Hi, everybody:

I have an underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism). I had a blood test, which showed a TSH level of 5.64 mUI/l. I do not know what kind of hypothyroidism I have. It could be Hashimoto's or something else. Since I am very new to hypothyroidism, I have several questions:

1) Is Hashimoto's hypothyroidism the only kind of hypothyroidism that can kill a person? If not, can all kinds of hypothyroidism kill a person?

2) How does hypothyroidism kill a person? By shutting down this person's internal organs?

3) How can I know if my internal organs are shutting down and I am thus in danger of dying? In this case, is it too late for Emergency Room doctors to save me?

4) How long can a person with untreated hypothyroidism live? My primary care doctor does not seem interested in treating this disease. My endocrinologist does test after test, but what I need is treatment, because this disease is getting harder and harder to stand as the days and weeks go by.

I have a two-year-old baby boy who has no father. My parents hate my son because he is not my biological child. I adopted this baby because I cannot produce children, because I looove children, and because my best friend, who was pregnant and who did not want to keep the baby, offered that I adopt him or she would have to have an abortion if I refused to).

I do not regret adopting this child because he is sooo LOVING! In fact, I have never seen such a loving child. When he sees me crying in pain (I have generalized internal chronic RSD), he climbs onto my lap, hugs me, kisses my cheeks, wipes off my tears with his little hands, tells me "Baby love Mommy", and pats me on the head. I guess he learned to do this because I always do this to him when he cries.

I LOVE my baby sooo much that I need to know if my untreated hypothyroidism can kill me and how I can know it is killing me. If I have this information, I can do the right thing, that is, prepare papers so that my police officer boyfriend can adopt my son if I die. If I am going to die because of my untreated hypothyroidism, I prefer to die with peace of mind by knowing my beloved baby will be taken care of by someone who will love him with all his heart.

My police officer boyfriend knows my child very well and they love each other a lot. My problem is that I am not sure CPS will let a police officer adopt a two-year-old baby because a police officer can be killed on the job and my child would then be fatherless besides being motherless. I want to avoid this at all costs. I absolutely want my child to be raised by someone he loves and who will love him the same way. I do not want him to be raised by an unknown person who could physically and emotionally abuse him. This already happened to other children because CPS did not choose the adoptive parents well.

Thanks for reading me and for all your information.