its just another thyroid question...

[tweedlezee]

hello one and all. i have ANOTHER thyroid question for anyone that can spare the time to read about my concerns.
i have had fluctating emotional problems since the borth of my baby girl. fairly similair to after the birth of DS1 but more extreme. As with DS1 i have not lost 1 pound in the 9 months since she was born. DS1 was 10.5pounds and 1months after she was born i had only lost 12pounds.
anyway, weight is not the biggest issue just the one which i can draw upon references most easily. my hair fell out, which again i know is normal to alot of post-partum women but i actually lost enough that i had four bald spots on my head. my skin is very very dry and my eyes itch and puff up constantly. i fall asleep on the sofa but wake up shattered. DP and i argue alot about it he thinks i am lazy and moany and should just pull my socks up but i am KNACKERED! and with 2 children (one is 2 the other is 9 months) i feel a little broken at times. I swim twice a week, i do yoga every day, i follow a gluten free diet but i have gained 3pounds in a week. i feel strong on the inside but there is this layer of blubber that i look at and think "that doesn't belong on the body of a woman who walks everywhere mostly carrying a 20pound or 30pound baby, or both!"
the think that has made me really worried is i had a very light period 2 weeks after stopping b/f when DD was 6 months old but i have not had one since. i went to the gp who gave me blood tests and thyroid results came back negative....oh yes and i have done numerous preg. tests (just in case) all comin g back neg. anyways, i have found info about post-partum thyroiditis. what i am wondering is whether to spend all my spare time at the dr's with 2 screaming kids pushing for a diagnoses or to ride it out and see if i feel better at 12-18months post-partum.
but more than a diagnoses i need some moral support (general "you'll be ok, just gotta get through this comments are very welcome) :)

I've had post-partum thyroiditis twice (almost certainly 3 times). It was diagnosed after my second baby and most probably mis-diagnosed as PND after my first. I got it again recently after my third and I have now been diagnosed with Graves disease (v rare for this to happen apparently).

Anyway, it was diagnosed through thyroid test from my GP, so if your results are normal (not borderline) then I would suggest getting retested to make sure and ask for the actual figures for TSH, T3 and T4. Many people feel ill when their levels would be considered within the boundaries of the normal range.

However, post-partum thyroiditis cannot be treated and goes away by itself after around a year. So although it might give you reassurance and an answer to your DH, you'd still have to just wait to get better and you will; I was the only exception to this that my consultant had seen and even I feel myself again now with the right medication.

I would still push your GP to help to find a cause as it's awful to feel so crap and have to cope with 2 little ones with little support and it's demoralising to be exercising and eating well and yet still feel wrong in your body. I felt like a puffed up Michelin man for a bit, not just fat from eating badly and being lazy but kind of exploded fat that shouldn't be there. I'm still fat(ish) but I feel right in my body again now. I had similar other symptoms to you too, the worst being the tiredness; I had to start leaving home 40 mins before school started so I could park outside to take my DS in as I couldn't manage pushing the baby the 7 min walk to school. We'd sit in the car eating toast, breastfeeding baby and reading for half an hour; me and 2 kids and the baby; how I didn't realise quite how ill I was I don't know. The idea of driving to school now is ludicrous!

Zipitydooda - thank you so much. Its the isolation that overwhelms me I think. I don't say much to people as they say things like "well you are looking after 2 children" and "you'll lose the weight eventually" but its not the weight in essence its the bloated/swollen feeling in my jaw and tummy. The tiredness is hard though I am lucky that little man is 2 so we have no real commitments. I think I'd fall apart if I had any kind of schedule to adhear to. It is frustrating when you lnow your insides are tough and strong its just the outsides that look/feel like jelly. I just keep thinking about how fit I am but how fat I look. Anyway, thank you again. I sort of feel like going to the dr's to find an answer will take more energy than I currently have. I think if it goes over 12months then I will push for some sort of diagnoses. I just felt so annoyed with my DR for trying to put me on anti-depressants. But then I'm sure many people have the same experience.
It is nice to hear that it will be ok eventually and as long as I keep trying my best, eating well etc. It will pay off eventually. Its just hard to see the forst for the trees this week...last week I felt fine. Stupid damaged thyroid ;)

"I don't say much to people as they say things like "well you are looking after 2 children""

God, I remember that.

There's a difference between "I work FT and have two small children, so I am grateful to fall into bed at night." and "OMG I AM SO TIRED, no amount of sleep touches it, I resent having to do ANYTHING at all, please just let me lie here and stare into space, it's all I'm good for"

Your thyroid results were not "negative". One of the first things you learn with thyroid issues is that you need your numbers. They will tell you your results are "normal" when they have no baseline for what your normal is and when plenty of people have symptoms when they are within what is considered to be the normal range.

There is a particularly infuriating, lazy reluctance on the part of some GPs to treat people as individuals in favour of just reading numbers off a chart. Don't accept it. You don't need years of expensive training and £100K a year to read a chart.

Do go back to your GP and emphasise that it's definitely not depression (unless you think it could be); I was 100% sure after my 2nd that I wasn't depressed and I wouldn't be fobbed off with that explanation and hence got thyroid tested.

Have you had thyroid issues in the past?

Also you probably don't realise how far off normal you are feeling. I didn't realise until my levels got more normal quite how much it was affecting everything I did and how I was thinking. I was a completely changed person with the right care/medication. Don't put up with feeling awful.

Get your results from the doctor, look on thyroid.org.uk and compare what your gp has done with the advice on getting a diagnosis by them.
In my experience, the first time you get it tested they only look at the TSH, which in a lot of cases, tells you not very much at all about if your thyroid is going wrong.
Tell your husband that you are ill, it's not normal to feel that tired, regardless of what the doctors can or can't find.