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ITP, hypothyroidism and depression WTF?

3 replies

BringBackCoffeeCreams · 30/01/2022 22:37

This is probably going to be pretty garbled as I haven't a clue what's going on and I'm really worried about my daughter. She's being fobbed off and I don't think her health worries are being taken seriously. They certainly aren't looking at the whole picture. So in desperation I'm hoping someone here has had similar problems who can offer some advice.

DD is 29 and is obsese, she's battled with her weight her whole adult life. She's also autistic. Early in 2019 she developed ITP following a regular viral infection. She was in hospital for 2 months and eventually they removed her spleen and things got back to normal.

Then early 2021 she was suffering with fatigue and she felt like her throat was blocked. GP said her thyroid was fine. Few weeks later her period went on for weeks, different GP said she had hypothyroidism and put her on meds. Throat and period fixed but still always tired.

She self referred for a sleep apnea test as I have that. No sleep apnea but they still issued her with a CPAP machine as she was having hundreds of hypopneas although they didn't know why they were happening.

Now she's really struggling with bouts of really dark depression. They last for a few hours or sometimes days and then disappear completely. She's tried speaking to her GP and they've refered her for therapy, which will take years, and in the meantime have sent her to a group dance therapy. And she can't cope with it and is starting to have self harm thoughts.

From some googling I now believe that all these conditions are actually linked and she's being treated for symptoms rather than the cause, whcih we don't know. Or maybe one of them is the cause and the others are symptoms. I can't figure it out. I've found scientific papers linking ITP and thyroid problems but I'm not smart enough to understand how. Likewise linking thyroid problems and depression. Nothing about hypopnea but I figure it may also be a factor as it means her throat is obstructed and the thyroid problem caused swelling in her throat.

But the doctors at her health centre couldn't be less bothered if they tried. Am I on the right track here? What do I need to be asking? Who do I need to be asking? Because clearly all is not well.

OP posts:
BringBackCoffeeCreams · 30/01/2022 22:37

Sorry about the book, I tried to keep it as short as possible.

OP posts:
DeedIDo · 31/01/2022 09:05

For some reason, many doctors seem to have forgotten that the object of treatment is to make you feel well again, with the result that a lot of people with hypothyroidism are undertreated and still symptomatic. Those symptoms are then all treated separately, with other diagnoses given, often CFS or fibromyalgia.

I'd be getting copies of her blood results over the last couple of years and learning how to interpret them. A lot of us have had to do that to regain our health.

BringBackCoffeeCreams · 31/01/2022 09:22

Would seeing an endocrinologist help? Someone mentioned that to me but I'd never heard of them before. I've been googling and she can self refer to one at her local hospital. Is that something she should do?

The worst issue for her at the moment is the bouts of severe depression and I feel like no amount of dance therapy or talking therapy is going to fix that if the cause is something physical.

OP posts:
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