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.

I had "untreated" hypo for almost 20 yrs. Some quality of life lost due to fatigue etc, but nothing extreme.

Your TSH is just barely above the old range which ended at 5.
The new ranges end at 3, but not all doctors abide by the new range at all.

Hashimoto's is testable...you would have antibodies in your blood. I was negative for them. Not all hypo is Hashimoto's by any means.

Your hypo is not extreme. Many people have TSH much higher when diagnosed. I don't think you should worry about it. But I would get the Hash antibodies tested, just to make sure.

Hi, mrsD:

You had "untreated" hypothyroidism for almost 20 years?! It is great that you can live that long with this disease without experiencing "extreme" symptoms. Unfortunately for me, I frequently experience what you call "extreme" symptoms. I had almost ALL the symptoms of the endocrinologist's check list.

Quote: "Hashimoto's is testable...you would have antibodies in your blood." How long do these antibodies stay in the blood? Do they sort of "go away" after a while if I have not been tested for them in a very, very long time?

Quote: "Your hypo is not extreme." Then why do I have almost all the hypothyroidism symptoms? Then why do I feel sooo BAD at times? It must be my RSD! My RSD, according to a mail I got from an RSD specialist, attacked my thyroid. HELP! It is too MUCH! Living with RSD, hypothyroidism, epilepsy, and asthma. I think my hypothyroidism is the last straw that broke the camel's back! If I could, at least, get rid of my RSD and hypothyroidism! I know I am not the only one with these problems that wishes for the same thing to happen. Sigh!

Quote: "I don't think you should worry about it." When the endocrinologist asked me if I felt depressed, I told him it was not exactly depression but rather denial. I refuse to accept the fact that I have hypothyroidism, the same way I refuse to accept the fact that I have generalized internal chronic RSD. However, I am happy the endocrinologist understood my feelings.

Thanks for your information. I am just worried about what will happen to my two-year-old baby boy if something happens to me because of this disease. I just cannot help it because I love my baby so much!

My blood work was borderline for years. It wasn't until I had a goiter develop that an endo decided to do a radiouptake scan.
I had symptoms too, but doctors wouldn't listen to me.

When the scan came back abnormal (the left lobe appeared partially dead and non-functional), then I was given the hormone replacement. By then my feet were numb and my carpal tunnel very severe, and my palms and soles were orange (a cardinal sign of hypo). It took almost a full year to recover and looking back the changes were gradual and borderline.

I don't think there is a direct link to hypo and RSD published clearly anywhere. Hypothyroidism can cause peripheral neuropathies however, in the feet and hands mostly due to compression of nerves by a mucoprotein the body makes and deposits there when hypo exists. My feet and hands improved about 90% with the proper levothyroxine dose after about a year. My orange skin is gone (this happens when betacarotene from veggies cannot be converted properly to Vit A in the liver, which is accomplished by thyroid hormone). Turning orange is a cardinal sign that the thyroid gland is not functioning.

I believe the Hashimoto's antibodies are in the blood all the time. Most Hashimoto's patients have severe hypo and some even vacillate up and down depending on the activity of the autoimmune factors and triggers. Many Hashimoto's also develop goiters, but not all.

Hi, mrsD:

When you talk about a radiouptake scan, is it a CAT scan? I have never heard of radiouptake scans. Hopefully, the Internet has reliable information about them because I do not want to bother you too much by asking you for so much information.

Quote: "I had symptoms too, but doctors wouldn't listen to me." My primary care doctor also would not listen to me, so I had to consult an endocrinologist.

According to your scan, the left lobe of your thyroid was partially dead and non-functional. Did he tell you what caused it?

You suffered at least a whole year! You have a lot of courage! Unfortunately, I am not like you.

Thanks for your information and for sharing your experience. Knowing you finally got better will help me feel emotionally better.

I suffered for over 20 yrs... it took one year to slowly reverse with the medication.

