Our friend the Thyroid.

So I finally saw the endocrinologist today. Time to wind this thyroid thing up. In the process I got a very informative doctor who told me more than I ever wanted to know about my thyroid.

He cleared up the first disconnect - the one my source at work and I couldn't figure out. See my main symptoms (other than numbers on the blood test) are fatigue and hair loss. My doc kept harping on racing heart, overheating and feeling jumpy. My amature connection said those are overactive thyroid problems, your symptoms are underactive thyroid issues. Then there was that initial blood test that said it was 0. I was confused.

Turns out the first test (the 0 one) checks a hormone that the pituitary gland puts out. It's the hormone that tells the thyroid to make more. My thyroid makes enough that my body keeps sending it a signal to stop only it doesn't. But the good doctor said my symptoms are overactive thyroid symptoms too. He also said that not treating it (even though the family doc calls me asymptomatic) increase the risk of osteoporosis and something else that I never heard. Mostly because my mom had osteoporosis so bad her vertebra collapsed.

I have 3 choices 1) a big dose of radioactive iodine 2) manage the problem without a cure through medication or 3) surgery. Strangely the best sounding treatment is to go nuclear. Seems the thyroid will take that iodine and it should be radioactive enough to kill the cells that take it up. Since the healthy parts of the thyroid are currently shut down due to my zero hormone they shouldn't be affected. Only the overactive bits get zapped. The one thing that is offputting is that I won't be able to hug or cuddle the boy for a period of time because I'll be too radioactive. I can kiss him, just not have prolonged close contact because it would put him at risk.

Pretty exciting stuff, huh!