Hyperthyroidism ... ?

[PapawBrett]

Older, overweight, dry skin hands and feet, get tired easy. WebMD say Hyperthyroidism. I just say old, fat and tired. But the thyroid gland is described as a butterfly shaped gland near the top of the windpipe.
And after smoking for 40 years, I've been vaping for nearly seven years.
Maybe time to see a Doctor ...?
Anyone else experienced this while vaping ?

 

[r77r7r]

Be good at your age to get regular checkups anyhows?? Maybe you can take supplements or eat certain foods. Just find a non fussy doc that you can tell him what You want. GL

 

[Shadav]

I think you meant hypothyroidism.... hyper is where you can't gain wait and crave salt and usually your heart rate is elevated as well as everything else in your body

hypo is where you can't lose weight and don't really eat because everything in your body has slowed down and placing a strain on your organs

 

[Shadav]

I have been both, I have graves' disease.... when I was a teen I was finally diagnosed with hyperthyroidism/graves' disease.... it got so bad that I was eating handfuls of salt because my body was craving it so badly
by 20 I had to have my thyroid radiated because it'd made me have 5 heart attacks and 3 strokes
now i'm hypo and well ug...it sucks.... no energy no stamina....my body puts a strain on itself just to do normal tasks.... but i'm still better off than what I was before they killed my thyroid off....

 

[PapawBrett]

Oh no, nothing like that. Just hands and feet are drying up, peeling and cracking open.
to r77, my employer provides an annual Health Fair (I call it the Insurance Inquisition) and our medical plan provides for an annual checkup. Just did the Health Fair, waiting on the results. Once they come in I schedule my annual physical, that way the Doctor has fresh results to look at.

 

[Shadav]

thyroid is not one thing that they test for though and goes undiagnosed unless you show major signs.... you'd need to get your blood drawn for TSH levels, T3 and T4...
most people have hypothyroidism and never know because it's not too bad off just makes them tired a bit or hard to lose weight but nothing to extreme as in my case.

 

[stols001]

Lithium killed my thyroid. I was kind of expecting it to, both my mom and sis have thyroid problems so I was on the lookout.

I got REALLLY unusually tired. Like couldn't do ANYTHING tired. I was cold all the time. I don't think I gained weight but I didn't change any of my habits life just SUUUCKKKKED.

If you are worried (and I doubt sincerely it's either the smoking or the vaping, switching to vaping did not change my--well, actually that's not true. They went up. I also started a different natural thyroid hormone (I am not talking those cheesy supplements they do NOT work, as far as I'm concerned) if anything it's probably AGE or whatever.

But, nothing can tell you if it's a thyroid issue other than blood tests so get thee to thy physician, who can run a test to see.

Also, thyroid is easily treated, but it's a PITA. You "FEEL" the difference in the thyroid hormone but it only SHOWS UP in your lab work like 8 weeks later. So be prepared to, IDK. suffer a bit as you go up as docs are really freaky these days as too much thyroid is REALLY bad.

I have been suppressed (meaning my thyroid is artificially too low) for years but my doc (who had thyroid cancer she is hard to argue with) really wants to get me in a "safe" zone where it's like, once a week (it's today) it's like "Torture Anna day have her take less thyroid" and then at some point like 8 weeks from now they test me and see if it has improved.

Really sort of sucks, but like, once you get it right it's easy. So I hear.

Anna

 

[Falconeer]

In the year 2000 I had two unusual tumours both of which proved benign.

12 hours in surgery removed a Warthin's tumor from my parotid gland without leaving half my face paralysed, and the removal of half my thyroid gland which was also affected by a non related benign tumour ( Chernobyl went up, I was out working in the radioactive rain which fell on the Lanarkshire hills; sheep raised there are still not allowed to enter the food chain even now - this probably caused that one. Had our ....ty Government bothered to put out advice earlier I could have staved this off by taking iodine tablets as could most of the herds out that night who developed the same thing )

After surgery I should have been put on thyroid replacements but due to a mix up no one told my GP for six months.

In that six months I had no energy - if I sat down I fell asleep, I put on weight, my eyebrows and beard went dry and strange and my eyebrows began to disappear. I developed free floating anxiety - and anyone who knows me knows I don't do anxiety normally.

That disappeared when the papers got sorted and I was put on 100 microgrammes of levthyroxin a day. It doesn't work for everyone but it worked for me.

A test to see how your thyroid is working is easy to get - if in doubt see your GP.

 

[PapawBrett]

Went to doctor, nothing so dramatic. He called it a good case of Eczema. Topical Steroids in use.
Much ado about nuthin', I guess.

 

[Falconeer]

Great news PapawBrett!