A radiouptake is injection of a radioactive iodine into a vein, which is then measured as it decays and the particles are counted as they hit a small screen placed over the neck. It takes about 45 min to an hour I seem to recall. The endo didn't offer this test except for my insistence. It was a real battle at the time to get proper care. That is how women are treated IMO by some male doctors! I couldn't find a female endo in my area at all. All men!

Hot spots and cold spots/nodules occur with various problems of the thyroid, and in my case a large portion of the left lobe did not take up the iodine at all and there was no nodule. No explanation as to why ... injury or previous infection damage are the most likely causes. Many things just "are".

Hi, mrsD:

Quote: "I suffered for over 20 yrs... it took one year to slowly reverse with the medication." I cannot imagine suffering that long, especially knowing how bad the symptoms of hypothyroidism can get. Unfortunately, this disease has no cure.

Pharmaceutical companies certainly prefer us to take medications for the rest of our life to control diseases' symptoms rather than finding cures for us, because they earn much more money if we have to take medications, especially expensive ones, for a long time or for the rest of our life. I wonder what the CEOs of these pharmaceutical companies must think the day a non-curable disease affects one of their loved ones, knowing their company could have cured that loved one had they tried to find a cure.

You are right when you say that some male doctors treat their female patients worse than their male patients. This occurs all over the world. These male doctors seem to think that their female patients are being hysterical when they complain about this or that symptom or disease. This happened to me sooo many times to be treated as hysterical! Often, these doctors do not have the guts to tell us in the face that they think we are hysterical; they just write it in our medical records. They probably forgot we could ask to see our records. These doctors should be, for exemple, careful when they treat a person of "druggie" because, if that person is not a druggie, he/she could sue these doctors for "deffamation". I was on the verge of doing it several times and, of course, it was always with male doctors. However, I am usually quick to put them back in their right place and to point out their errors. This is why they hate their patients using Internet and getting smart about their own health, diseases, symptoms...

I wonder why your doctor refused to prescribe a radiouptake test for you, knowing what you had and that you needed this test. No patient, male or female, should have to insist to get the tests they need. When I knew in my inner self that something was very wrong with my thyroid (it did not take a rocket scientist to know that!), I had to insist several times to get a thyroid blood test and then, I only got the TSH test, which is certainly not enough to determine the health of my thyroid. This occurred with my primary care physician. When I went to see an endocrinologist on my own, knowing these are the specialists for thyroid problems, he asked me several times which doctor sent me to him. I did not tell him "No one" because I needed to receive medical care from an endocrinologist and I did not want him to send me away because I did not have a referral or letter from a doctor. I knew my primary care physician would never give me a referral to an endocrinologist because the public health insurance company always complains to him about the expensive cost of my medical care, harassing him to keep these costs down. Of course, if that insurance company is looking for trouble with me, I have no problem with suing them all the way to the European Court for Human Rights. This public health insurance company knows what to expect from me if they want to try messing up with me.

Quote: "I couldn't find a female endo in my area at all. All men!" In my area, all endocrinologists are also male.

Quote: "No explanation as to why ... injury or previous infection damage are the most likely causes." I did not know infections could damage the thyroid. Could, for example, a strep throat damage the thyroid?

Thanks for your information and for sharing your experience. I feel less alone and better understood.

I think strep can damage the thyroid.

A friend of mine had a serious strep infection, and just a few months later, her thyroid swelled up, and eventually developed nodules and 1/2 had to be removed.

She said at the time to me that her doctor thought it was connected to the strep. Seems strep can induce autoimmune disease in some people.

Hi, mrsD:

Thanks for letting me know strep throat can damage the thyroid

Quote: "Seems strep can induce autoimmune disease in some people." If strep can induce autoimmune diseases like thyroiditis or Hashimoto's hypothyroidism, in some people, I wonder if strep could cause other auto-immune diseases such as RA.

Thanks for your information.