12th May 2007
[QUOTE=wilycoyote;2975643]
I also was told by my doctor I have a thyroid issue and will be going to a thyroid doctor as well. Besides that I am healthy
So my on-set of floaters is def thyroid related, vitamins or just normal aging floaters and a coincidence.
Thyroid problems are not well understood at all by most doctors. You're lucky to have one who even acknowledges. Want some short-cut tips?
To get him to do a blood test for TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) and diabetes Monday, and send it out to a lab, results in 2 or 3 days, or send you as an outpatient to the nearest hospital, You'll have to be fasting, nothing after midnight (11:30 fine) just water that morning. I'd assure him that you studied up online during the weekend and know it's that simple.
If your TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) is very low, you're probably okay or if you still have symptoms of low thyroid, muscle pain, etc., maybe you're not utilizing it very well, I learned by googling.
Many people can't take Synthroid, which most doctors start them on at first. Most say they studied thyroid about 5 or 10 min. in medical school. Endocrinologists don't seem much better at all and may go by "fads" as when the gov't lowered potency of some of the meds, levothroid that I was on at the time, about 2001, w/out notifying apparently even the doctors. Mine prescribed muscle relaxants instead of discovering the cause. He was a very good old-fashioned Dr. otherwise.
Some resent our consulting the internet, but by suggesting an endocrinologist, he was admitting he hasn't studied thyroid much and you're just doing logical homework to save another co-pay, and time and all. I've been to endocrinologists and personally don't feel it's worth it. Didn't find out about muscle problems there. Think it was online.
If your eyes are bulging and TSH is way way below .1, which is my BEST point, (some hypo's can have a TSH or 2 or 3 hundred when they first get tested) you're hyper-thyroid, over-active, and many say don't let them remove your whole gland.
There are a few other tests, I think I read online, and some people like alternative medicine, Dr. Wilson, can be looked up, can't use the usual word here, if you don't get improvement. He temporarily lost his license, I think, when he came up with "Wilson's Syndrome" but seems pretty popular now.
What if it becomes impossible for some reason to get thyroid replacement pills? And I forget what other reasons. I'm now on levothyroxine 300 and still have itchy scalp, slight muscle problems, advanced diabetes which has almost destroyed one eye. Somewhere I think I read that low thyroid can cause diabetes. Also avoiding sugar is supposed to help avoid getting it.
Hope this helps. Keep us posted re what you find out. Why not have him test for diabetes too? I'm having a relapse in one eye, I may have already said, maybe from carrying music equipment recently, after shoveling snow in February, too soon, 8 mo., after cataract surgery. There are new spiderweb floaters from that, still, 3 mo. later, especially when I'm tired. Would love to know WHY, if you find out. Are yours mostly when you're tired? I know that started with the Feb snow shoveling.
I don't think my retina doctor can really see in there well any more because a membrane formed, and she had to punch holes behind my pupils. Don't know if I should seek another opinion because I simply forgot to tell her about the snow shoveling and equipment carrying, and lifting heavy things. They only tell you to be careful a couple of weeks, not 8 mo. She used to do laser to seal off those rupturing tiny blood vessels of diabetic retinopathy, which continues of course after cataract surgery. If you ever have to have that, don't let them give you mono-focus implants, although the newer ones cost more. You lose your near vision, and worry that if your house was on fire and you lost your glasses or didn't have time to grab them you might not even be able to use the phone. I'm always thinking "what if". What if something mechanical should go wrong with the implants? Forty yrs ago they kept your natural lenses, though I'm sure the operation was more difficult for them then. IOW, the implants have only been tested for about that long! I wasn't even told there are multi-focal ones available, not that I'd want to be among the first to try new ones. Good luck.
I also was told by my doctor I have a thyroid issue and will be going to a thyroid doctor as well. Besides that I am healthy
So my on-set of floaters is def thyroid related, vitamins or just normal aging floaters and a coincidence.
Thyroid problems are not well understood at all by most doctors. You're lucky to have one who even acknowledges. Want some short-cut tips?
To get him to do a blood test for TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) and diabetes Monday, and send it out to a lab, results in 2 or 3 days, or send you as an outpatient to the nearest hospital, You'll have to be fasting, nothing after midnight (11:30 fine) just water that morning. I'd assure him that you studied up online during the weekend and know it's that simple.
If your TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) is very low, you're probably okay or if you still have symptoms of low thyroid, muscle pain, etc., maybe you're not utilizing it very well, I learned by googling.
Many people can't take Synthroid, which most doctors start them on at first. Most say they studied thyroid about 5 or 10 min. in medical school. Endocrinologists don't seem much better at all and may go by "fads" as when the gov't lowered potency of some of the meds, levothroid that I was on at the time, about 2001, w/out notifying apparently even the doctors. Mine prescribed muscle relaxants instead of discovering the cause. He was a very good old-fashioned Dr. otherwise.
Some resent our consulting the internet, but by suggesting an endocrinologist, he was admitting he hasn't studied thyroid much and you're just doing logical homework to save another co-pay, and time and all. I've been to endocrinologists and personally don't feel it's worth it. Didn't find out about muscle problems there. Think it was online.
If your eyes are bulging and TSH is way way below .1, which is my BEST point, (some hypo's can have a TSH or 2 or 3 hundred when they first get tested) you're hyper-thyroid, over-active, and many say don't let them remove your whole gland.
There are a few other tests, I think I read online, and some people like alternative medicine, Dr. Wilson, can be looked up, can't use the usual word here, if you don't get improvement. He temporarily lost his license, I think, when he came up with "Wilson's Syndrome" but seems pretty popular now.
What if it becomes impossible for some reason to get thyroid replacement pills? And I forget what other reasons. I'm now on levothyroxine 300 and still have itchy scalp, slight muscle problems, advanced diabetes which has almost destroyed one eye. Somewhere I think I read that low thyroid can cause diabetes. Also avoiding sugar is supposed to help avoid getting it.
Hope this helps. Keep us posted re what you find out. Why not have him test for diabetes too? I'm having a relapse in one eye, I may have already said, maybe from carrying music equipment recently, after shoveling snow in February, too soon, 8 mo., after cataract surgery. There are new spiderweb floaters from that, still, 3 mo. later, especially when I'm tired. Would love to know WHY, if you find out. Are yours mostly when you're tired? I know that started with the Feb snow shoveling.
I don't think my retina doctor can really see in there well any more because a membrane formed, and she had to punch holes behind my pupils. Don't know if I should seek another opinion because I simply forgot to tell her about the snow shoveling and equipment carrying, and lifting heavy things. They only tell you to be careful a couple of weeks, not 8 mo. She used to do laser to seal off those rupturing tiny blood vessels of diabetic retinopathy, which continues of course after cataract surgery. If you ever have to have that, don't let them give you mono-focus implants, although the newer ones cost more. You lose your near vision, and worry that if your house was on fire and you lost your glasses or didn't have time to grab them you might not even be able to use the phone. I'm always thinking "what if". What if something mechanical should go wrong with the implants? Forty yrs ago they kept your natural lenses, though I'm sure the operation was more difficult for them then. IOW, the implants have only been tested for about that long! I wasn't even told there are multi-focal ones available, not that I'd want to be among the first to try new ones. Good luck.