New Sleep Study brings troubling new issues, Help Please

[kteague]

I intentionally do NOT look at the reports until at least a day after, so the data does not influence my 'how I feel today' question.

Sounds like a great approach. I know when I have had a rough night with little or broken sleep, I go into the day with the expectation that it will be a rough one. Have had to make a conscious effect to counteract that and not let it be a self fulfilling prophecy.

Kathy

[mindy]

A few notes on the hormone levels:

First, the fact that a test is low or high does not necessarily mean there is a problem (though it can). The cut-offs are determined to produce the best mix of true positive Vs false positive Vs true negative Vs false negative.

Specifically regarding the TSH test: this is *not* a direct measure of your thyroid being low or high. As a matter of fact, TSH goes in the opposite direction of how your thyroid is working. TSH is produced by the pituitary gland to stimulate the thyroid if it detects that the thyroid is not producing enough thyroid hormone. Therefore a *low* TSH = thyroid possibly producing too much hormone and a "high" TSH means the thyroid is not producing enough. A value of 0.55 is slightly low but not usually bad enough for treatment. I have a 90% non-functioning thryoid (since age 11) and we jigger my medication dosage to get it to around 1.0-2.0. If it goes down to zero, we reduce the meds, if it zooms up to 7 or 8, we increase meds.

I agree that seeing an endocrinologist would be a good idea, not so much because of your hormone levels alone, but rather because you feel so lousy and some of your tests are not normal (how much not normal and the combinations can be determined by your endocrinologist).

I am not a medical professional but have had experience working with an endocrinologist to get my thyroid functioning properly.

Mindy