I’m like 23 with no health problems so this was a very scary experience. I was sitting on the computer one day and chilling, when I noticed my heart was racing. I tried to ignore it, but it just kept racing, as if I have been running. I went to the bathroom, measured the pulse, and it was 140 bpm. I tried to take deep breaths and slowly breathe out but it didn’t help, so I began to freak out a little at this point.
I thought, better safe than sorry, then drove down to the ER where they said that I’m fine and sent me home. I came back to them and told them that I’m definitely not fine if my pulse is 140 bpm at rest, then as if someone shot common sense into them, they sent me to a more advanced hospital for testing. They tested everything there was to test, and it all came back good. I was happy, but not satisfied with the answer.
I went home and it slowed down to 100 bpm at rest. I then continued to have 100 bpm at rest for the entire month. I would read up alot of stuff on the internet and begin to worry and worry and worry and I couldn’t even get sleep, whenever I lie down I feel it beating like fast. I wake up, and it’s beating fast.
Imagine going through this, not knowing what is wrong with you. Then I went to a cardiologist and I handed him my papers, then he looked at me and said, I’m not surprised at all that you have a racing heart, your fT4 is way above the upper limit. (hormone overproduction)
drum roll Finally an answer! Now it has lowered itself and I’m fine. Phew. It sure goes into the diary as one of the scariest months of my life.
The General Questions forum is for factual questions. If you have a medical question, those belong in our In My Humble Opinion forum. As the forum name implies, any responses you get there are just the opinions of some online folks and shouldn’t be taken as the equivalent of professional medical advice.
That said, since I don’t see a question at all here, I am going to move this to our Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS) forum.
Moving thread from General Questions to Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share.
The thyroid produces triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4). In your blood, it’s normally about a 20:1 ratio (you have 20 times more thyroxine). If you have low thyroid hormone levels (hypothyroidism) then doctors will usually prescribe something like Levothyroxine,w hich is a synthetic thyroxine replacement. About half of my family takes Levothyroxine.
Yes, my friend’s cat takes the same thyroid-cooling medicine that I do, but she gets hers in chicken flavor.
When I was first having my thyroid troubles, the internist sent me for a biopsy, just in case. The awkward part was that she used a general check-off sheet for biopsy orders, with boxes for different body parts. She made an X through “Thyroid” that was so large that she basically checked off the next one as well: “Trans-Rectal Prostate.” I was a bit nervous going into the test; I considered trying to write “NO!” across my bottom, but I couldn’t figure out how to do so easily.
Fun fact: Hyperthyroidism is often an indication of Graves Disease. Someone should have thought through how ominous that would sound. Also, the OP should be glad they caught it early. One of the long-term irreversible consequences of Graves is freakishly bulging eyes.