure it does not grow.
He is testing my kidney function again because of family history of problems and my still every day problem of swelling in my legs. Most doctors have written it off as that I am lazy, eat too much, sit on my ass all day and night. I have told past doctors that I do excersize, eat well (fresh food, low salt) and drink tons of water (hey I am in a water club, lol!) but no one cared a little to even look into things further.
Findings are that my BP was a little elevated. Normal for me is around 110/70 and sometimes a little lower than that. My whole pregnancy my BP was low. For me to have 120/80 or a little more, that is high for me. He took it a couple times and it was 140/80. He is going to follow up with this when I go back.
Another thing is that he kept asking me other questions which were related to PCOS. And now thinking back (which again you sometimes can't see what is going on when you are going through it but when you look back the picture is so much more clear.) I went through a period, I think from 2006-2008 sometime with horrible cystic acne, fatigue and I had issues with cysts on my ovaries. I noticed the swelling in my legs become more persistent then but not everyday. I went to a couple obgyn's which just switched around my bc pills. According to them, bc (birth control) controlls ovarian cysts and decreases acne. I still had acne issues and went to my family doctor and then dermatologist which prescribed me topical medications and oral medications which did absolutely nothing for this acne. And then one day in 2008, the acne stopped. I still have a few breakouts here and there but it is not horrible "do not want to leave the house" kind. But with seeing all these different doctors, no one added this up and thought to test my thyroid function or to see if I had any other hormone problems. Not until I got pregnant and it was obvious that my thyroid was enlarged (and I went to garden state obgyn, which all staff there are proactive and look out for their patients.)
So, seems as though my other hormone issues are related to PCOS but that is still to be determined with testing. The main point of this though is that this new doctor is actually thinking and is going to figure out my issue. This swelling could be a combination of hormones, bp, kidney function that hopefully he can figure out how to balance so that my ankles do not hurt as much and I can lose this 10lbs of water weight that I have going on in my legs.
He also gave me a higher dose of Synthroid to see if that decreases some of the swelling. He said that even though I am finally in normal range for TSH, that some people feel better with a lower TSH in this range. Wow, he said this! Most endo's just see that you are in normal range and move on to the next patient no matter if you have symptoms or not. Currently I am on the upper end of TSH and he wants to get it lower closer to 1 and see how I feel at this point. If I still have the swelling, then he will put me on Aldectone (and possibly back on bc pills.) I was on this medication once, about 6 weeks post partum. My obgyn gave it to me because at my post partum visit I practically begged to help get some of my leg swelling down because I was swollen since 4 months pregnant and couldn't take it any more. This stuff worked and my legs felt great! But I only had 7 days worth of pills because he wanted me to see my family doctor to get more testing done to rule out clots or other issues. I am so happy that this new doctor actually suggested this diuretic because it works for me. I have been on lasix and hct (not sure if this is right) and they do nothing for me. From what I understand, Aldectone works on a different part of the kidney and blocks androgens. I am still looking into it but seems like women with PCOS or acne are prescribed this medication. It doesn't stop your body from making androgens/testosterone but it blocks too much of it. I think that is how this works.
In the meantime, I will have to see how I feel over the next two months with the new dose of Synthroid. I also feel good about this guy that I am going to cancel my Penn appointment. I really dread going over to Penn. Feels like another world where you are in outer space (this is at the Pereleman Center atleast), everyone is sick and there is weird music playing in the background. Not uplifting at all.
Now I just hope that I remember to get my thyroid ultrasound and bloodwork done in time for my next appointment.
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