Resistance training/aerobics question

[Jungledoc]

The flax seed is OK.

[anzafrank]

The flax seed is OK.

Thanks for all the time you spent on me Doc! Same goes for Stu. I showed my wife your thread, and she couldn't believe it. I really never expected it from this forum. You guys are great!

Frank

[manofsteel1385]

Wow just wanted to say I read this entire thread and stu and jungle doc you guys are commendable to say the least. Awesome.

[Jungledoc]

The flax seed is OK.

Thanks for all the time you spent on me Doc! Same goes for Stu. I showed my wife your thread, and she couldn't believe it. I really never expected it from this forum. You guys are great!

Frank

No problem! Just keep us informed of your progress.

[anzafrank]

The flax seed is OK.

Thanks for all the time you spent on me Doc! Same goes for Stu. I showed my wife your thread, and she couldn't believe it. I really never expected it from this forum. You guys are great!

Frank

No problem! Just keep us informed of your progress.

You still there doc.? Got my tests back.

Frank

[stuward]

Frank, how did you make out?

[anzafrank]

Frank, how did you make out?

Hi Stu,

Thanks for checking. I thought this was a dead thread.

Blood test was way better for the tri's etc., but nunbers were up on the thyroid, and the doc said she has never that before. She didn't really want to answer my questions about why the numbers were up etc.

The visit was sort of like a twilight zone episode. The receptionest smarted off to me, and we wound up in a argument. Then the doc was a bitch after being so nice on all the other visits. My pharmacy said they fight with them also. I won't go back. Very weird.

Been doing the back exercises you recomended. A little sore, but seems to be working. I'm pulling straight back for the upper back but only one set for now, and not much weight.

Frank

[stuward]

That's great Frank. Low carb seems to have worked on the Tris. Jungledoc is on the other side of the world so who knows when he'll show up but he is on regularly. He'll see this.

Keep up on the rows, etc. Progress only as fast as it feels comfortable.

[Jungledoc]

Yeah, just saw this. Great! Keep up the good work.

[anzafrank]

Yeah, just saw this. Great! Keep up the good work.

Doc,

Have any idea why the thyroid numbers were higher? She had me on 125mcg and changed it to 175mcg and said to come back in 3 mo. I don't know if the increased dose has anything to do with it, but lately I sort of look like I have a hangover without drinking. The last 3 days I have cut off a small portion of the levothyroxin tab in hopes to fix the problem. I'm guessing that is a no-no? Maybe she thinks i'm still drinking, and would that bring the numbers up if I were still drinking, which i'm not? Thanks,

Frank

[Jungledoc]

Well, thyroxine dosing is one of the things in medicine that is fairly precise. You breaking off part of the tablet MAY be why the test was high. The doctor, assuming that you have been taking the prescribed dose, sees the high TSH result which indicates that you aren't getting enough thyroxine, and increases the dose accordingly. Now you take the new tablets as prescribed, and next time the TSH is suppressed, and she wonders how she could have overshot the dose so badly!

But I'd guess that you were feeling "hung over" because you really weren't getting enough, and that the increase is still OK. So take the prescribed amount faithfully until your next TSH, and see what happens. If the TSH is low, the doc will probably go half-way between the old and new doses. That's why they make 20 different sized of levothyroxine, all of which can be broken in half. You can get incredibly precise with the doses.

And 3 months is about right to stay on the same dose before checking the TSH again. It takes several weeks to really feel any difference from dose changes, and a couple of months for the TSH to level out after a change.

I agree that a doc that actually refused to explain things or answer your questions should be fled from like the plague. Your regular doc at the VA is capable of managing these problems on a day-to-day basis, and could use the specialist for an occasional consultation.

RANT WARNING
I used to hate it when I'd refer a patient to a specialist in order to make sure that I wasn't missing something, or for specialized testing, and then the specialist would continue to see the patient regularly to do stuff that I could just as easily do. I can take a blood pressure, and adjust the BP meds as well as a cardiologist. I can order a TSH and change the thyroxine dose just as well as an endocrinologist.

