Expert: Karen Brawner - 4/6/2004

Question
Karen - I am 77 yr. old female and for past 4 or 5 yrs. I cannot do the simplest exertion in hot weather (above 70 degrees) without sweating profusely and feeling extremely hot.  This is quite the opposite of previous years.  I shoveled snow this past winter with only a sweat shirt, hat, gloves, and boots.  After an hour or so, my feet and hands only are red and hurting.  I had the blood test a few years ago and it was normal.
About 30 yrs. ago a doctor said I had a nodule on my thyroid, I took 3 tests at hospitals after taking radioactive iodine.  The last test indicated a "cold spot" and my doctor begged me to have my thyroid removed.  I refused.  He left town and I have had another doctor for 30 years who insists he feels no nodule.  I survived for over 30 yrs. with/without nodule but I would like to find some solution to feeling so bad in hot weather (body temperature at these times is, as usual, always below normal).  I feel like I cannot bear another summer.  Would really appreciate a reply.  Thanks.  

Answer
Dear Ethel,   You should have taken your OLD doctors advice since you had a nodule on your thyroid and the nodule was COLD, it should have been removed then....

As for your NEW doctor, you tell him/her that nodules can NOT always be felt and that a person can have a nodule (benign or cancerous) and the blood work for thyroid can and often does come back "within normal limits"....  You tell (DEMAND) that this NEW doctor do an ultrasound of your thyroid and also do another radioactive iodine uptake ct-scan.....

It is a known fact that elderly people often have thyroid nodules that are undiagnosed when they die and are only found when an autopsy is performed and if no autopsy is done, family members never know there was a thyroid problem and never know of a family history of thyroid problems...

Read these web sites:

www.endocrineweb.com/nodule.html
   (be sure at this one to click on "thyroid nodules and role of ultrasound" at the bottom of the page)

www.thyroidmanager.org/Chapter18/18-nodulesframe.htm

Also, if you feel this NEW doctor is not taking your concerns professionally, then ask to be referred to an Endocrinologist....

Thank you,   karen