Home & Big New Answer

Arrived home yesterday from a great family vacation onboard the Disney Cruise Line Dream. Our family loves our time on the Disney Cruise's. If you have not experienced this amazing world, I highly recommend it for so many reasons.

When I arrived home, I had a letter in the mail from my dr telling me that recent bloodwork came back with the iron now in the normal range but TSH is Abnormal at a 5.43 and I needed to get on thryiod meds. Funny thing is when I went for blood work I had asked her only for the iron bloodwork and the DR insisted I get a CBC and I thought she was silly that I just needed my most recent ferritin level. I guess elevated TSH levels and low ferritin go hand and hand.

I was totally freaked out when I read the letter as my Dad has lots of issue in his life with his thryoid, I have no history of thryiod issues myself and was a bit freaked when I did a google search on the my TSH level. Than I came across a couple articles that linked both Galen Rupp and Carl Lewis with hypothryiodism which lead me to a running forum with lots of people having thyroid issues. Many describe how their thyroid issues causes huge performance issues and are season enders.

Here is an except from the forum that shed some light on just how big performances can suffer -

Yet another male thyroid condition.

I had a PR of about 15:30 for 5K, then all of sudden I ran a bunch of terrible races. The breaking point was when I ran a 17:12 on an easy road course. I went to the doctor, they said there was nothing wrong with me, maybe allergies and I convinced them to do some blood work for the heck of it. Found a thyroid condition, then went on to make the Olympic Trials in the Marathon and had my best year ever (2002). I would said thyroid conditions are more common in women, but some men do have them and it is very heriditary. Good luck, get the test, and get the meds if you need them.

This news does excite me and really give me hope that with the continued iron supplementation and getting on thryiod meds that the work I have done for so long is going to shine through someday soon. And it makes me really happy that my body can run a marathon with a TSH of 5.43 when many runners say they need to be at or near a level 1 to be running well. I really have no idea but only for all the information I glimmed from the forum but it explains so much of my struggles in the past 4-6 months. 

I can only be excited and hopeful at what my body can do when it is regulated :-)