DW writes:

I hadn’t been feeling right for many months and went to see an
endocrinologist at Columbia Presbyterian in NYC who was highly
recommended. I explained my symptoms – fatigue, restlessness,
thinning hair, and inexplicable weight gain despite the fact I am
active. I was pretty sure I was suffering from some thyroid
malfunction as there is a history of thyroid disease on my
mother’s side of the family. My mother is hypothyroid, her mother
was hypothyroid, HER mother was hypothyroid. See the pattern?
After poking, prodding, blood work, etc. he finally calls me and
tells me nothing is wrong with me hormonally; I should eat better
and exercise more. Excuse me? I paid you $500.00 out of network
for THAT? I was so angry that my symptoms were dismissed because
of mere numbers on a page of lab work. Fast forward eight months.
I see ANOTHER physician at the same hospital who looks at the
SAME EXACT lab work and tells me that YES, my thyroid is
under-functioning at the sub clinical level (the gray area where
treatment is not usually prescribed) and, hey, isn’t that far too
much insulin in your blood? Turns out that I am pre-diabetic
(also my mother’s side of the family), have a mildly
under-functioning thyroid, and produce no progesterone. HELLO -
did I mention she read the SAME LAB WORK? She told me it was no
wonder that I felt terrible all the time, my body was producing
way to much insulin and I was on my way to diabetes. Which for me
is a GENETIC, not a fat, disease. As per her, a diabetes
researcher, there is little I can do to affect my inherited
genetic makeup. I am now on a medication for insulin resistance
and will be considering taking meds for thyroid disease at my
next appointment.

What angers me the most is that she could tell all of this by
looking at the existing blood work her colleague had drawn and
read. Did he fail to notice the huge discrepancy between normal
insulin production and thyroid function or did he just see me as
another complainer about my weight looking for a fix? What a
jerk of a doctor. I am 5’3, 180 pounds, a bra size of 36 DD, a
size 12 Gap jeans and a BMI of 30 (I think). In medical terms,
obese. Never mind that I am a massage therapist, a former dancer
& cheerleader, a trained yoga instructor, and my blood pressure
is great. I walk 3-4 miles 2-3 times a week and I eat all organic
fruits & veggies, lean meats, etc. NO fast foods EVER. No pizza,
no chips, no fries, no candy. Every doctor tells me to lose
weight, that my BMI is too high. What a load of crap. I am a size
6 at the high “normal” range of the BMI for my height. I look
like a skeleton at that weight. Totally unattractive and
unhealthy for me. I went to him because I felt awful and the
best he could tell me was to go on a diet. Gee, thanks. My
husband and his sister are both physicians and they cannot
understand why I dislike and mistrust doctors OH SO much. They
have never had to endure these “just lose wait” pat answers to
just about every ailment they have ever had, including a freakin’
cold.

Lilacsigal writes…

At the start of 1998, I was a large but healthy postgraduate student, aged 24 – I was a pear-shaped 90kg at a height of 169cm, (a BMI of 31.5) I didn’t own a car and cycled everywhere, and had no health issues. Over the next few months, I started to feel depressed and lethargic, and started to gain weight, despite eating less because I was too tired to eat. I exercised less, as I was too tired to cycle, and was gaining huge amounts of weight.

I went to the University Health Clinic again and again, telling them I was exhausted and depressed, and after six months of three doctors telling me I was just overweight (and one telling me that if I didn’t lose weight I would die), the doctor I saw most often put me on antidepressants and sent me to the counselling centre. By the end of 1998 I was so exhausted that I would spend days at time in bed, unable to move, and was still gaining large amounts of weight. At this stage, I had gained 35kg – over a third of my body weight again – in less than a year. According to the doctors, this was because I ate too much and didn’t exercise.

They referred me to a dietician, but I couldn’t take her advice because I was too tired to shop or cook. By now, I had to put my government postgraduate scholarship on hold and go onto sickness benefits, as I could no longer read more than a few pages at a time without sleeping – previously I had been reading between 2 and 4 books a day. As 1999 went on, I found an antidepressant that helped me not have bouts of suicidal thoughts, though I was still exhausted and hopeless. I had now developed severe dizziness on top of the weight gain and lethargy and was spending most days in bed.

I would emphasise that at no time did I disagree with the doctor’s assessment that the weight gain was my own fault – I thought that I was being lazy and obviously eating too much.

My parents and friends (with the exception of my girlfriend) were also concerned about my weight and thought that I should exercise more. With the dizziness and extreme fatigue, this was impossible, and by early September 1999 I weighed 135kg (a BMI of 47.5). The doctor thought I might have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, but at this point, she became concerned with my dizziness and sent me to an audiologist to have my middle and inner ears checked. The audiologist checked my hearing and performed a few basic tests, then was so concerned about my dizziness that he sent me for a test to see if I had a brain tumour. This test was negative, and the audiologist performed more balance tests – in the process, he put his hand under my ear, his thumb touching my throat, and noticed that I had a swelling on my thyroid.

The audiologist – the only health professional not focused on my weight – was the only one to notice that I had a 4cm palpable growth on my thyroid.

Back to the doctor for a thyroid hormone test – the results came back as abnormally low. Low thyroid hormone produces fatigue and weight gain. She then sent me to have an ultrasound, which revealed the growth, and I was referred to a thyroid specialist. This specialist did not focus on my weight, but was very professional and helpful – I had further tests, including a nuclear medicine scan and several biopsies, all of which were inconclusive. On December 30th, 1999, now weighing 145kg, the left half of my thyroid was removed. It turned out to be a malignancy, which had grown a full centimetre in the 12 weeks since the first scan. Fortunately, further scans and biopsies showed that the malignancy had not spread beyond the left half of my thyroid, so I did not have to have radiation therapy.

The specialist told me that if my treatment had been delayed another five weeks, the tumour would have expanded past the thyroid, and from there it is a lot more difficult to treat.

It’s taken me a long time to recover from the anger and suspicion of this treatment, and I moved to a new town with my girlfriend and saw new doctors who had no problems with my weight – they were focused on my health, instead, which was a pleasant surprise. I still have to have blood tests, thyroid palpation, X-rays and ultrasounds at regular intervals to make sure that the cancer hasn’t returned, and it’s taken years to get my thyroid medication right, but I am again in good health. I’m still on anti-depressants, though, and now have no contact with the friends that were pleased to find out that I wasn’t just fat, I had a “real disease”, and am still angry at my parents for thinking that my weight gain was a fault of mine, rather than supporting and helping me when I was seriously ill.