no boys allowed in the room!!!!

The practice where my OB is has some kind of secure hospital-specific email communication system. I get lab results that way, but they also call and tell me if something is abnormal since they are really just sending me raw data. My doc sent me a message last week that I replied to and she was so happy to know that the whole thing actually worked. She said I was the only person who had ever replied to any messages.

Roxy, do you know what labs they're doing?

im not 100% certain but i went in there specifically to be tested for thyroid stuff. i know theyre doing several tests related to that. and som kind of lupus panel

*some.

i know there was specific stuff i should have asked for, but i figured if nothing comes up with these then i'll go hard on 'em

Hair loss is a pretty classic symptom on hypothyroidism

i have an appt to get bloodwork done too
i think it's in a couple of weeks
kinda scared about it, but i guess it's better to get it taken care of than not to

Roxy, if you want to talk about your results with me once they come back, you can chat me on facebook

I also have suffered from hair loss/thinning since I was 19, so I know allllllllllllll about that.

i totally will. thank you!!

what exactly is the treatment/cure for thyroid problems?

i dont know if i posted about this here but i just found out that one of my sisters was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. she said they gave her medication for it, but that the medication made her feel like she was having a heart attack all the time. very much in the style of my family, she never went back to the doc and just stopped taking the meds. :/ i won't do that

You have to start slow on a low dose and gradually go up. No wonder she felt bad! It probably made her hyperthyroid. I'm only on 32mg of nature thyroid and I have no side effects except now I don't feel like taking naps as often

She really should take the meds. Long term hypothyroid leads to really nasty, sometimes fatal complications

I was supposed to go get my thyroid checked almost a year ago, after my sister's huge health breakdown (thyroid was one of many problems) but I never did bc I hate doctors. I really should bc having energy to do stuff is a totally alien concept to me, has been for most of my life, but the last year has been a downhill slide. It's causing a side effect of building anxiety bc I feel like my days are slipping by and I'm getting v little done, even at the most basic level

it makes me wonder how much hair loss is normal?

i wish i knew bc i am reaching a near crisis point over here

i feel like i shed hair a lot, but it keeps growing back -- it's not thinning in any way, but it does make vacuuming suck

My friend noticed severely thinning hair near the front of her scalp and it turned out she had too much testosterone and they put her on a high estrogen bc pill

My testosterone isn't high at all, in fact it's very, very low. It's normal to shed about 50-100 hairs a day. I'd say at my worst point I was probably going up to 500 or so. When I combed it, it'd come out endlessly. And anytime I'd TOUCH my hair 5-10 hairs would just attach to my fingers. And at night I'd notice like 20-30 hairs just lounging on my pillow. It's really stressful.

I think hair troubles are a result of oxidative stress. Not emotional or psychological stress, but stress on the body.

what exactly is the treatment/cure for thyroid problems?
If hypothyroidism is the problem (not enough of the thyroid hormones are being produced), you take a pill every day. You will need to have your blood checked a few times a year, to make sure you're not getting too much or too little of the synthetic hormone.

the reason women seem to suffer more often from thyroid probs is because estrogen is a thyroid hormone antagonist.

Think i'm supposed to go get my thyroid tested because I have a patch of discolouration on the skin near my cheekbone. Is this a symptom of anything? It's been there for years, should be a typical side effect of BC pill.

That's melanasma, it's typically from high estrogen. I have it too, on my cheek. But I am not even on BC.

That really doesn't have much to do with thyroid, though.

hm I think I meant 'could' not 'should' be a typical side effect there.
bodies r weird

I could also be sun damage or, like, anything else. Get it checked.

I'm extremely pale so have been wearing SPF every day for years, so I'm not TOO worried, but yeah, will do

i get a nonitchy rash on the front of my thighs sometimes, esp in the sun. apparently that's a symptom of hypo too? when the doc was asking me questions about symptoms i was alarmed at how many were totally spot on. "do you get almost unbearably cold when no one else is cold?" WHY YES I DO

apparently theres a rash with lupus too, but its in a butterfly shape on the face. i don't have that.

ugh why the gloom the week before my period? hate it.

Roxy, is your nose often cold? My feet, hands, and nose are always freezing.

Tracking your body temp is helpful, too. Take it first thing in the morning, upon waking.

When I first started tracking mine was under 96, sometimes even as low as 95. Now I am up to 97, and by mid day I am around 98-ish. So it's rising...

Agatha: my doctor said it was normal, not menopause, perhaps breastfeeding making my hormones weird. August still breast feeds quite often. The menopause test didn't show anything out of the ordinary and he said my periods would be further apart not closer together.

In the past I was able to measure my thyroid levels, more or less, by how many strands of hair I'd lose. If I stopped counting at 20 and there was still a lot, I would go in and get it checked and sure enough my levels were slightly off. I'd have to take a half a pill more or skip a day and then get tested again. But that is me and how I work.

My hands and arms are the worst. Haven't really noticed my nose. xp

My nose is always cold but I thought that was because it sticks out so far?!

Sometimes my boobs get really cold for what I always figured was the same reason.

i don't think my boobs have ever been cold! how weird. maybe its cause i try to squash them down with tight bras

Mine are cold right now!

I'm on the train and it's way too a/c'ed.

i get cold nose/feet/hands but i'm pretty sure it's because i've been a pack a day smoker for 20+ yrs

i got my test results back, and the screen for connective tissue disease was positive. i need to have another test to figure out what exactly i have. the thyroid blood test was negative, but i don't know exactly what test it was. i have an appointment to hash this stuff out.

Yikes. I hope everything goes well with the additional testing.

Jeez. I had to look that up and I wish you good luck, rox.

im feeling weird cause as i've told people those results they've expressed great sympathy and fear and strong emotions, and i was basically feeling nothing about the results until people reacted that way - i think maybe this is because i've known something was going on and its just nice to know what it is? i'm not feeling scared, for whatever reason. and i feel pretty sure that it is not lupus because i have no joint swelling. however, i also have no joint stiffness, so it might not be rheumatoid arthritis, either, which is what i've always guessed it is.

and thanks for the well wishes!

Well I mean if the symptoms you experience are basically a mild inconvenience, then the rest is all upside! Hopefully you'll feel even better with treatment and be basically superhuman.

I am guessing people don't entirely understand the scope of what connective tissue disorders could encompass and assume the worst, maybe. It is a relief to know what is going on, and now you can start to manage it. It's also nice to have some validation that you're not making things up (or maybe that's just me).

I'm sorry if I added to the weird feeling about reactions you are getting.

best of luck with it rox, hope whatever it is that you have turns out to be something manageable.

oh no i didnt mean yall, just like my mom and bf etc xp

and yeah its nice to know it isnt in my head!

Oh, moms, yeah they are gonna be total moms about this kind of thing.

she is already texting everyone in the world to pray for me. lol