My wacky thyroid

So, the good news is that I don't appear to have Graves' Disease. The bad news is that I'm not sure what I do have, if anything.

The backstory is that a recent blood test showed a TSH of .135. I had an ultrasound that revealed no nodules but did show diffuse increased blood flow to the gland. So, my doc ordered a radioactive iodine uptake can. My uptake was completely normal; almost smack dab in the middle of normal. The scan itself was mostly normal; one side was slightly larger than the other, but that's it. Again, no nodules.

My GP called to tell me the good news. My sister has Graves' so that's primarily what I feared. She more or less said that I had thyroiditis. Granted, I'm not a doc, but my reading of thyroiditis suggest that my uptake should have come back as abnormal. So, that has me a bit confused. The other thing that has me confused is that--and I found this out in the course of figuring out whether I had Graves'--my TSH level has historically been a little on the high side. Last June, it was 3.15. January of 2009, it was 3.79. Combined with some low level fatigue and a bit of depression, I arguably may have had clinical or subclinical hypothyroidism, depending on the standard used by the doctor.

So, with that puzzle in mind, my doc was more than willing to refer me to an endocrinologist. In all of this, she hasn't run a complete thyroid panel for me, which worries me a bit. I'd like to get a sense of where my numbers--free T3 and T4 and antibodies--are. My doc also said she'd like to me to get bloodwork done pretty regularly over the next year to keep an eye it. Thyroiditis can go from hyper to hypo before returning to normal. It can also induce permanent hypothyroidism.

One thing that I read just today made me wonder. One type of thyroiditis is called "painful thyroiditis." As the name suggests, the gland is painful to the touch. It can manifest itself as jaw pain. Interestingly, about 6-8 weeks, I had a short period of bad jaw pain. I'm currently wearing braces on my teeth and it conincided with a period of rubberband wear that I thought explained it. It only lasted a few of weeks, and when my ortho saw me, he didn't see anything in my jaw movement that would explain it. Coincidence? I don't know.

So, I'm an enigma. Perhaps the blood test was just wacky to begin with. From a symptoms standpoint, I didn't sense anything too extreme other than a slightly elevated heart rate, a bit of insomnia and an increase in BMs.

I know some of you have assorted thyroid conditions, so if anything from your own experience could shed light on what's going on with me, I'd really appreciate your insight. I'm otherwise looking forward to talking to a specialist. If nothing else, I'd like to make sure I'm really not hypo. Until recently, I really felt like I was dragging a bit over the last couple of years. I assumed it had more to do with the amount of change I've gone through since late 2009, but maybe it was something more.

Certainly glad to hear you don't have Grave's Disease Indy. I don't have much to add but just wanted to wish you good luck in nailing down what is going on.

Thanks, WR!