2440 Variations on a thyroid

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater.
If you give her sperm, she'll give you a baby.
If you give her a house, she'll give you a home.
If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal.
If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart.
She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her.

So, if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a ton of shit.

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I stopped by the doctor's office today and picked up copies of my last several tests: the bone density of 4/20, and blood work from 5/06 and 6/10.


Bone Density

On the bone density, all the nurse told me on the phone was that it was "a bit low", and that I should take a different calcium (the one I had been taking was just calcium and D, the one she recommended included other minerals, too), and I should do more weight-bearing exercise.

According to the report, both left and right femurs are less than optimal, and both left and right femoral necks show osteopenia (not osteoporosis yet, but not far off).

I was surprised, because I'd been taking both calcium and magnesium for a long time, and I have yogurt every day, and get a fair amount of cheeses and broccoli, and I walk.

I did a little research myself and found out that it's probably not an intake problem. In fact, up until my forties I used to have an excess of calcium, which formed "sand" in my muscles and joints. I even grew three extra adult teeth in my thirties - two more wisdom teeth which got pulled, and another molar that's still there, crowded between its sisters.

It's more likely an absorption problem. I've been taking Prilosec for years for reflux (and that IS in my records), and the reduction in stomach acid inhibits the dissolution of calcium. Now I need to figure out what to do about that. There's a form of calcium that dissolves more readily, and other anti-reflux preps that aren't quite as strong.


First blood test

On the blood, from the 5/06 baseline panel they told me only that "there's something wrong with the thyroid", white blood count is high, and glucose is high.

I got to see the numbers today.

Glucose was 151 (65-139 normal). Ok, that's a bit high. The normal range is based on non-fasting, and I did fast, so I don't know what that means.

WBC was 11.6 (3.8-10.8), and hematocrit, RDW, and platelet count were also a bit high, which fits.

Thyroid stimulating hormone, TSH, was 7.60 (0.40-4.50). Wow! Now that's a bit excessive.

Cholesterol was marked high, at 202, but the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL, the good one, was extremely low (I've always had high HDL), so I guess they don't see that as a problem.

Ok. That was the first set. Now we go to the recheck, last week's (the one that left me badly bruised).


Second blood test

The nurse had called and told me that my thyroid and white count were fine now, but the glucose was still a bit high.

Glucose, at 128, is actually now well within the range!! (65-139), which says I'd been a good girl the previous few days. However, they also did an A1C test, and that was 6.4 (should be <6.0 for non-diabetic). So I was a slightly bad girl for the past few months. But this tells me that even the few non-painful changes I've made to eating habits has made a difference. I'm not sure what the nurse was saying.

For some reason, the carbon dioxide, which had been good, is now low, at 18 (of 21-33 normal).

And the thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), which the nurse said was fine, is actually still high, at 5.28 (0.40-4.50)! It's down from last month, but it's still high!

At first I thought maybe I messed up what the nurse had said, that she actually said the glucose was ok and the thyroid was still off, that I had misremembered, got them mixed up, but no, she absolutely recommended that I "might want to see" a dietitian for help with a pre-diabetic diet.

I don't understand.

Anyway, everything else is within limits, or only a negligible amount off, and things that had been high-normal are now low-normal and vice-versa. It doesn't even look like the same person's blood in both reports - which is an argument for not getting excited, absent symptoms, about anything until you've seen it consistently over time.
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