Eseme's Den

The Angel, who is a very important part of my life, has thyroid problems, among other things.

He has very bad thyroid problems, from what I can tell.

He started on 25 mcg of Levothyroxine, which is a generic of synthroid (I think).

They keep checking his thyroid hormone levels, and while his medication has been stable for sometimes half a year, it keeps going up. And up. And up.

He is now on 200 mcg of the same medication. This is due to thyroid levels creeping back up to 3.9 at his last blood draw about a week and a half ago.

He had been diagnosed with Hashimoto's Thyroiditus, which is to say his white blood cells are attacking his thyroid as a foreign object, and at this point neither of us is sure he has a thyroid anymore.

He has been utterly exhausted lately, likely due to this. On my urging, he tried to look up Facebook groups for thyroid issues, to maybe find other people to talk to who have the same issues and who may have advice on dealing with chronic fatigue.

He keeps finding groups open only to women, or who blatantly describe Hashimoto's as a "women's issue." And that is WRONG and extremely alienating for him.

I know there are at least three people on my friends list who also have thyroid issues. Can I ask for some info?

It is me, or is that a really high does of the meds? I am really worried that his system is not in a good place, to need that much of the tyroid hormones.

Are there other meds he can ask his doctor about?

Are there any good online support groups or websites you can recommend for chronic fatigue and chronic pain (we suspect arthritis, and he also had a traumatic brain injury about 18 years ago and gets very bad headaches)? Ones that are less women-centered and more helpful?

He has not until recently thought of himself as disabled, and many of his family and friends do not think that way either. He is not used to managing energy levels, which can result in him running out of "spoons" suddenly.

While I know several people with chronic pain and chronic fatigue, and I know about the spoon theory, I thankfully (and am very grateful for this) do not have those conditions myself. So can't really offer advice or insight that he really needs. I'm appreciate anything that you have to offer. He does not currently have an LJ, and is on Facebook all day. However, if there are better groups or resources on LJ or Dreamwidth, I will encourage him to sign up (and will start using my Dreamwidth as well).

Thanks everyone!