I hear you and sympathize. I have thyroid problems but not Hashimoto's. Mine is just not functioning adequately. The doctor hasn't given me a name for the problem. I take Levoxyl (plus Cytomel). I'm much older than you, 58. Want to warn you that you are right to be concerned now because it will get a whole lot harder when you reach menopause. Sorry to be negative but I'm hoping to help others keep from being in denial about their weight. I buried my head in the sand and allowed myself to get to 250 lbs! I'm can assure you that the quality of life at 250 is rather poor. Also, if you are married, your poor quality of life affects your partner as well. Not good. So, I don't have a solution but want to encourage you to exercise and move. Find something that is fun that doesn't seem like too much work. If you are single, perhaps a bicyle club would be good. I have recently joined a gym and enjoy swimming 20 laps per day. Hope to move to more activity when I lose more. You might consider a gym. I'm sure you've heard of these suggestions. I'm sure you have heard others say that "you ought to be glad, things could be worse". I'm afraid I'm going to be one of those. I have a lovely friend who is quite attractive, very petite and has always been trim. I've watched her eat and she doesn't watch her food intake that much. She doesn't even like to exercise so she doesn't. But... she gets migraine headaches that cause her to become totally unable to work/play/eat for days. Lots of pain. I must say if I had to trade problems with her, I wouldn't. For some reason, recently, even with my thyroid problems, my appetite is under control and I've been able to lose weight (30 pounds lost since Januaary 04). There are lots of possible reasons. I'm trying many things. Too many to include here but want to encourage you to keep trying. One thing that seems to really help is that I eat nuts at the end of a meal to keep me from eating too much. It seems to shut down my hypothalmus gland. Overeating, quantity has been my problem. Didn't really sound like that is your problem but in case it is and you find yourself eating when you shouldn't try a small handful of nuts. I know they are relatively high in calories but on those day I eat the most nuts, I lose weight. Go figure! I don't eat salted or roasted nuts, no peanuts, but try a variety (all raw) including walnuts, macadamia, brazil, pecans and almonds. I get them at the health food store. I also am one of those weirdos who drinks 1 Tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and 1 Tablespoon of honey in a glass of water with my breakfast and also before I go to bed. I think this may help my systemic yeast problems more than weight loss but since I'm not sure why I am able to lose now and didn't use to, I thought I would include it. (you can read about this on the web. A guy named Bragg first suggested it.) You have the internet. I'm sure you have researched. Hopefully, you can find some "tricks" of your own to help you with your thyroid problems. My main advice is to not give up! Good luck. --Alice

The problem about actually going myself is coverage. I am an attending in a teaching clinic and with no doctor on the premises 14 people cannot see patients. I can get coverage if I can get another Dr. to cover for me, which means I need to know in advance. I technically have compensated sick or personal days but I can't use them because I am there or I have to have someone covering for me. I can take off from private practice, but then I have no income, and since patients are scheduled months in advance, they need to be rescheduled. Patients reschedule and cancel regularly but when the doctor does it to them, some people get furious. One of my practices is 25 miles from where I live so its a matter of taking 4 hours off for a single appointment in that practice. In the practice I am in in the city, I could take off but my physician is not in the practice that day. I know those are excuses but its not like working in corporate and calling out or taking personal time. It really throws a lot of things out of balance. The First Phone call I made when my mother died was to try and get coverage for my next clinic.

