[Annegg]

Hi. I'm a pre-pre-nursing student with hypothyroidism. Most of the time I'm fine but for the past month I haven't been feeling well. Long story short, I needed to up my medicine. My problem is that my school work suffered a lot in my bio 2 class (a prereq for A&P and Microbiology). My biggest symptoms are deppression, fatigue and unclear memory, all which are counterproductive to doing well in school.

I'm in serious danger of failing the course. I told the professor but he is a strict (and unfair) marker. He only marks on how you do on tests (83 on one and 56 on the other and I still have the final) and quizzes (not so well on recent ones). There is no concept of extra credit work. He knows I'm a good student and I participate a lot but it doesn't count. I know the material, most of the time. When I'm having a bad day, I can't remember technical details, which is most of bio .

Questions:

1. What can I do to help me study and retain the material? I find it hard to remember what I study when my thyroid function is low.

2. Is there anyway for me to do prevent this from happening again? Not medically advice, but ways for me to be more aware or on top of the situation.

3. Do you have any suggestions of how I can deal with this professor? I can't go anyone higher because he is chairman of the biology dept. and "has been teaching for 45 years" as he likes to remind us .

4. How will I be able to get through nursing school like this? If I keep needing to up my medicine every few months, I'm never going to be able to keep up with my GPA and get into a nursing program.

[AirforceRN]

Annegg...I only have something to say about number 3...sorry I can't be more help:
Profs (especially the older ones I find) are often very reluctant to hand out special assignments or extra credit work for specific students. In nursing courses its often different because nursing profs are a different breed, but regular profs...good luck. The attitude is often "not my problem, sort yourself out" and to be honest (and harsh) they have that right. You are not their problem, you are your problem. I would scratch him off the goto list and signup instead for tutorials, study groups and quiet rooms at the library.

[ingelein]

It sounds like you need to see your doc and see if he wants to do tsh levels more often and stay on top of your symptoms. Once you are on the correct dose , you should be having none of the symptoms you describe.I have been hypothyroid for many years and have been stable on medication.Really hpothyroidism is not a disability.MHO

[Annegg]

AirforceRN - thanks for the hope.

ingelein - according to my endo, this is just part of a gradual decline of my thyroid until my thyroid stops completely. But there is no timeline, it just has to happen as it happens. And it just went to the next level.

and i now do agree that hypothyroidism is generaly not a disability. When I posted at 2:30 am, I was a bit irrational. However, I never had symptoms when I was first diagnosed. We caught it in a series of confusing blood tests. I was fine with large number of antibodies. Then I had the antibodies and my numbers indicated hyper. Then in a recheck I was offically hypothyroidism.

Now I realized the whole past month of craziness was my thyroid. Everything I was feeling especially the brain fog, was my thyriod. I never realized what being hypothyriod without meds meant. I didn't realize my not being well was because of my thyroid. Hindsight is 20/20 right? I also paniced a bit because I sort of forgot that the meds would eventually control it. Middle of the night madness.

and thanks for reminding me that the meds will help. (how do i get a thread transfered to somewhere better?)

[Silverdragon102]

Originally Posted by Annegg

and thanks for reminding me that the meds will help. (how do i get a thread transfered to somewhere better?)

If you request a thread moving/closing you can either post on the thread your request and a mod will respond or send a pm to a mod with your request. Most forums will have a mod or a few mods allocated and they are listed at the bottom of the forum page. If you have a problem and want to report it you need to click on the warning triangle you will find on the top right of every post

Hope this helps?

[Jules A]

Good luck getting your medication regulated because I'm sure that will make a huge difference. FWIW get used to the attitude of no extra credit because thats been my experience in nursing school. In fact not only do we not get any participation points etc. many of our mandatory projects aren't worth points toward our final grade. Its all about the exams. They don't round up and have failed a student with a 74.8%, our cut off is 75%.

[TheCommuter]

I had Graves Disease (hyperthyroidism) for 7 years, before undergoing the radioiodine ablation in 2005. Now, I have been hypothyroid throughout the past 2 years.

I was badly hyperthyroid during my time as a student in the LVN program. I suffered from tremors, nervousness, extreme insomnia, frequent bowel movements, intolerance to heat, brittle fingernails, hair loss, muscle weakness, headaches, palpitations, profuse perspiration, and dizziness. On top of all of this, I had no health insurance, so I simply lived with the freakish symptoms. I became extremely dizzy one day during clinical rotations because my blood pressure was 160/110 with a pulse of 148.

Always remember that your health comes first. If you want to get through school, you will find a way to accomplish the feat. However, please urge your doctor to aggressively manage your symptoms first.

[mybrowneyedgirl]

I'm so sorry for what you're going through. It does take sometimes weeks to feel the benefits of new medicines. I suffer from it too, but am now regulated so I'm fine. My suggestion to you is to review every day, do notecards, try your best to get enough sleep and avoid caffeine late at night. I find going to a library works best for me, but then again, I have kids running around the house. Take you pills first thing in the am before food and at the same time to keep it consistent.

I hope they find your perfect dosage soon. Just know that there's light at the end of the tunnel.

Perhaps you can petition the student board at school and see what they can suggest.

Good luck.

[goodn]

I've been reading this thread after recently being diagnosed hypothyroid and put on thyroid medication. I have a TSH of 15. I've experienced the brain fog for quite some time now. I feel this has affected my care of patients. Should I let my supervisor know of my condition and take some time off (I have some sick time accumulated) or should I keep mum to my condition. I realize it is not considered a disability.

[CaseManager1947]

I too have had hypo thyroid problems, and one thing my doctor did was put me on a specific brand of rx. She said, some pharmacies buy monthly, the cheapest lot of the drug they can get, so what was happening with me, was I kept getting different dosing even though I was on the same dose. I swung from a TSH of (GET THIS --0.02
back up to 40) OMG whatta mess. Talk with your doc. Also, you arent taking it with Ca++ are you??? That negates your thyroid rx.

just some tips from a fellow sufferer.