When the mind and body rebel, the first step is to find the right diagnosis. BRIGITTE.de reader Lena had to search for a long time – and she felt that the doctors had left her in the lurch.
Is it always just the stress to blame?
Something is wrong with you There was a voice in my head whispering that. At first very quietly, but over time it got louder and louder. Demanded attention. I ignored her for a long time – her and the insomnia that kept me lying awake all night; the extreme tiredness during the day; the indigestion; the hair that was falling out more and more.
In February the voice finally forced me to listen: one evening I collapsed in my living room, deeply exhausted and shaken by crying fits.
I knew I was stressed out at work. But my complaints lasted a lot longer than I had the professional problems, so that couldn’t be all. Instead, I guessed hypothyroidism – at least my symptoms matched it. The disease can be got under control quite easily with a hormone pill.
So I went to my GP and asked for a blood test to check my thyroid levels. And met with skepticism straight away: “You know that there is a lot of disagreement about the thyroid values?” Asked the doctor and I nodded. Usually one spoke of an underactive thyroid if the so-called TSH value was above 4.0, you should also look at the thyroid hormones T3 and T4. However, recent studies suggest that a TSH of over 2.5 may be worth treating if symptoms are present. You just have to decide individually.
I didn’t feel that I was being taken seriously
I saw my suspicions more or less confirmed by the result of the blood test. My TSH was 3.7, the other values weren’t good, but not really bad either. Nevertheless, my doctor remained skeptical – and asked me several times whether I was just a little too stressed. It was the first time that I didn’t feel taken seriously by him.
So I made an appointment with an endocrinologist who had years of experience in the thyroid field. I waited eight weeks for the appointment – and in the short period of time my symptoms not only worsened, there were more. My skin became dry and tight; the scales went crazy: I put on weight continuously, at the time of the April appointment, I was gaining almost six pounds without making any changes to my diet.
The findings were unclear
The endocrinologist ordered a blood test and an ultrasound of the thyroid gland. That was the first time I heard the term I would begin to hate in the next two months: borderline.
The edges are borderline dark, but I cannot make a clear diagnosis.
My uncertainty grew: Was I just getting into something?
The blood test was also inconclusive for the doctor: TSH at 3.4, the other values - of course – “borderline”. On the other hand, the vitamin D and vitamin B12 levels were miserable. I should just relax a little and use supplements to compensate for the vitamin deficiency, then things should soon be better. A next blood test is only necessary in October. I took my vitamins for the next few weeks, hoping for improvement – and instead fell into a deep hole.
The pointer of my scales kept going up, In the middle of May I was almost ten kilos gain, no pants fit anymore. All symptoms worsened again: With my dry and strawy hair, which fell out again, I was now able to wallpaper each tile individually in the shower. Every trip to the toilet turned into a struggle because of severe constipation, once I couldn’t go at all for six days and suffered from a bloated stomach.
I started to hate myself
In addition, there was the beginning of self-hatred. More and more often in the morning I stood in front of the mirror and felt disgusted with myself. Before my weight, before the pale, dry skin on which small red pimples formed everywhere, before the scarecrow hair. “You are fat and ugly. You can’t socialize like that,” I thought desperately and wanted to crawl back into bed. I didn’t want to go out anymore. I cried a lot. Felt misunderstood. And heard the term “stress” in my head again.
And yet I couldn’t and didn’t want to be satisfied with it. It was clear to me that I was developing the first signs of severe depression. I who have always been so strong and self-determined. So I pulled myself up and asked for a new blood test after six weeks. This time the TSH was 3.3, the other values were of course borderline again.
Under no circumstances can your symptoms come from the thyroid gland. Maybe you are just having a little bit of stress.
That was the last I heard from the endocrinologist before I said goodbye abruptly.
Finally a ray of hope!
Finally beaten, I snuck back to my family doctor, who had never seen me on the floor like this before. He went through all the symptoms with me again and the blood values that he had requested from the endocrinologist. “Well, I want to deal with complaints and not values,” he said finally. Words I no longer expected to hear. So he gave me a low dose of the thyroid hormone as a test and made me promise to keep a diary of my complaints.
I am incredibly grateful for this test. Less than two weeks after taking the hormone pill for the first time, my indigestion went away completely. My sleep behavior has also leveled off again. Accordingly, the constant tiredness has subsided. The hair loss is gone.
The constant increase also stopped immediately. I haven’t been able to lose weight yet, but I’m still in the position for the right dose of tablets. Overall, I feel a lot better – and I am glad that I continued to fight for myself, my body and my soul. Even a so-called expert doesn’t always know everything.