Hashimoto's experiences?

I have been diagnosed with Hashimoto's. I am interested to hear others experiences with the disease, because I don't think mine is normal. See I have a goiter and I had everything checked three months ago and they told me my thyroid was normal, then it just went crazy and over that short time it has made me hypothyroid. But my symptoms were weight loss, insomnia, depression, fatigue, anxiety, infections, brittle hair, candida that won't respond to treatment, diarrhoea, nausea and thats about all I can think of for now. These don't seem to be normal hypo symptoms! Has anyone else had whacky symptoms? I think maybe (I read somewhere that when its attacking sometimes you get hyper symptoms before it destroys the thyroid) it could be because of this? Has anyone managed to be treated and then able to stop medication? I just want to hear what other people have gone through.

Sounds like something else going on...you should have your pituitary function tested. Pituitary dysfunction can cause hypothyroid (fatigue, dry hair, dry skin, hair falling out) and hypoadrenal (diarrhea, nausea, fatigue) which seem to be where your symptoms are falling. Have your endo do a cortisol test to check adrenal function as well as all other pituitary functions. Once you are hypothyroid, you will need to be on thyroid meds for a lifetime.

actually the symptoms are of hyperactive thyroid. I had this when they first figured out that I have hashimoto's. They performed a thyroid uptake screen and films of the thyroid. Report It

When they got the results back for the scan and films it showed like I had Graves Disease but it was actually hashimoto's. The doc will actually put you on meds to slow the production of the thyroid down depending on how fast it is producing Report It

but good news is that hashimoto's tends to stop after a period of time where the thyroid goes back to normal with possible times where it will go whacked out again. Report It

I had one flair up in 03 and I have had normal thyroid function ever since. Hopefully this will help you out even if it was after the fact. Report It

medication is a lifelong committment from what I have read.

It sounds like you are getting both hypo and hyper symptoms. It's quite possible you aren't on enough thyroid medication and this is keeping your thyroid antibodies high. While your antibodies are high you will get both the hypo and hyper symptoms.

Most doctors go by the TSH and its not the most accurate test because TSH changes throughout the day. It should always be taken in the morning. Many labs still have the range at 0.3 to 5.5, but in 2003 AACE changes the range to 0.3 to 3.0. Most labs haven;t made the change and if your doctor doesn't read up on it he/she will think a 5 is normal.

You really need to learn about hypothyroidism. It helped me to get better treatment. I am now 95% symptom free. The more you know the better.

Below are some thyroid links. Read them and print out any info you feel might help your doctor treat you. It's your body. You deserve to feel well and don't give up until you do.