WBC...Elaine

[Guest guest]

Hi Laurel,

I am not sure of the exact kind. I was lucky enough, that I finally found a good

doctor

that was telling me the basics that I was capable of understanding, there at the

beginning. It is a bit of a fog in my memory now. But I see this horrible tactic

used

repeatedly on many of the boards I frequent. It just makes me so angry. Because

the poor

sick person gets so scared by the threats of the probable heart attack at any

moment, then

the 'scientific evidence' that the anti thyroid drugs are killing them. They

must be

stopped immediately and RAI given...RIGHT NOW!!!

The poor sick person must now decide if they should believe their trusted

doctor, or

some woman on the internet. If they had a baseline WBC to begin with, there

would be do

discussion, and possibly no RAI.

I tried to go get a possible link for you, but my computer is 'full' and I can't

get it to

load right now, so here is where to begin. It is Elaine's articles at suit

101... look

down aways and find 'more articles'. If it is not there, try a new post with

Elaine's name

in it.

http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/9630

I am sure you are aware that thyroid disease can run in families, and most often

in the

females. So a thyroid test, including possibly more than TSH might seem

reasonable for

her. Not that expensive.

But then this is coming from my recent christmas reunion, with a house full of

female

relatives, ALL of which had hypo thyroid problems, and my mother and sister, who

were not

there, being hyper, but had RAI. Kind of freaky ! Guess I was the only late

bloomer in the

crowd.

Even more freaky, I was the only one there without breast cancer. Don't know

quite what to

make of this. The books say with a family history, it only raises my odds by 5

%, but I

was in a house full of breast cancer survivors, listening to various treatments,

and

warnings. Sure glad I chose not to do HRT, they all did. My beacon of hope.

Got off the subject, and spilled my guts again.....in the vague hope that

someone here

will have information I am missing.

Never mind, I am changing the subject for you :-)

-Pam- almostcrazy

P.S. Sorry Elaine, you are getting quite a bit to read here....I want to be sure

I have

this right. Thanks

Laurel Cossitt wrote:

> Hey Pam,

>

> Could you tell me which white blood cell/cells are involved? And which

direction they

> are shifted? I have a sister who has a chronic and undiagnosed (as to cause)

lowered

> white count and I have just gotten the results of her most recent CBC. She's

at the

> other end of the country (SF Bay area) and has been dealing with this for a

couple of

> years with no real direction. She has symptoms of a lot of stuff but who of

us doesn't?

>

> And, since my endo only did free T3 and T4 until I got exopthalmos and only

then did the

> autoimmune test (which I don't know and he never let me see the results) could

you

> please tell me which blood tests are usually ordered?

>

> Really appreciate it.

> Laurel

>

> Re: PTU vs. Tap

>

> Hi Amy's Pam,

> I shall try to remain calm while I write this.

> It seems to be common for doctors who wish to push RAI, to NOT check WBC.

Then start

> ATDs ( anti thyroid drugs), then do a WBC and CLAIM that the ATD is at fault !

This is

> not

> true. You have no way of knowing that this is a fact, because being hyper

causes a lower

>

> WBC ! This is why it is very important to do it BEFORE the drugs are started.

You need a

>

> baseline to compare to.

>

> If the past doctor put your child on PTU without seeing her, is it safe to

guess that

> he

> did not do a WBC before medication was started ? This is important for you to

know, so

> if

> for some reason Amy does not tolerate the TAP, you are not ruling out the PTU

> unnecessarily.( can we just all go over there and smack this guy...now his

mistreatment

> could have meant one less option to this child, if her mother was not so

smart)

>

> So copies of all lab results ARE important......for more and more reasons.

>

> As far as the difference between being plain old hyper or having Graves, it is

too soon

> for you to know, from what I am reading. I am guessing here, but it was my

experience,

> that in the early stages, when I was seeing new doctors, they simply used the

term

> 'hyper'

> to cover what I was going through, even though I had not had all the tests

yet. Kind of

> a

> generic term, that simply covered both bases, at that point in time. It is

possible that

>

> this is what you are hearing right now, so if I were you, I would not spend a

lot of

> time,

> just now worrying about this part of everything.

>

> Have you started to learn about diet in all of this yet ? The basics that have

turned

> out

> to be a big part of my final miracle here, is low iodine, no junk, no boxed or

packaged

> food. , no eating out, ...just plain REAL food. A bit extreme for some, but I

was

> desperate. I believe it is MSG, cleverly discussed as 'flavorings' that has

causing some

>

> of my problems. Along with my love of dairy products, which are high in

iodine. And of

> course the wonderful seafood we have here in Oregon. <sigh>

>

> -Pam- ( I just can not think of anything except 'old Pam', and I don't like

the sound of

>

> that. LOL )

>

>

>

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