Freak Me Out!

November 14, 2011
Duh, I'm a worrier! Last week, I had my doctor's appointment. Baby Awesome's heart rate was good, everything else looked good except that my TSH levels were low so they drew more blood (seriously, I have blood drawn ALL the time!) to double check. Let me be honest in saying that at this point, I have done ZERO research on pregnancy. I could tell you all about infertility inside and out but pregnancy not so much. I mean, I know the basics but I haven't in depth researched. So when she said this, I had no clue what that meant. So in my non-medical words, this is the summary...

TSH measures your thyroid hormones. I have never had issues with my thyroid prior to this one time. During your first trimester, it is difficult to measure your TSH levels because they are so close in similiarity to the pregnancy hormone.

Like the OCD/Type A that I am, I went home and researched this only to (surprise!) freak myself out. If you don't get this hormone under control, you can get hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism. One of the side effects of hypo is mental retardation so you can only imagine my worry. I called first thing that Friday and was like, okay, I did some research and I'm freaking out: let's talk.

First off, my levels are LOW so if I had anything it would be HYPER not HYPO. Hyper occurs in 1 in 500 women. Part of my re-test came back and my level was .43. The bottom part of the level was .45 so I was only .02 under. Still, this is me we're talking about so I'm still freaking out. The nurse practitioner said that they would further test my T3 and T4 and that would determine whether there was an issue. The treatment would be a medicine called PTU. She said don't worry and call back on Monday.

So what do I do? I turn to Twitter and Dr. Miyagi. Here was our Twitter conversation:

Me: what do you know about the medicine PTU?
Dr. M: ultimately safe for those with symptomatic hyperthyroidism in pregnancy
Me: Norm # is .45, mine is .43; should I be worried? They are waiting for T3 and T4 results. Sorry to always pick your brain.
Dr. M: Probably fine, but you should verify with your MD
Me: she's a DO :) If it was something, it would be hyper though, right? Not hypo?
Side note: He and I have had this huge in-depth convo about DO vs MD
Dr. M: Hyper...yes, try not to worry, you will be okay:)
Me: Don't worry you say to the girl who asked you if my eggs would be okay by one missed shot! See you tomorrow!
Dr. M: I think there is power in repetition:) see you tomorrow

See, this is why I think Dr. Miyagi is a great doctor. One, he answers my questions and two, he does so in a way to make me feel better and to try to not get me to freak out. The next day was the MIA Conference & Dr. Miyagi reassured me throughout the day that this is normal, your body's hormones are wacky and he was sure I was fine. I also asked him if something was up at the clinic and started by saying, "I'm probably just reading into things-" to which he smiled and said, "Who? You? I would have never guessed!"

Okay back to the story. So, of course, right at 9am when they open on Monday, I called and my results were perfectly fine. For your T3 levels, they should be between 2-4.4; mine was 3. For your T4 levels, they should be between .82-1.7; mine was 1.17. Whew! I asked if I needed to be tested again and she said no. To just try to chill out between now and my next appointment.

I immediately tweeted Dr. Miyagi and said: Ok you were right. T3 is 3 & T4 is 1.17...so all good. Now I'll relax until I find the next thing to freak out about :)

So there's my story about my freak out...not my first and I'm sure not my last either!