How 'normal' are your labs?

[starbux]

Hi, I've read a lot about how people with normal thyroid labs in fact can be hypo/hyper, or at least borderline. I was wondering what the average values were for those people who had 'normal' labs but found out that they are in fact hypo/hyper? Do these people tend to be at the high end or low end of the normal range? Or do they fall across the entire spectrum of the normal range? (hope that makes sense...) Thanks! -Star

[ChEMom]

Most people that have hypothyroid symptoms have Free T3 and Free T4 at least in the lower half of the range, if not right at the very bottom of the ranges.

[starbux]

Thanks! This is exactly what I was looking for.
-Star

TSH: 2.26 (ref. range is .45-4.5)
FT4: 1.20 (ref. range is .82-1.77)
FT3: 2.7 (ref. range is 2.0-4.4)
TPO ab: <6 (ref. range is 0-34)
AntiThyroGlobulin ab: 30 (ref. range is 0-40)

[ChEMom]

I see Bree helped you out on the Mental Health Forum. Let me know if you have any more questions.

[Nigel]

I was extremely symptomatic of hypothyroid by the time 2008 rolled in. My thyroid gland was irritating me and sometimes I had to put my bedsheet on my neck to stop the sensation when falling asleep. I was having to take naps in the afternoon and couldn't drive a car because of being so hypothyroid. My memories of that time are like I wasn't alive then and although I can remember what happened, now I feel like those are someone else's memories.

Anyway, my FT4 was right in the middle of the range. TSH was 1.39. Both were called normal by the schizophrenic doctor that was trying to tell me I was having seizures, but, get this, DIDN'T KNOW IT! Like I couldn't notice something was going on where I'd wake up all confused. hah He also tested me for HIV. I guess that explained the fatigue!? Oh, he's the same doctor that tried to tell my mother and father (they were consulted together) that she must have been fooling around with some extramarital partner due to an abnormal pap smear. He's one to misdiagnose, and then some, so it ended up to be something totally not from an STD. I think that doctor is obsessed with sex! What a pervert.

[JMR]

My "normal" labs were optimal according to my endo before I started taking thyroid meds. TSH 1.91, Free T3 of 3.4, Free T4 of 1.4. I also have about 1000 other lab test results that are normal/optimal. According to all my lab tests and doctors, I'm probably the healthiest person ever to walk the earth. My TPO and TgAb antibodies are very high and my vitamin D is low. Now that I've been self treating, my TSH is too low and my FT4 and RT3 are too high.

My symptoms have been bad enough that I can't work and can only sometimes drive short distances, although I probably shouldn't be driving at all. My symptoms have improved a lot since I started treating myself, but I'm still a horrible mess.

[starbux]

Wow, interesting numbers and stories! I guess I've had some bad stories as well, however my health has improved a lot with cutting out gluten completely, and with moving out of an apartment that had mold in the walls. The gluten is self-explanatory as it's all over this forum. However, I didn't not realize to what extent mold was a problem. For me it seemed to have really held back the healing process.

[Nigel]

What did de-molding do for you? How did you feel better?

[ChEMom]

'cuse me for jumping in, but I love the TV show "Mystery Diagnosis" and one of their episodes was about this poor woman who moved into a new house (not new construction) with her husband and two kids. But after a few months, she started feeling so tired all the time. Then she got to the point where she couldn't even walk up the steps. I can't remember her other symptoms, but she ended up in the hospital a few times. Each time, she felt better after a few days and went home, got worse. Finally, one doc tested her for mold and then they tested her house. It was awful. Apparently before they moved in, there was a water leak in the wall between her house and the adjoining one (think townhomes). And that whole wall was full of mold. Yuck! So they moved out and now she's better.

[starbux]

Almost all of my celiac symptoms have improved quite a bit, after having been out of that environment. I've been gluten free for a year and a half, and the recovery had been painfully slow for me - much slower than the other gluten intolerant folks that I had been networking with. After having moved out of that place the last couple of months have been amazing in terms of how my body is healing. I first got the idea because so many people were saying they had candida and other bacterial infections due to an overtaxed immune system. If finally dawned on me that the mold might be having the same effect. I'm guessing being out of that environment has given my immune system the time to just calm down.

And this place looked completely fine - you couldn't see any mold - it was in the walls as Chemom was saying.