Questions about some test 'results'

[Guest guest]

hi everyone - a quick update on me: I will soon be 50, still on low-dose BCP, 50

mg/day losartan (for high blood pressure, though this is NOT found in my

family), 'lumpy' thyroid, 30# stubbornly sticking to me, all the symptoms and

issues of Hashi (including antibodies, though my last DO didn't bother

mentioning that little gem to me, just something that was on the lab work). Have

been on Armour, since Synthroid and my body simply do not like each other. Have

not had my dosage tested and/or changed in 3 years since I was first diagnosed

(well, I was first given 60 mg/day, then practically begged my DO to increase my

dosage to 90 mg/day).

I gave up trying to get an endo that would listen to me, and finally was able to

work with my physicians assistant to increase the number of times I would need

to be tested to get my dose dialed in just right. My husband had accompanied me

to my office visits to her, and his stories of noticing that I had energy days

and sleep-all-day days, plus my re-telling her that years ago a nurse

practitioner had noticed that my thyroid lab works had numbers weaving back and

forth over a series of months, though always in the normal range PLUS my

mentioning that perhaps I was getting normal results since those were the days

I would actually have energy to get to the doctors for lab work....geeze, I'm

tired just writing all this - sorry if I'm rambling.

My PA was busy this past week, so instead of seeing her for my lab results, I

saw one of her nurses. I love this staff, they are sincerely nice people, but I

am not too sure I was able to get her to give me the right result numbers.

TSH: 1.8 (normal, but many people with Hashi's show this as normal)

T3: 343 (this was actually on the same line as thyroid perioxidase, which she

'thought' was T3 - but I thought that this was the antibody number - and a few

years ago, when the DO did my lab work, my antibody number was 278)

T4: 250 (this was on the same line as thyroid globulin(?)

Free T4: 111

To be honest, I didn't think much of the numbers as I was writing them down as I

was also in the full throes of The Flu and was floating on decongestants, but

now none of these numbers makes sense.

I should have asked her for a copy of my results (I'll do that when I see the PA

in two weeks), so her responses to my requests for result numbers don't make

sense to me (and she seemed confused as to what she was reading as well.

Though the PA thought that simply based on the TSH number that I was in the

normal range (though still woefully having issues as if I had NO thyroid meds in

me), she had my Armour dose doubled to 180mg/day. So far I still feel tired,

cold, as if I just woke up, but still much better than before, so it's a start.

I just wondered if anyone here had any insight as to what these numbers are and

what they are for? Even though I know I can tell specifically what my body is

going through, I am still a novice at lab results and how to interpret them