Like when I have to be a patient. I've never been prone to paranoid self-diagnosis, but routine labs just came back with really low TSH and borderline low T4.

I pondered that for a moment... thinking about the recent weight gain, weakness, and fatigue that I've been attibuting to switching to night shift six months ago and then... bam. Before I can stop myself I make the leap secondary hypothyroidism to a tumor to needing a trans-sphenoidal hypophysectomy.

Funny how that happens. I guess I can't make fun of my peers anymore for being victims of this phenomena.

LoL Mike thats why I hate watching,reading medical related stuff..when I went thru nursing school I swear I had it all!..hope everything turns out good!

You can teach yourself techniques for dealing with this. I to have had problems with ruminations about health. What I do is stop and take a few deep breath as I feel the anxiety rise. I also say "stop!" out loud when I catch myself doing it. Over the years I have learned to deal with it. I also try to limit talking to other people about my ailments but I admit I do it sometimes. I find that talking about it a lot raises the anxiety. If I get something that worries me I go talk to doctor about it and try to limit discussing it over and over agian with friends and family.

I have had a few surgeries pre nursing education. For many years I left it in the hands of the medical community and always ended up without dx. Things progressed and I ended up in the ER. I thought, I can't be doing this anymore. So I researched, self-dx, and researched again to locate the best surgeon in the area for my self-dx. Found him, laid out my case (LOL) and he agreed and off to surgery I went. This was amazingly empowering for me.

I think that the only way you, in your case can stop the worry/ruminating cycle is to go and get it dealt with. I find myself doing this kind of worry about other things too. I try to catch myself with the help of others, step back and try to navigate out of it as soon as I am aware I am doing this. I am getting better at it.

I have been there also but in my case it was an extreemly good thing. A few years ago I was at a local hospital where an ER nurse was about to give me an IM injection of pennicillin way to close to my sciatic nerve.

After going back and forth with her for a minute she asked me where I wanted her to administer the injection to which I replyed by showing her the appropriate place. She refused to administer the injection giving me the "I've been a nurse for 30 years" schpiel, to which I replyed... "After 30 years don't you think it's time you learned how to properly give an IM injection?"

She came back with another nurse who administered the injection in exactly the spot I had shown her.

How about now that I am a cardiac nurse I think I am having palpitations/MI all the time, when before I became a nurse it never happend. I need to stop learning about new problems because then I have them!

I'm just the opposite. I always assume that my symptoms signify "nothing important" and will go away by themselves if I just use a little common sense. Fortunately, I have a very diligent PCP who knows I never diagnose myself with anything. Her diligent checking of my "Oh, it's nothing symptoms' have properly diagnosed my hypothyroidism, my diabetes, my hypertension, and my mononucleosis.

To show you how bad I am: I thought that the warm episodes I had in the afternoon and the extreme tiredness were just signs of a middle-aged woman in menopause who worked to hard. I was shocked when I learned I had mono! .... And it never occurred to me that my extreme tiredness and coldness my be hypothryoidism. Again, I just blamed the fact that I was working 2 jobs and it was wintertime!

Thank goodness for my PCP.

I'm just the opposite. I always assume that my symptoms signify "nothing important" and will go away by themselves if I just use a little common sense.

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Ugh. Me too. And it's gotten me in trouble a few times. Like when I was having full-blown symptoms of diabetes but I wrote it off to age and depression. Or the time I walked around for 6 days with a broken ankle because I was sure it was "just" sprained.

My latest was a severely injured post-tibial tendon. Now, I injured it about 7 years ago, treated it aggresively and it got better. Re-injured it last summer, treated it fairly aggressively and it got better. Re-injured it AGAIN, decided that I knew what to do so I didn't go back to the ortho, and now it's injured beyond repair. I'm scheduled to have complete reconstruction of the foot this summer. I go into research mode (post-tibial tendon repair.) Pictures and everything . Wish I hadn't. Now I'm REALLY paranoid and scared s***less.

Why do I do this to myself? Oh, yeah. Because I'm a nurse.

I think that low TSH means HYPER not hypo thyroidism.

knowing too much can really up the fear factor when you're signing that consent for surgery! but i tend to dismiss all my symptoms, too. when i began having palpitations and a rapid heart rate, instead of calling 911 or letting one of the many volunteers drive me to the hospital, i drove myself through big city traffic to the hospital, parked at the far end of the parking lot and walked uphill to the er. stupid, stupid, stupid!

My dad was a physician. When he had his first heart attack, he was in the hospital cafeteria having his usually morning coffee break (and maybe cigarette) with his cardiologist. (Yes, his cardiologist smoked.)

Anyway ... he didn't want to make a scene. So, he got up and took his tray to where it belonged and walked to the ED and asked them to page the cardiologist.

I think that low TSH means HYPER not hypo thyroidism.

It's not that simple. Low TSH can mean either hyper- or secondary hypothyroidism (what I said). It's the low T4 that points more to the latter diagnosis, and not the former.