Based upon what Prarie love wrote, at least some people do believe that hypothyroid-induced seizures are common. Being hypothyroid and having seizures are not necessarily related, though they certainly can be. Unfortunately being that most animals do not get regular annual (twice yearly for older pets) bloodwork when they are healthy, but most people will get bloodwork done when their pet has a seizure, it is often the case that low T4 is discovered right after an animal has a seizure. But the seizure itself can cause low T4, and once the animal's seizures are controlled the T4 returns to normal- or not if the animal is on phenobarbital. This is euthyroid sick syndrome- normally functioning thyroid that is temporarily suppressed due to another disease. Euthyroid sick syndrome can be caused by any disease, including a disease that causes seizures or the seizures themselves. It doesn't hurt to judiciously supplement thyroid hormone in an emergency while waiting for a full thyroid panel, which takes 1-2 weeks (having just gotten one for my dog) as long as you don't go overboard, as oversupplementing thyroid hormone can be cardiotoxic. But you are not really controlling the seizures, you are actually preventing further seizures. In other words, even if a dog's seizures are caused by hypothyroidism, giving thyroid hormone won't do anything to stop the current seizures (explaination follows). The full thyroid panel can sort out euthyroid sick syndrome from true hypothyroidism if it is done prior to starting phenobarb, usually. Some pets refuse to be classified, like my own dog. I did a LOT of reading on this lately because my pathologists were stumped when I asked how hypothyroidism, which causes decreased cellular activity, could possibly cause seziures, which are caused by increased cellular activity. I would have asked the neurologists, but they were in rounds and then left before I could catch them. But I did find the info myself, and it seems that hyperlipidemia (VERY high serum triglycerides and/or cholesterol) may lead to atherosclerosis and then ischemic encephalopathy (low oxygen to the brain) due to hemorrhage or thrombus, causing seizures or other CNS signs (called a stroke in people). There are many causes for hyperlipidemia, hypothyroidism is one. One study showed that dogs that had atherosclerosis were 51 times more likely to be hypothyroid than dogs who did not have artherosclerosis (they showed similar results for dogs with diabetes mellitus). Hyperlipidemia may also cause hypercoagulable syndrome where an animal throws clots, which can end up anywhere. Clinical signs are referrable to location of clot, so if a dog threw a clot into the brain, that would also cause ischemic encephalopathy and possible CNS signs or seizures. Of course, bloodwork would pick up hyperlipidemia (well, a complete panel would show both cholesterol and triglyceride levels; some in-house machines can't do this), so waiting for a thyroid panel just tells you why the hyperlipidemia is present. Because hyperlipidemia may have causes besides hypothyroidism, it is much more important to include cholesterol and triglycerides in a seizure work-up than to include thyroid testing. You can always go back for a cause of hyperlipidemia if needed. That said, you need to have a full thyroid panel done before a pet is placed on phenobarbital because that drug suppresses thyroid hormone in some animals. It does not always cause clinical disease and may not always need to be treated. Once on phenobarb, it is very difficult to impossible to sort out true hypothyroidism from phenobarb-induced thyroid suppression. Without clinical signs though, there doesn't seem to be a need for treatment. Atherosclerosis appears to be rare in dogs overall, but common in dogs with hypothyroidism and diabetes mellitus. The actual incidence is unknown because you need either MRI, CT, or a necropsy to diagnose it. Most people don't have access to MRI or CT for their pets either because of expense or because it isn't available. And most people refuse necropsy. The unfortunate part about atherosclerosis is that once it is in the brain, you can't get rid of it, even by treating the underlying cause. If you can get the animal to stop having seizures and if there isn't too much permanent damage and if you can treat the underlying cause, you may be able to prevent more seizures depending upon how much of the brain is affected by atherosclerosis. The damage is done, and you have to prevent further atherosclerosis by treating the disease. In some cases, the damage to the brain may be too great and the patient dies despite best efforts, even if the cause was "just" hypothyroidism. Controlling hypothyroidism would also prevent further seizures due to hypercoagulable states caused by hyperlipidemia, but the same "ifs" apply. This is why supplementing thyroid hormone when presented with a seizuring animal isn't really necessary, even if the seizures are caused by hypothyroidism. You do need to control the hypothyroidism, but that can wait until the animal stops seizing and you have at least a clue of whether or not the animal is actually hypothyroid. It appears that the reason hypothyroidism is a rare cause of seizures in dogs is that most cases of hypothyroidism are diagnosed and treated long before a patient develops clincally significant hyperlipidemia and subsequent atherosclerosis. It seems that mild hypothyroidism without clinical signs does not cause the a high degree of hyperlipidemia, so the risk of seizures in this case is very small. I guess if you ignore the clinical signs long enough and don't do screening bloodwork on a regular basis, a dog could have severe hypothyroidism and seizures. BTW, collies are prone to hyperlipidemia without hypothyroidism, so in the case of poor Shelby, testing cholesterol and triglycerides is much more important than thyroid testing. You have to know what is common in certain breeds and ages, otherwise you end up running every test in the book and that is a waste of time, money, and effort.

Anyway, I had no idea to check adrenal function when (preferably before, actually) going on Thyroid (similar to Armour). The doctors are supposed to do this, but they do not unless the patient has a problem. I had a huge problem as I raised my Armour.. I kept getting more hypothyroid and my doctor kept raising my Armour. I almost ended up agoraphobic, I would get so freaked out in a traffic jam or even driving though a row of trees! It did a number on my mental well-being, I had major brain-fog, swollen legs/feet and terrible constipation. All due to low cortisol and probably a high reverse T3... things my doctor never checked. My blood was FULL of thryoid hormone but it wasn't getting into my cells. I'm doing better now (not great) and it's only due to my own research. I frequent the forums mentioned above and both are very helpful. I also just bought the "Stop The Thyroid Madness" book and am really impressed so far. Lots more info here than on the website.