Thyroiditis..I guess

[chrise]

HI to you all..here is my story..I hope someone can give me some insight to what might be the problem.
I was diagnosed with RA and Fibro 3 years ago after having horrific joint pain. I am Sero - neg ( I do not have the RA factor) but I have pretty well come to grips with thats whats wrong with me. About 2 years ago my hair started thinning and actually falling out in small clumps. My heart would palpitate, I talked to My rheumatoid doctor and she was stumped, thought maybe it was a med I was on. Everything seemed to clear up, my hair started growing back but I started putting on alot of weight. Ok, Maybe another med...Last February I started dropping weight like nuts..I started at 150 and got down to 119. We also had a house fire so I chalked that all up to stress. My RA doctor went crazy on me in June and sent me for a thyroid test. The results are as follows:
T4-0.9 (in range) and TSH-0.267 ( low) She suggested the old lets wait and see approach. In July I went to my primary and she re checked...
T4- 1.0 TSH- 0.216 She said she was "puzzled" and I should see an endo.

I waited 2 months for an appointment for the endo to re test and do a thyroid scan ...Now I get this ...TPO ab - normal Anti thyroid- Normal
t4- 6.6 t3- 93 and TSH is now 1.265(normal)
Thyroid scan came back fine nothing abnormal. She called left a message said it looked like THYROIDITIS.. and re test in 2 months. I have put on weight again I am up to 130..and the palpitations have stopped. What the heck.? Can the thyroid keep shifting like this? Hashimotos was mentioned. But I also have low Vit D and I did some research on Parathyroid and I asked for a test..I still need to do that. Has anyone else ever experienced anything like this? I know me and my family are an "auto immune nightmare" or so the endo said..my son is type 1 diabetic and my youngest has JRA.
Should I take this thyroiditis diagnosis that seems to have cleared up or search for another doctor.? The wierdest thing is my skin has started feeling Thick...hard to explain like chicken skin almost . Not sure if that has to do with tyroid but any info is so welcomed.. Thanks in advance Christine

[Andros]

HI to you all..here is my story..I hope someone can give me some insight to what might be the problem.
I was diagnosed with RA and Fibro 3 years ago after having horrific joint pain. I am Sero - neg ( I do not have the RA factor) but I have pretty well come to grips with thats whats wrong with me. About 2 years ago my hair started thinning and actually falling out in small clumps. My heart would palpitate, I talked to My rheumatoid doctor and she was stumped, thought maybe it was a med I was on. Everything seemed to clear up, my hair started growing back but I started putting on alot of weight. Ok, Maybe another med...Last February I started dropping weight like nuts..I started at 150 and got down to 119. We also had a house fire so I chalked that all up to stress. My RA doctor went crazy on me in June and sent me for a thyroid test. The results are as follows:
T4-0.9 (in range) and TSH-0.267 ( low) She suggested the old lets wait and see approach. In July I went to my primary and she re checked...
T4- 1.0 TSH- 0.216 She said she was "puzzled" and I should see an endo.

I waited 2 months for an appointment for the endo to re test and do a thyroid scan ...Now I get this ...TPO ab - normal Anti thyroid- Normal
t4- 6.6 t3- 93 and TSH is now 1.265(normal)
Thyroid scan came back fine nothing abnormal. She called left a message said it looked like THYROIDITIS.. and re test in 2 months. I have put on weight again I am up to 130..and the palpitations have stopped. What the heck.? Can the thyroid keep shifting like this? Hashimotos was mentioned. But I also have low Vit D and I did some research on Parathyroid and I asked for a test..I still need to do that. Has anyone else ever experienced anything like this? I know me and my family are an "auto immune nightmare" or so the endo said..my son is type 1 diabetic and my youngest has JRA.
Should I take this thyroiditis diagnosis that seems to have cleared up or search for another doctor.? The wierdest thing is my skin has started feeling Thick...hard to explain like chicken skin almost . Not sure if that has to do with tyroid but any info is so welcomed.. Thanks in advance Christine

Christine, welcome to the board. Okay, I sure hate to cause you extra work but different labs use different ranges and it would help us help you better if we can have the results and the ranges all on one page if you can to that.

Also, the same holds true for the antibodies' tests. We would like, if you can the results and the ranges for those antibodies.

Thyroiditis and Hashimoto's are used interchangeably. It actually is called Hashimoto's Thyroiditis.

Here is info on Hashimoto's.....
http://www.thyroidmanager.org/Chapter8/8-frame.htm

And yes, it can be a roller coaster ride and at times it is difficult to even catch the antibodies/autoantibodies at work.

One caveat is that when a scan comes back fine, that does not always mean things are fine. I could simply mean nothing was detected by that particular scanning mechanism and the skill of the operator comes into play also.

I sense you do have thyroid issues and because so many of us have more than one "autoimmune nightmare" (I liked that), it is challenging to get to the bottom of it but if we can help, we sure will.