Stupid Endo - Thyroid Gripe !!!

MBombardier · Post by **MBombardier** » Mon Feb 06, 2012 4:13 pm

Sorry, just have to vent. My endo, who charges $500 for an office visit, only asked for a TSH in the lab work I had done this morning. My TSH went from .46 to 11.10. Would be kind of nice to know what the other values are. I called her to see if she would run fT4 and fT3 on the same blood sample. I haven't heard back yet.

I told her in October I had a hot node that was starting to go cold. You'd think she'd at least run the same tests she and every other doctor have done for the last several years, hmmm??

No wonder I've been sleeping like a sloth and cry at the drop of a hat.

There was an 80-year-old woman just ahead of me who had had an anaphylactic reaction to something. She asked the phlebotomist if a certain test was going to be run, and the phlebotomist said no. The patient said that her allergist had told her that the lab values from her reaction were not serious and she had looked them up on the internet and they definitely were. She was concerned that the allergist had not listened to her and had not ordered this certain test.

And the doctors get mad when we go on the internet (at least most of them) even when we have valid information like research abstracts. They're going to kill us all.

Okay, I don't feel better, but I'm done.

Deb · Post by **Deb** » Mon Feb 06, 2012 5:37 pm

Too lazy to look for the emoticon: I agree!

And the doctors get mad when we go on the internet (at least most of them) even when we have valid information like research abstracts. They're going to kill us all.

Okay, I don't feel better, but I'm done

.

Post by **tex** » Mon Feb 06, 2012 5:47 pm

What a ripoff. You would think that a specialist could do a lot better than that - any doctor knows enough to order a TSH test. That's the main reason why I haven't asked my GP to send me to an endo - I can get the same level of incompetence, at a much lower price.

Marliss wrote:They're going to kill us all.

They might, because a lot of them are obviously incompetent, but I'm pretty sure that their goal is to just maim us a little, so that we're able to keep coming back.

Tex

Deb · Post by **Deb** » Mon Feb 06, 2012 6:36 pm

DH went to a local clinic today for a throat culture (we're not home...in Alabama). No culture, some kind of steroid shot (WTF?), a prescription for penicillin and $450 later HOPEFULLY he's healing! He was told it was definitely a bad case of strep! How would they know???? Drives me CRAZY!!!! But the doctor knows best. :(

starfire · Post by **starfire** » Tue Feb 07, 2012 1:36 pm

tex wrote: their goal is to just maim us a little, so that we're able to keep coming back.

You betcha!!

Love, Shirley

Lesley · Post by **Lesley** » Tue Feb 07, 2012 5:24 pm

What's MY GI doing by not doing an endoscopy for Barrett's? Maiming me a LITTLE?

I HATE the doctors.

MBombardier · Post by **MBombardier** » Tue Feb 07, 2012 5:41 pm

Deb, they probably looked in his throat and saw the spots so they didn't need to culture. But a steroid?? That's kind of scary. I've never heard of a steroid for strep. I was in the hospital for five days with strep when I was 19. The MD in the little town in Missouri where we lived had no idea what I had and was thinking leukemia. My father took hold of his lapels, pinned him up against the wall and told him he'd better figure it out. He transferred me to Barnes Hospital in St. Louis where--you guessed it--they did a throat culture. I was on IV antibiotics, but the high temp I had did some brain damage. I did stuff like smack myself in the eye with my hairbrush for a while, and I still drag my right foot a touch, especially when I am tired. Strep is not something to mess with.

My lovely endo said that all she needed to run was the TSH, and bumped me from 1/2 pill on Sundays to a whole pill... Yeah, that will work wonders when my TSH jumped 2400%.

Nobody is going to care for me as well as I can, so I've started taking St. John's Wort. If it doesn't work, maybe the placebo effect will help. And I am determined to start exercising regularly, which will help in several ways. Taking charge has already brightened my outlook some.

I am reading Cordain's new book, The Paleo Answer. I think it was recommended here, which is why I borrowed it from the library. I have not read any of his other books. He says he has changed a recommendation or two (like he does not recommend artificial sweeteners now). I expected radical, but he really has a commonsense approach to eating Paleo, like not spending more money than a slight improvement in nutrition merits, or angering a friend who has made you a meal. He advocates at least an 85/15 Paleo diet, which sounds pretty doable to me. I am impressed.

One of the testimonies in the book is from a woman who says her thyroid shrank when she went Paleo. Can't hurt, may help. I'm pretty Paleo already, but there are things I can do better.

Deb · Post by **Deb** » Tue Feb 07, 2012 6:48 pm

Marliss, I know that they can see the spots and it's still not necessarily strep. I probably am spoiled by having Mayo as my PCP. They have gotten much more cautious about prescribing antibiotics and won't unless the culture positively shows strep. The good news is DH is feeling better today...not sure if it's the "shot" or the penicillin but something has kicked in. I'm just having to shut up! :)