How many doc­tors can I stran­gle with my bare hands?? Grrrrrrrrrrr.

Today, I am once again appa­lled and sad­de­ned by the end­less body of thy­roid patients who con­ti­nue to plum­met into the abyss of adre­nal fati­gue, day after day after day. And it just never needs to hap­pen if doc­tors would simply pay atten­tion and be infor­med.

Belinda is the per­fect exam­ple. She didn’t par­ti­ci­pate in thy­roid patient groups any­more, living her life hap­pily, because she thought her post-RAI thy­roid treat­ment was under con­trol, being on 2 grains of Armour for a year. But sud­denly, she felt the need to return to her groups and seek feed­back. Because she has become more irri­ta­ble and moody, has a hard time falling asleep, and feels fre­quently anxie­tal. Labs are redone, and she finds her­self with a slightly over-range free T3 and a very sup­pres­sed TSH. Her doc­tor deci­des to lower her thy­roid meds, which in turn impro­ves her insom­nia and anxiety, but weight starts piling on. She’s con­fu­sed and won­ders how she can find her balance bet­ween being on too little with unwel­come weight gain and being on too much with uncom­for­ta­ble anxiety and insomnia.

What Belinda didn’t get, and what her doc­tor didn’t get, is that Belinda had now joi­ned the dubious cama­ra­de­rie of those with adre­nal fati­gue, a need­less con­di­tion of over-stressed and under-functioning adre­nals. As a result, T3 in Armour starts to pool in the blood, cau­sing anxiety, insom­nia, and all sorts of low cor­ti­sol symp­toms. Thy­roid patients just like Belinda have to first dis­co­ver what is going on, then face the com­pli­ca­ted balan­cing act of trea­ting adre­nal fati­gue AND hypothy­roi­dism. And it’s a path that never nee­ded to happen.

WHAT IS POTENTIALLY TAKING YOU DOWN THE DIRTY-YELLOW BRICK ROAD TO ADRENAL FATIGUE??

1) Being undiag­no­sed, or being dosed by, the faulty TSH lab test and its dubious “nor­mal” range, which will leave you with lin­ge­ring hypothy­roid symp­toms. (Belinda’s 2 grains tells me she was being dosed by the TSH)
2) Being trea­ted by T4-only medi­ca­tions like Synth­roid, Levoxyl, Eltro­xin, et al, which end up tea­sing your adre­nals to work har­der to take up the slack of an ina­de­quate treat­ment.
3) Lowe­ring your expec­ta­tions of what “nor­mal” is. No, it’s not nor­mal to have less sta­mina than others, to be on an anti-depressant to ban­daid your hypo depres­sion, to feel col­der than others, to require fre­quent naps, to feel the need to avoid peo­ple, to be bothe­red by lights or noi­ses, to be told by those you love that you are too defen­sive or over-reactive…and so on.

I hope anyone rea­ding this comes to an unders­tan­ding that you can­NOT enter your doctor’s office as if you are ente­ring the throne of a god. Your doc­tor, no mat­ter how edu­ca­ted or dedi­ca­ted, may not have a strong unders­tan­ding of the role of adre­nal func­tion in rela­tionship to bad treat­ment via T4-only meds or the TSH lab range. You may have to bring this know­ledge to your doc­tor, or find another one who is either lear­ned, or open-minded. Because your chan­ces of having adre­nal fati­gue are huge if you are on T4, if the TSH is worship­ped by your doc­tor whether on T4 or desic­ca­ted thy­roid, or if you keep wal­king into the doctor’s office and hang your own know­ledge on the hook outside his or her door.

(See Deborah’s story about cea­sing to smoke with adre­nal fatigue)