[Kalty]

#1060176

Also, is there a way to know how long someone’s thyroid has been off? Some kind of test or some signs?

Were any of you given a different diagnosis at first?

[SueAndHerZoo]

#1180988

You’re probably going to get a wide variety of answers to this but I think the most popular answer will be that there really isn’t one.

My GP had been telling me for 30 years (during my yearly physical) that I had a goiter and “One of these days, that thing is going to go kaplooey on you!” He would run blood work every year and send me for scans every few years but I was always in “normal” range. It finally went Kaplooey 7 years ago and yes, my symptoms were much worse for the few months before that. I went into remission a couple years ago but started feeling lousy in January. I thought it was because I had lots of stressful things going on but, come to find out, I was out of remission.

Now that I’ve had a TT and have been through several different levels in the past 8 weeks I’m getting really good at feeling when I’m in range and when I’m not and hopefully won’t have to suffer as long as I used to before getting treatment. Also, now that I have experienced what I’m SUPPOSED to feel like at a normal level, I really think this thyroid has affected me negatively for at least 20 years. So many of the things I’ve felt (bad ones) most of my life were gone during the few weeks recently when I felt good.

So in summary, I think you can suffer with symptoms for decades, and some people may be lucky enough to catch it in months. I guess it depends on how severely it hits you when it hits.
Sue

[PolishTym]

#1180989

I guess I was lucky that the worst symptoms showed up months before a physical. My GP didn’t notice my tremors but the nurse did while taking my heart rate. The GP wrote it off to some inherited cause of a tremor. The thyroid score on the physical initiated the visit to the endo. So looking back I can see that the tremors were there for months and months before the nurse noticed but to a smaller degree.

I will take later than never on the diagnosis.

[npatterson]

#1180990

I had symptoms for about a month or 6 weeks, and made an appointment with a cardiologist. He checked me quite thoroughly, wanted me to wear a halter monitor for 24 hours, come back and have a thyroid test run. I had no intention of wearing that ugly thing, so I went to another cardiologist who took about 7 months doing cardiac tests before deciding to send me to an endo–who diagnosed me that day! So, I would have been diagnosed on the first visit if I hadn’t been so vain, and/or if I had spoken up and said I didn’t want to wear the monitor. I was working and didn’t want to cancel a whole day of clients.

Take care,

Nancy

[gatorgirly]

#1180991

I had symptoms for a little more than six months. I actually convinced myself that I had a tapeworm because I kept losing weight despite eating ALL the time. I didn’t know anything about thyroids and I mistook a lot of the classic symptoms for hating my job and being in a newly long-distance relationship. When the tapeworm test came back negative, I gave up wondering and decided I loved losing weight. Except I was losing muscle and working out a lot. Finally, one Sunday, I worked out in the afternoon. I was so tired afterward that I laid down, but couldn’t relax. I never slept that night and went to my doctor the following morning because my heart was racing. I was in a thyroid storm with a resting BPM of 154, and left the doctor’s office in an ambulance and was taken to the cardiac ER (yes, they have those in Florida) where I was the only non 80-something-year-old man.

At the time, no one in my family had any known thyroid issues so it never even occurred to me. I was surprised and disappointed that my doctor didn’t check for thyroid problems when I told him all about my weird supposed tapeworm symptoms. I was working on a small island at the time and suppose that might have had something to do with his expertise. My dad has since been diagnosed with Graves’ but so far, we’re the only ones we know of.

They usually use your self-described symptoms as a way to determine how far back the disease goes, but other than damage to your heart (if there is any), there really is no way to tell. My weight should have been the red flag but like I said, my medical care was mediocre at best prior to diagnosis.

[snelsen]

#1180992

Hi, I was irritable, fussy, ate like a pig, sleepless, ate all the time, kinda sorta knew my heart was beating faster, ……all this for about at LEAST 2 months, probably a couple more, when I went to a doc, and he said I was just stressed out, had a new baby, take it easy, crap like that.

And, as a comment to Nancy Patterson’s nice post. I am assuming you wore a Holtor monitor a long time ago. And either did not get good instructions, and/or decided for your own reasons that you thought you needed to cancel a day of work.
I want to clarify, for anyone who may be needing to wear a Holtor Monitor someday, that you can do anything and everything you want to do. I would not want anyone to refuse to wear it, thinking they would have to take a day or two off. Not correct.
Except shower or get the EKG leads or little recording wet.
I have worn them about six different times, four times when I was working a 10 hour shift as a very busy RN on a very busy floor.

A Holter moniter is this:
They apply six EKG leads to your chest, with wires to a very small box which can hang on your pants like a cell phone, or you can have a small sling for it.
The purpose is to do a 24 or 48 hour constant measurement of your heart rate and your heart action. Very valuable information!

As a matter of fact, I am wearing one right now!
Shirley

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