"Hypothyroid Hell in North Yorkshire"

I have no idea what it the problem with the doctors and specialists with regards my illness Hashimoto’s disease, but I have presented over the years with symptoms of hypothyroidism so many times I cannot count. The co morbid conditions I have due to this condition are routinely treated separately by strong drugs without addressing the actual cause of my problems my thyroid and its antibodies and the autoimmune nature of my disease.

I have left my doctors office in tears more times than I care to mention when I have been told that I need ‘lifestyle changes’, lose weight, that I am depressed (of course I am when I have been so frustrated, a sick woman fighting for proper treatment and relevant tests. That is the cause of the depression, it is co morbid to hypothyroidism too) etc, whilst my poor body tries to get by on the inadequate T4 only treatment which I have been constantly prescribed. I have been laid on the floor for days on end hardly able to breathe, please let them not tell me there was not something more serious going on, when my asthma was well controlled and I was as weak as water and did not have hardly enough strength to raise my diaphragm.(The breathing problems are improving on armour and B12 and folic acid, how terrible a doc did not relieve some of my suffering by doing at least that, less use needed of inhalers) The real problems are that the doctors refused to even try me on T3 along with my T4, and totally rejected natural thyroid as not an option even though it was used safely for decades before the marketing by big pharma of T4 only synthetic drugs. So I was left to feel terrible because of medical bias towards T4 only meds. After I was admitted to hospital with confusion and other distressing symptoms I decided I had no option but to leave myself in Gods hands and follow his guidance. I then began taking Armour thyroid and immediately felt the difference. I am not perfect yet, the length of time my body has been in this condition and ignored by the doctors has resulted in numerous other parts of the body slowing down and needing to be treated gently in order to catch up to a normal metabolism, one that can get to over 98.6f during the day. Shame on the doctors. The head of the PCT’s letter to me which was supposed to be telling me of interactions, avoiding that issue with ‘nobody can tell what effect these will have’, was more a long letter about his opinion on Armour thyroid and saying how he supports my doctor for not prescribing it. This means he supports my being hypo-metabolic and offers the same drug that I became chronically disabled on as a solution, circular, illogical and very dangerous thinking. Dangerous for the health of thyroid patients in this area and everywhere is bias towards one single treatment of a condition and more and more hypothyroid patients are realising that their health problems are related to this way of thinking.

This service needs a serious overhaul and new research needs to be taken into account instead of religious adherence to the levothyroxine will fix all attitude. Doctors should not have to fear the General Medical Council for doing the job they were supposedly trained for; they should be allowed to prescribe any available drug for a condition if the other is not having desired results in the best interests of the patient. I have no idea if this is what was wrong with my GP when I asked for an alternative, he just said he couldn’t prescribe even T3. I have noticed docs are more than willing to prescribe addictive drugs for depression though, latest research says T3 is a good treatment for certain mental conditions, one being depression, why don’t doctors keep up with research?

Because of the bad service in this area and lack of alternative consultants to be referred to I have had no choice but to take my treatment into my own hands, this is a disgusting state of affairs. It is not something I wanted to do, I am afraid, I feel very lonely and vulnerable, but without doing so I was left without a life at all. I am still looking for decent medical care

Symptoms on levothyroxine

Depression, Muscle pains, Joint pains, Muscle fatigue, General fatigue, Shortness of breath, High blood pressure, Swelling, Hoarse voice, Throat pain around front of neck, Problems with balance, Dizziness, Loss of hair\thinning, Brittle weak nails, No half moons on nails, Low temperature, Cold hands and feet, Feeling cold easily, Loss of appetite, Weight gain to morbidly obese, Exercise induced fatigue and asthma, Tingling in the extremities

There were other symptoms along the way which I have forgotten, any doctors out there recognise these symptoms?

I have been sent away from my doctor’s surgery and the endocrinologist surgery with all these.

Terrible.