General Medical issues thread

[love_the_life]

Auto immune Thyroid stuff continues to befuddle. On 200 a day for last 6 months and TSH has not dropped. T4 and T3 are low normal. Why doesn’t my brain register that and switch off?

The body is such a mystery. Does bizarre things sometimes. Hope it starts behaving soon, though remember you have been pretty flat chat over the past few months with house, trip and wedding.

 

[Pushka]

The body is such a mystery. Does bizarre things sometimes. Hope it starts behaving soon, though remember you have been pretty flat chat over the past few months with house, trip and wedding.

Flicked it to newly minted GP DIL who suggested the immune system still not dampened down. Which makes sense.

 

[drron]

Flicked it to newly minted GP DIL who suggested the immune system still not dampened down. Which makes sense.

There is a range of normal values and some normal people do fall out of that range.My most grateful patient who had had a total thyroidectomy I ran with the T3 and T4 higher than the normal range but her TSH normalised and she stopped putting on weight and had no symptoms of an overactive thyroid.

 

[Pushka]

There is a range of normal values and some normal people do fall out of that range.My most grateful patient who had had a total thyroidectomy I ran with the T3 and T4 higher than the normal range but her TSH normalised and she stopped putting on weight and had no symptoms of an overactive thyroid.

My thyroid is cactus with hashimotos and has been for years. TPO several years ago was >1600 when lab range was <100. Mum had a thyroid storm in her teens and had radioactive therapy. I blame her. . I think they need to check TPO again and see if plaquenil hasn’t dampened things down. Hand joints are not so great anymore and getting nodules. Mmm.

 

[tgh]

I have days when my hypochondria makes me quite Maudlin ; reading this thread always cheers me up.. sorry..

 

[suze2000]

I have been having random acute joint pains in different joints - coming and going in a 12hr period, bad enough to keep me awake, very strange. GP thinks it might be some other auto-immune cough, since I have one auto-immune thing already. I'm over it, I just want my body to function normally like it did when I was in my 20s (when I actually was something of a hypochondriac, but now I have neither the time or the money to be, so it's doubly annoying)

 

[Pushka]

I have been having random acute joint pains in different joints - coming and going in a 12hr period, bad enough to keep me awake, very strange. GP thinks it might be some other auto-immune cough, since I have one auto-immune thing already. I'm over it, I just want my body to function normally like it did when I was in my 20s (when I actually was something of a hypochondriac, but now I have neither the time or the money to be, so it's doubly annoying)

Bloody auto immune. My hands are now flaky. Thankfully have rheumatology appt next week. 6 month check.

On a wonderful note, sons friend with major health issues (bowel cancer, removal of digestive organs, nerve damage resulting in non functional arm) was married yesterday. I’ve not heard much other than the Bride wore a very ‘bridey’ dress. And a quirky ceremony. Waiting for more details on that score.

 

[JohnK]

I have been having random acute joint pains in different joints - coming and going in a 12hr period, bad enough to keep me awake, very strange. GP thinks it might be some other auto-immune cough, since I have one auto-immune thing already. I'm over it, I just want my body to function normally like it did when I was in my 20s (when I actually was something of a hypochondriac, but now I have neither the time or the money to be, so it's doubly annoying)

My joint pain has been getting worse.

Saw Rheumatology on Friday first time in 2 years. Blood test, xrays and come back in 4 months. Recommended I use Naprosyn but I use sparingly already before golf. I asked for Mersyndol script for use when pain is unbearable. Ok to contimue using Panafcorte when pain severe.

That's all she wrote. Continue with the torture. At least it doesn't stop me sleeping.

 

[Pushka]

My joint pain has been getting worse.

Saw Rheumatology on Friday first time in 2 years. Blood test, xrays and come back in 4 months. Recommended I use Naprosyn but I use sparingly already before golf. I asked for Mersyndol script for use when pain is unbearable. Ok to contimue using Panafcorte when pain severe.

That's all she wrote. Continue with the torture. At least it doesn't stop me sleeping.

Have you trialed Plaquenil? Takes months to kick in though. I ran out a month or so ago which is why I think my hands are flakey.

 

[love_the_life]

Bloody auto immune. My hands are now flaky. Thankfully have rheumatology appt next week. 6 month check.

On a wonderful note, sons friend with major health issues (bowel cancer, removal of digestive organs, nerve damage resulting in non functional arm) was married yesterday. I’ve not heard much other than the Bride wore a very ‘bridey’ dress. And a quirky ceremony. Waiting for more details on that score.

That’s wonderful for them, whatever the future holds.

 

[JohnK]

Have you trialed Plaquenil? Takes months to kick in though. I ran out a month or so ago which is why I think my hands are flakey.

Anti-malarial? I don't recall being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. I have ankylosing spondylitis, sacro ilitis, osteoarthritis, tendonitis and bursitis.

