Long question - hypothyroid vs. apnea?

Hi Suzy. You are about right on the time line. We took an 6 week RV trip (7500 miles) up to and around the Pacific NW. We had a great trip and it's always nice seeing loved ones again.

But, as with all trips, it's always great to be back home.

Thanks for missing me, and it's good to be back.

Hi I have thyroiditis and sleep apnea. doctors have to take in to account how you feel as well as blood tests measuring fth,free t4,free t3. I have changed my dosage of synthroid and felt better at the lower dosage. My blood test was still in the normal range so my doctor couldn't really argue about it. some people do better at the lower range ,others at the higher range. I was synthroid .1 for many years all of sudden i got many different symtons and i told my dr i think i have a problem with my dosage . his response was will give anti-depressants. I fought him and went to a endocrinologist who told me i to lower my dosage to .088 . i went back to him and said something is still wrong . he instisted that i need synthroid at the .088. i did not listen and went down futher as i was to jittery . I did a blood test when i was 2 months on a low dosage and came back to him with a normal blood test. He was not happy and did a blood test checking alot of things. When he got his report back he sheepishly said that i problaly should never have been on the synthroid to begin worth. I have learned that i have to fight my doctors on certain issues and tell them what i want .After they see that i know what i am talking about they become much nicer . my doctor just kept saying you need a antidepressant and I said i wanted a sleep study . i have to fight him on this. I went around him and got a sleep study which said i had moderate sleep apnea. all of sudden my doctors got much nicer when they saw i knew something was wrong and they were not doing anything about. I also ask for a copy of every blood test in order to document everything . On many of the blood tests for thyroid were normal but you could see a progession to getting worse if my doctors looked at all these tests at one time he would have realized my body is changing but he looked at the last test only says its normal and finished. you have to find a doctor who is willing to try things not just say you blood is normal nothing wrong with yow

I think the original idea behind the thyroid script was "her TSH is on the high side of normal, she's displaying symptoms, let's try this." There was no thyroid panel done and no referral to a specialist. No one thought of apnea. It did help for a while.

Now I'm wondering if the thyroid ever had a problem at all - if the tiredness was all the OSA. My only other symptom of thyroid was that I get cold easily.

I'm going to go with kteague's idea and ask for a full thyroid eval or maybe a referral to an endocrinolgist. Couldn't hurt as I am flirting with pre-diabetes too, Also read somewhere that overdosing on thyroid can lead to a predisposition to diabetes....

On the good news side, last night's stats from my machine show TA DA the first night with 0.0. Apneas and only .5 HI YEAH!

I went through the same medical adventure this past year - First diagnosed with borderline hypothyroidism with a TSH lower than yours actually and lots of symptoms.

There are differing opinions regarding what's a 'normal' TSH. e.g. the American Academy of Clinical Endocrinologist suggest using a normal range of .3 to 3.04. Most labs and hence most GPs use the 5.0 cut off.

Starting thyroid hormone changed my life and relieved so many of my symptoms - the only expections were it did not fix my insomnia, fatigue, and muscle and joint pain. So I asked my doc if I could possibly have a sleep disorder and he ordered a study.

I haven't been able to successfully use my APAP - I can occasionally get 4 hours with Lunesta, and that's a good night. But, I've wondered like you if my hypothyroidism would improve if I could treat the apnea successfully.

I talked to my pulmonologist and ENT about it and they said hypoT can cause apnea, but if you are being treated for hypoT then that should resolve the apnea. Which in my case, it has not.

You should base whether or not you continue taking thyroid hormone on blood tests. If you were experiencing hyper symptoms, then for sure you need a blood test. Not just TSH, but ideally Free T3 and Free T4 - or at the very least total T4. As someone already explained TSH is not a measure of actual thyroid hormone. J

Hi winknblinknnod,

Changing your thyroid medication can change how your body uses other medications you take – can make them more or less effective for you. For that reason at least it is important to discuss changes with your doctor. Also, messing with your dosage while waiting to take a test will just make the test worthless. You need to be up-front with your doctor and either see this through or stop. Maybe get a new doctor while you're at it

Good luck!

Jerry