Legally, an insurance company or medicare or whoever cannot pay one doctor more than another doctor for doing THE SAME SERVICE, regardless of specialty. But somehow visits at a cardiologist's for adjustment of BP meds seem to end up costing 3 or 4 times as much as a visit to a family doctor to get the very same adjustment! And somehow, the patients that get referred to the specialist for some service that the family doctor can't do, always seem to end up being rescheduled over and over at the specialist's office for services that the FP could do.
END OF RANT

[anzafrank]

Well, thyroxine dosing is one of the things in medicine that is fairly precise. You breaking off part of the tablet MAY be why the test was high. The doctor, assuming that you have been taking the prescribed dose, sees the high TSH result which indicates that you aren't getting enough thyroxine, and increases the dose accordingly. Now you take the new tablets as prescribed, and next time the TSH is suppressed, and she wonders how she could have overshot the dose so badly!

But I'd guess that you were feeling "hung over" because you really weren't getting enough, and that the increase is still OK. So take the prescribed amount faithfully until your next TSH, and see what happens. If the TSH is low, the doc will probably go half-way between the old and new doses. That's why they make 20 different sized of levothyroxine, all of which can be broken in half. You can get incredibly precise with the doses.

And 3 months is about right to stay on the same dose before checking the TSH again. It takes several weeks to really feel any difference from dose changes, and a couple of months for the TSH to level out after a change.

I agree that a doc that actually refused to explain things or answer your questions should be fled from like the plague. Your regular doc at the VA is capable of managing these problems on a day-to-day basis, and could use the specialist for an occasional consultation.

RANT WARNING
I used to hate it when I'd refer a patient to a specialist in order to make sure that I wasn't missing something, or for specialized testing, and then the specialist would continue to see the patient regularly to do stuff that I could just as easily do. I can take a blood pressure, and adjust the BP meds as well as a cardiologist. I can order a TSH and change the thyroxine dose just as well as an endocrinologist.

Legally, an insurance company or medicare or whoever cannot pay one doctor more than another doctor for doing THE SAME SERVICE, regardless of specialty. But somehow visits at a cardiologist's for adjustment of BP meds seem to end up costing 3 or 4 times as much as a visit to a family doctor to get the very same adjustment! And somehow, the patients that get referred to the specialist for some service that the family doctor can't do, always seem to end up being rescheduled over and over at the specialist's office for services that the FP could do.
END OF RANT

Hi Doc,


Your rant was very funny and true! Ha! It's a pitty things are set up the way they are. The way medicare jerkes you guys around it's a wonder you even take it! I won't go on about this, but healthcare is going down hill, and will continue until we wake up. Thats my rant.


Thanks very much for replying and educating me. As far as braking the pills, I didn't do it at all, and never missed a dose! The higher numbers came out of nowhere! I did go on a candy eating binge, but not just before the blood test. She bumped it up from 125 to 175. Thats when I started (a few days ago) cutting a portion off. Dumb idea as i'm not a dr. Won't do that again! The va's blood test DIDN'T come up with the same high numbers and I showed it to her, but she had no comment after seeing it.


The va will only see me, and blood test me every 6 mo., and my va doc. is not real bright, not to mention the language barrier. The endo dr. (medicare) makes him look like a dope, but I can't get over her and her receptionest's bad attitudes. You are a real asset to this forum doc! I'm guessing you can't say what part of the world you are in, although I think I can guess.


Frank

[Jungledoc]

I live in Papua New Guinea. In the highlands, about the same altitude as Denver, but only a couple of hundred miles from the coast. I'm surrounded by rugged mountains, steep ravines. We live in a lush high valley filled with gardens and people who are a confusing mix of generosity, kindness, greed and violence.

So you see, I didn't "take it". I ran away.

[pdellorto]

So you see, I didn't "take it". I ran away.

There is running from, and running to. It appears to me that you ran to as much as ran from.

[Jungledoc]

So you see, I didn't "take it". I ran away.

There is running from, and running to. It appears to me that you ran to as much as ran from.

You got it!