She did mention Lyrica and one other medication whose name escapes me but I'm trying to avoid adding long term medications to my body. I see what it can do to dad and I'm trying to avoid the same happening to me.

 

[Pushka]

Anti-malarial? I don't recall being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. I have ankylosing spondylitis, sacro ilitis, osteoarthritis, tendonitis and bursitis.

She did mention Lyrica and one other medication whose name escapes me but I'm trying to avoid adding long term medications to my body. I see what it can do to dad and I'm trying to avoid the same happening to me.

Ok, I thought thats exactly what you were diagnosed with? Silly me then. I've been on several long term medications - over 30 years now. I wouldnt have survived without thyroid hormone as I have no thyroid function. Which means I've never really understood why people think that life long medication is such a trial. It saves lives.

 

[JohnK]

Ok, I thought thats exactly what you were diagnosed with? Silly me then. I've been on several long term medications - over 30 years now. I wouldnt have survived without thyroid hormone as I have no thyroid function. Which means I've never really understood why people think that life long medication is such a trial. It saves lives.

Dad was on 16-20 different long term medications. When he was really sick with morphine overdose a few years ago the doctors were not sure what was wrong and they did a review of the medications and asked him to stop all medications. Eventually he was prescribed all medications one by one.

I understand how long term medications can be life saving but when you take so many medications there's no way knowing how each interacts with each other long term as there are enough studies/trials. The other thing to consider is the effect of these medications on the liver/kidneys.

 

[love_the_life]

Brother's hands have been very sore, so bad that he wasn't able to hold any dishes to load the dishwasher. As he has been doing the cooking and cleaning etc while SIL recovers from a knee replacement this has been a real pain for him. His doctor first told him it was Carpel Tunnel, then suggested Polymyalgia Rheumatica. After several blood tests and a specialist appointment he has been told it is Rheumatoid Arthritis. He's not too pleased as it means steroi_s probably and he had just lost a heap of weight as he needs knee replacements and is worried that he will now just balloon out again. At least he has a diagnosis though I suppose.

 

[drron]

A lot more treatment for Rheumatoid than steroi_s these days.

 

[JohnK]

After several blood tests and a specialist appointment he has been told it is Rheumatoid Arthritis. He's not too pleased as it means steroi_s probably and he had just lost a heap of weight as he needs knee replacements and is worried that he will now just balloon out again. At least he has a diagnosis though I suppose.

Lots of non steroi_al treatment out there. Biologics such as ustekinumab could help.

 

[Pushka]

Brother's hands have been very sore, so bad that he wasn't able to hold any dishes to load the dishwasher. As he has been doing the cooking and cleaning etc while SIL recovers from a knee replacement this has been a real pain for him. His doctor first told him it was Carpel Tunnel, then suggested Polymyalgia Rheumatica. After several blood tests and a specialist appointment he has been told it is Rheumatoid Arthritis. He's not too pleased as it means steroi_s probably and he had just lost a heap of weight as he needs knee replacements and is worried that he will now just balloon out again. At least he has a diagnosis though I suppose.

Autoimmune rears it’s head again.

 

[love_the_life]

A lot more treatment for Rheumatoid than steroi_s these days.

Good to hear and hopefully the specialist will be across it. They won't do his knees until a) he lost sufficient weight and b) till after his wife had recovered from her knee replacement and hip replacement which is supposed to happen in 3 months, The weight loss has really helped the pain so I hope he is able to keep it off.

 

[Quickstatus]

So now my niece who also has lupus has just also tested positive for the same blood clotting disorder that I have and which resulted in the DVT in my jugular vein. She has to have the test repeated in 12 weeks but she’s a little freaked out. She flies to France with her kids regularly (every few weeks) to visit her husband who has taken up a contract there. She is now on low dose aspirin and her main symptoms are the migraines. She was asking me whether I have a clexane shot before I travel but as I’m already on blood thinners it isn’t needed. She won’t be given blood thinners unless she has a clot. Her specialist (and mine) keeps saying how much alike we are, even in speech and expression. It’s kinda weird really as we didn’t spend a lot of time together as she was growing up. And weirder the specialist said is that such auto immune issues are carried through the maternal line - that’s where I got mine from, mother, but my niece is my brothers child.

There are new non injection anti dvt meds avail now - ask your GP. Aspirin is less effective than these

 

[Quickstatus]

Anti-malarial? I don't recall being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. I have ankylosing spondylitis, sacro ilitis, osteoarthritis, tendonitis and bursitis.

She did mention Lyrica and one other medication whose name escapes me but I'm trying to avoid adding long term medications to my body. I see what it can do to dad and I'm trying to avoid the same happening to me.

Lyrica is similar chemically to Gabapentin