[Anonymous]

#1049783

Afternoon warriors,

Just received my third phone call today to talk about test levels and had to do some explanation of test results. Now before you all go nut bar on me about practicing medicine let me explain. I basically tell the folks what they are trying to tell me is pretty much useless information.

For example “Hi Jake, I just got five units of rain and want to know how that relates to your area” What the heck does units of rain mean? Was it measured in inches, centimeters, at the start of a storm or at the end? Kind of the same thing if someone calls and says my TSH was 2.3.. OK 2.3 related to what?? Was the blood drawn right after your pills and do you have your blood drawn at the same time, every time? Did you change meds in the past two weeks? It all has an effect on the outcome. My 2.3 TSH may be someone else’s 5.4. See what we mean??

Each lab uses a different set of measurements for TSH, T3 and T4 levels. Unless they tell you what that lab considers the “Normal or average” range the figures are pretty much useless to any one else. That is why when someone posts my level was XXX is that OK ? We can’t possible tell you if it is or not. Now if you post your levels and what the lab shows as the normal range we may be able to provide some insight into the meaning but we cannot interpret them for you. So if we do not seem to be willing to talk about levels without knowing the particulars that is why. Talk over the results with your doctor. Find out if they use the same lab to process the blood work every time. I found out the hard way. I had a doctor that had different labs pick up his blood work. So each lab had different ranges and they were always changing my meds based upon on the results. I did not get stabilized while with that doctor. Changed doctors who used the same lab every time. Also have my blood drawn at the same time of day and the same number of hours after my meds. It does make a difference.

As my new Endo says. Always use the same lab. If they do the test differently it is constantly different and you can draw a conclusion from that. Hope this helps some. Took about 5 years before I had that explained to me. Now I know what to look for in my blood tests. Also ask for the TSH, T3 and T4 tests. HMO’s are beginning to want to test only TSH levels because it is a cheap test. It does not give the whole picture.

I hope this helped some.

Jake

[Anonymous]

#1147761

I’ve been doing realy well since Dr. switched me from synthroid to thyrolar– now my recent tsh comes back “below detectable levels”– could any informed person out there tell me what this means? ASAP please! Dr. will be calling back soon. Thanks.

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