- Re: blood work done!

[Guest guest]

wrote:

> ... My primary said that my tsh was 10. Now, I have read around on the

> internet that the normal range is now " 0.3-3.0 " , so of course I'm

> higher.

Actually, by any standards, you'd be considered hypo ...

> He said my thyroid is not being treated sufficiently.....(on

> a side note, this boggles my mind about mine being 10, when I've read

> others on here where their tsh is 30, 50 and even higher!!) OH MY!

just wait! When you're going hypo for a scan, you'll know JUST what it's like

:-)

> I was hoping that someone could please explain to me in english the

> correlation between TSH and pituatary and all that....my endo. gave a

> good analogy but I can't recall it off hand. how is it that the

> higher my TSH the more med. I need? gah. I just can't get this

> straight!!

If you realize that TSH stands for thyroid stimulating hormone, it may help.

If you've got plenty of thyroid hormone in your system, you don't have much need

to stimulate it, so your TSH is low; as your thyroid hormone resources

deplete, the pituitary kicks out more TSH, with the

intention of getting the thyroid to produce more thyroid hormone. Ergo, TSH

goes up (picture a balance scale, or seesaw).

When the thyroid does its part by making more thyroid hormone, TSH isn't needed

any more, so it goes down again.

People with normal thyroid glands go through this process throughout the course

of the day; those of us who depend on outside resources must maintain enough T4

circulating in our system to prevent the TSH

from rising.

Without T4 meds, it's like revving a car with the engine in 'park'; you can

press the pedal all the way, and the engine's working hard, but your still not

going anywhere (ie: pituitary's pumping out the

TSH - which goes way up - but there's still no thyroid hormone to be produced,

so it keeps sending out increasingly more TSH).

I hope I didn't just make it more confusing.

There are some more succinct analogies at

http://www.thyroid-cancer.net/topics/what+is+TSH?CMS_Session=1aef94d018dc0af3ce1\

8595541c3be7c

> Also, I'm still having " numbness " in the area below my chin to the

> scar. it's really hard and I'm guessing/assuming it's scar tissue??

That would be my guess, too. Certainly, a lot of us experience that in the

days and weeks after surgery.

> i haven't the foggiest, but for those who have recently or a long

> time ago had surgery, about how long until the hardness part goes

> away??

This is definitely a YMMV (your mileage may vary) area.

Most likely, it will lessen slowly and imperceptibly, until one day you realize

it's not there at all. It's almost 2 months since your surgery; I'd say by the

end of another month, it should be greatly

improved. If it's causing you any real concern or discomfort, you might want

to let the surgeon check it out.

NYC