I just want to cry

I've been battling health issues for many, many months. After a diagnosis from a rheumatologist as having Fibromyalgia I have been on a pain medication for the last few weeks. The medication helps some, but it certainly is not a long term answer. Further, my rheumatologist informed me at my last appointment that there is no need to see him any further since he cannot do anything else for me. Nice.

My last hope of feeling better was finding a doctor who would be willing to switch my thyroid medication from Synthroid to Armour Thyroid. Through a lot of research that I did on my own I have found that many people with hypothyroidism do not do well on Synthroid and Amour turns out to be a miracle drug for a great number of people with this disease.

I finally found a doctor would was willing to do this, and I went on Armour about 8 weeks ago. (Amour is not the "standard" treatment for hypothyroidism in the U.S., and many doctors are not informed about it, so they refuse to prescribe it.) After only a week on the Armour I noticed a difference in how I felt, particularly with the fact that the brain fog that has plagued me for so long was finally gone. The pain and fatigue seemed to improve for a few weeks, but in the last few days it has been coming back full force. I assumed that this was because my Amour is not yet at a therapeutic level since I am only on an introductory dose that is much less compared to what I was taking when I was still taking Synthroid. I hoped that with my latest blood draw that my levels would reflect my need to have a higher dose and my new doctor would raise it. Unfortunately, I was wrong. I had a blood draw last Monday and finally got the results today. My doctor is insisting that while my T3 and T4 are "off", that my TSH is "normal" and therefore she will not raise my Armour dosage.

I feel like I have been kicked in the gut. Why in the fuck do doctor's refuse to listen to their patients? I need to feel well, I have four children to care for. Everything in me tells me that I do not have Fibromyalgia, that all of my symptoms are related to my hypothyroidism. The fact that I showed some improvement upon starting the Armour solidifies this belief for me. Now if only I could find a doctor who would listen to me and be concerned about my symptoms rather than just looking at some numbers from a blood draw. And besides, if my T3 and T4 hormones are "off" then clearly my medication is not where it needs to be. I am so ticked off right now, and very sad. The hope that I have had the last few weeks that I was finally on the road to feeling well again is gone and that is a very sobering thing to realize.

Edited to add that I just finished watching an episode of "Mystery Diagnosis" on Discovery Health. The woman that this episode focused on had the EXACT same symptoms as me, down to having her symptoms going away when she is pregnant, and her diagnosis ended up being thyroid disease. This just verifies for me even more that my symptoms are related to my hypothyroidism, and that if I could find a doctor who would be willing to treat me based on my symptoms rather than the lab report then I would be feeling better in no time.