Feeling down
Hello, I’m unsure if I am being hypochondriac and feeling my doctor isn’t listening to me. For past few years, I have had chronic constipation and I’ve gone through rounds of allergy blood tests, elimination diets, taking laxatives and suppositories etc. There have been stretches of time where I’ve just dealt with everything and I’ve been convinced that my symptoms were just ‘normal’ for me. I’ve had skin like sandpaper, my eyebrows have fallen out, depression, extreme fatigue and stomach issues. The stomach problems have been the thing I’ve been to the doctor about most as it’s so bad it effects my every day life and we’ve done all the fecal tests and it’s been treated as IBS etc. My blood tests a few years ago showed TSH 3.4 and I have some vitamin deficiencies. Last month, I was back at the doctors again with stomach problems and saying it must be a good intolerance of some sort and we did another round of blood tests and fecal samples. My TSH came back as 10.69 this time, 2 weeks later TSH 7.34. My doctor said wait another 6 months for a blood test and continue with laxatives. I called back the following week after researching hypothyroidism and saying a lot of symptoms make sense with what I’ve been experiencing. My doc to write in my notes, ‘patient says she has symptoms of hypothyroidism. No mention of symptoms previously.’ And said we could move it to 3 months for another blood test. I was a bit upset that she said that I haven’t mentioned any symptoms before when it’s obvious from looking at my notes that there are a few things that I’ve been to the doctor about that could be symptoms, I just didn’t link it to hypothyroidism because we haven’t done a blood test in the past 5 years. I also requested a thyroid antibody test on the second blood test but she didn’t request it. So, I went to medichecks and paid to have a thyroid and antibodies test and it came back TSH 8.08, free T3 5, Free Thyroxine 11.2, Thyroglobulin 70 and Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies 110. I sent these results to my doctor and she has added them to my notes, but said that we should still wait 3 months to do another blood test and made no comment about the antibodies.
Am I just overreacting or is my doctor under reacting? I’m sick of feeling rubbish, I’m sick of drinking laxative powder drinks everyday, I feel like I look ill and I can’t manage the way my skin and body feels like a dried up crusty zombie, and my mood is awful. I don’t feel normal and I’m not sure if that’s just adding to how I feel my doctor is dismissing me 😂 I feel like she prolonging my suffering when I just want to start the journey towards feeling better. I’ve booked a private GP appointment but I’m just worried they’ll say the same.
Thanks for listening!