Sue’s Story

My name is Sue. I was ill for many years, at first I didn’t notice much but the struggle got increasingly worse over time. I had my thyroid status checked more than most non-thyroid sufferers, due to a colloid cyst in my thyroid. Unfortunately, nothing was ever picked up by my endocrinologist, even though I was gaining weight at a steady rate for no reason.

By the time I knew something was definitely wrong, I was suffering from brain fog so bad I couldn’t even remember how to spell simple words, I was forgetting to pay bills, falling asleep no less than 6 times in a day. I became ratty, intolerant, tearful, angry even. Nothing helped, I started getting rashes on my neck and face, puffing under the eyes, swelling on my tongue. My joints were terribly painful, I kept slipping discs in my lower back, I developed a bone spur on my hip and my knees hurt. I suspected my thyroid but could get nobody in the medical profession to take my suspicions seriously. I started putting my symptoms into google, it always came back with an underactive thyroid. I joined all the thyroid sites I could find on the internet and started compiling a list of recommended blood tests. My GP would say he couldn’t do them, that they were specialist blood tests that could only be done by endocrinologists.

The endocrinologist did some of them but insisted that they all came back essentially normal. I was gutted. I went to see a private doctor who told me that I was hypothyroid, that all my signs and symptoms screamed hypothyroid at him but, my GP basically said that unless my diagnosis was done by an NHS endocrinologist, he would not be listening or following any instructions. He eventually agreed to give me one last referral to an NHS endocrinologist of my choice. It took a lot of searching but, I eventually found one that would go on to test me for TPO antibodies, and sure enough, they were positive, my Vitamin D was very low and my TSH level had risen quite high. I felt elated, I could finally get some help!
That feeling was short-lived, however, as the endocrinologist refused to increase my dose from 50mg of levothyroxine, even though all of my symptoms remained. I stuck with that dose for months on end, pleading for a higher dose, to no avail. I finally decided to take control of my thyroid treatment and ordered some T3 from a reputable online pharmacy. The recovery was swift and I haven’t looked back. I started to feel that the T3 was a little too overstimulating for me at the time so ordered some NDT, I have been on this now for well over a year and I must say I feel, well, me again!S