Friday, May 9, 2008

Well it is true

Andrew has Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. He will have to be on medicine for the rest of his life.

This is a wonderful link that explains everything.
http://www.medicinenet.com/hashimotos_thyroiditis/article.htm

Thursday, May 8, 2008

TSH & Glucose results

The doctor called with Andrew's TSH & Glucose results. We are still waiting on the others.
His glucose was 103 which is great seeing how he had just eaten. LOL

Now the TSH is where is gets tricky. The TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) is considered high if the result is 5 or above. When Andrew first tested it was 304! After a month on the medicine it was 159. At least we know the medicine is working & it is going down.

Monday, May 5, 2008

The beginning

Last month I had to take my oldest son, Andrew, to the doctors office for what I thought was strep-throat. It ended up being a chest cold and a double ear infection. While we were there she asked me if his hair had always been that color. I said no I just noticed it too. (His hair was turning orange.) She said she wanted to get his thyroid checked.

When Andrew was in 2nd grade he started becoming very sluggishsluggish. His teacher and I talked about it a lot and we both seemed to think he might be ADD. I took him to the doctors and she seemed to agree with this. So we started him on the meds. Well Mike (my husband, Andrew's Dad) and I started thinking more and more about it. We were wondering if it was really the schools way of "fixing" Andrew's problem. So we decided to take him off the medication and never tell. No one noticed a thing so we left it that way.

So in the next few years we noticed Andrew putting on weight. He was also really into his video games. We tried and tried to get him to play outside with his brothers, but every time he would go he would just stand in one spot. We thought he was just one of America's typical obese kids that you hear about on the nightly news. We even took him to the doctors to talk to her about this. She then noticed a "ring" around Andrew's neck. Mike and I just thought it was dirt, but it seems that is a pre-diabetes sign. So we went and had him tested for diabetes. Thankfully, at this time, that came back great.

Then Andrew started having snoring issues. Well to be honest he has snored since he was a baby, but it was getting BAD. It was at the point where he would snore so hard he would throw up. We took him to a Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor only to hear he needed his tonsils, adenoids, and uvula removed, and a deviated septum fixed. OMG Wasn't expecting that! LOL Well Andrew's pediatrician new about that, so when she decided to have his thyroid tested she decided to add it on to the blood work being done for allergies. (Yeah, I forgot that one didn't I! LOL)

So I called my mother-in-law who has been a nurse for 45 years. She said that I really needed to insist on having the test done before the surgery. Thankfully I listened to her. We got a call at 7:55 the next morning from Andrew's doctor telling me that his thyroid is super low. She said that we needed to put off the surgery for a month or two until we get it back to normal.

Well as of today (Yes, today! This very morning in fact!) Andrew has lost 5 pounds. He has more color in his face, and more energy too. I am sitting here waiting on the doctors call about his new thyroid levels too. If it is normal, or close to, then we can schedule the surgery. Oh, and Andrew will be seeing an Endocrinologist next month as well.