At last!

I went back to the doctors' surgery this morning. This appointment was different to all the other's I've had in my life. That's because I didn't request it.

I came home on Thursday last week to a message asking me to call the surgery. When I did, the receptionist (or whoever) told me the GP wanted to see me for a routine appointment. I thought it was rather odd since they wouldn't need to give me a routine check-up since I was only in there a week earlier. Logically, it could only have been about the latest test results but if that were the case then why call it routine? Looking back it was probably because they didn't want to worry me unnecessarily over the weekend.

Anyway, I went and it was about the test results. They have given an answer to the problems I have been having. However, it is an answer that throws up yet more questions.

They showed that my white blood cell count was low again (it was probably just a blip in the second test, which showed it on the rise again) and, more importantly, that the levels of T3 and T4 hormones in my blood are quite high. That clinched it - I have a hyperactive thyroid.

It explains most of the symptoms I've been having - racing heart; breathlessness; weakness in the muscles; weight-loss while eating normally; sleeping problems and other symptoms I'd rather not discuss. There are also symptoms that I hadn't noticed because they weren't that unusual - being excessively thirsty, for example, and having clammy hands. The reason that it has taken this long to find out the cause is that the symptom that caused me to go to the doctor in the first place was the tiredness and lethargy, which are symptoms of an under-active thyroid and therefore don't fit with that list above.

So, what's next? Well, the drugs that the doctor would normally prescribe can sometimes lower the white blood cell count and given that mine is already low she is unwilling to do that in my case. Therefore, I'm being referred to a specialist for further investigation. That means more tests, to pin down what is causing the condition, followed by treatment, which, at the extreme, could mean an operation.

At least the answers are beginning to come out. I have a name for it and a definite direction for the next steps. That's a very good thing.