How do you deal until your doctor's appointment?

It's possible your trouble breathing is at least in part due to your stress level. Do you have any breathing exercises for your asthma?

If not, try breathing in as deeply as you can. Then purse your lips and sloooooooowly breathe out. Empty your lungs as completely as possible. You should be taking at least three times as long to breathe out as you did to breathe in. Do this several times. I always find that this helps me.

I'm not sure I have much in the way of advice. I am strugging with the same thing & I actually have already been on meds for a while, but they have to wait 6 weeks in between dosage changes, at least for me, & the waiting is the worst.

One thing I can suggest is that when I first was dx'ed by my dermatologist with hypo (hair was falling out), I was gonna have to wait 3 months to get in to an endo. But as it turns out, my PCP feels comfortable writing for thyroid meds. I'm not sure whether hyper is the same, or whether your own PCP would be willing to help you out until you get in to see the endo, but maybe that would be worth checking into. It might help, but then again, it could throw off any further testing that the endo may want to do, if any so they might not want to start you on anything just yet.

If you are really worried about your breathing, maybe get tested for asthma to make sure you won't die or anything. If you're okay with not having anything that's life or death, then I would say just try whatever you can to get your mind off of it & when you can't do that -- come hang out with us. :) From what I've seen, everyone here really DOES understand the horrible symptoms that can come with thyroid probs -- esp. the strong emotions. The breathing exercises Judy suggests are really good. They help a lot of people get their breathing under control. In case you're like me & you overthinking absolutely everything, maybe you could try singing. Pick your favorite songs & sing along. Try to take a deep breath & go as long as possible singing before you have to take another breath (not until you are about to pass out or anything, just until your voice starts getting soft). Sing for 10-15 minutes at a time, at least 3 times a day & it should help reset your breathing to a normal rate. If you find yourself getting out of control again, set aside longer times or more times to practice your breathing/singing. :) Getting your breathing slowed down might help with sleep as well.

For me, the low energy was due to anemia. I've read that's a problem with a lot of people. One thing you might try is just calling your doc to ask if it's okay if you start on iron vitamins (I take Slow Fe because I get sick to my stomach on regular iron vitamins). The Iron can really help with energy. If you can't take vitamins, you can google foods high in iron -- spinach, nuts, liver, etc. are all naturally high in iron.

Only other thing I can suggest is that if you're like me & are getting overheated at night, try lowering the temp in your bedroom & keeping ice water by your bed. I have to dress in very lightweight pj's. I'm cold when I go to bed. I put on warm socks, but that's it for the warmth. I keep the thermostat low & drink some cool water at bedtime. If I wake up in the middle of the night, I drink some cool water, try to cool down my room some more, try to cool down myself some more & if needed, get a large icepack to sleep on (very important that you have a special ice pack & something to protect your skin VERY well if you're going to try something that radical b/c it can be super dangerous if not done right -- esp. with the nerve issues you're explaining -- so please try to get some sort of doctor's input before doing something like that; if you want, I can try to look up the name of the ice pack I bought. I got it a Walgreens).

Gosh, I hope something I wrote will help you. I can totally relate to the stress, fear & misery. Just try to take it one day at a time & remind yourself that lots of people survived the initial awful symptoms prior to getting their thyroids treated. You will be okay too & if things ever did go really awry, you can always call 911 or go to the ER, so no need to worry about anything really awful happening, okay? ;)

hang in there,
frances

WHY would chewing some ice possibly NOT be good for you? When I was running a rural mail route w/o air conditioning in my car I encountered near heat stroke 3 times. I found carrying a cooler of ice and constantly eating ice prevented my getting overheated like that again. Just be careful. I accidentally swallowed too large a chunk of ice, naturally on a stretch of my route where this is NOTHING for 3 1/2 miles. I just about passed out, I was seeing "black" when it finally melted enough to slide down my throat and let me breathe.

And, I'm one of these people who is almost always cold. I'm wearing a turtle neck or sweat shirt and blue jeans when others are running around in T's and shorts!!! When I get that chilled to the bone, can NOT get warm miserable feeling, sipping and holding a cup of hot tea helps to warm me up again and get me past those horrible chills.

Oh! Sorry. How to deal w/"the wait" - which I HATE w/a passion! - until we can get in to see the doctor or have the test or the procedure or whatever??

I spend the time reading up on whatever the suspected problem is or what tests are done, how those tests are done, keeping a list of questions, posting and reading posts in pertinent health forums such as this and in chats. (And cussing out doctors and the medical profession in general *wicked grin*)

Good luck!