If you have one autoimmune disease there is a higher risk of having another. If you suspect a thyroid problem, best to start with your regular doctor and get screened. You were cured of UC after surgery but it doesn't protect you from other AI problems.

Sue

You can check in with your family doctor who can run some labs for you to check your thyroid. If he/she sees a problem they can refer you to an endocrinologist.

If you do have a thyroid issue, it could be related to UC but one never knows. I have two friends and many family members who have thyroid problems and have to take medication for it. It can pop up in anyone. I just recently went to see a hematologist since I am still anemic two years after my surgeries. He is checking my thyroid because he said anemia could be an indication of a thyroid issue which I didn't know. I haven't gotten the lab results back yet.

Hope that you don't have any issues but it never hurts to get it checked out. Good luck!

Morning

Thyroid disease tends to run in families.Yearly testing is a Must..with antibodies.
Thyroid disease effects every inch and every cell in the body.
The TSH can effect and will amount of bowel movements one can have daily.

http://suite101.com/article/th...ve-disorders-a148164

If you are thyroid and have a j pouch Please discuss with your MD or endocrinolgist the possibilty of malabsorption of T4..It happened to me

www.aace.com
www,thyroid.org
can guide you on thyroid disease
www.aarda.org can guide you on autoimmune disorders

hope all this helps you
Cassiecass

It is my opinion that jpouch surgery does NOT cure UC. Extraintestinal symptoms can still manifest themselves after surgery. These are not necessarily "new" autoimmune diseases. They are UC displaying itself in different areas of your body - joint pains, eye problems, etc.

Afternoon LIZ

I agree with you that autoimmune disorders do not just come on .I know in my own case it all has been there for years just never addressed properly.
I am going off the track on this thread about thyroid and UC but can you explain eye problems one may experience.I am an still being seen by Neuro Opath and Retinalogist .Do you know what type of vision woes we may have.My vision has detoriated yes glasses do help but noone knows the connection.
Cassiecass

Thanks for the replies. I'm hoping the symptoms will gradually resolve. I'm only 5 weeks out from my ileo reversal. Maybe I am just impatient, but I am sooooo ready to feel GOOD!

You're only 5 weeks out from takedown? Hah! All these symptoms you describe might be attributed to the illness prior to surgery, plus the surgery. I don't know how ill you were before surgery, or if you were on prednisone, but it took me a full year post surgery to get my energy back! It's a great idea to get a CBC to check for other causes but don't rule out this being normal recovery.

Patience will be your best friend for the next several months.

Sue

Yes, I definitely agree with Sue. At this stage post takedown, you are still recovering. You are not automatically "cured." It can take time. I definitely had very low energy after my colectomy, which lasted a number of months. I'm not sure how sick you were before your surgery, but I was quite ill and malnourished. After surgery, I experienced a number of symptoms including hair loss, at times debilitating fatigue, reduced appetite, depression/anxiety, frequently feeling cold, poor exercise tolerance, and inability to gain/maintain weight, among other things. While these symptoms can mimic other disorders, don't underestimate the effects of UC on your system. By all means, talk to your doctor and have blood work done to rule things out. Also, your symptoms may point to nutrient deficiencies secondary to the UC, which should be checked. In my case, I had low potassium and low iron which were secondary to the UC. I started feeling better after I began taking iron supplements and got my potassium levels normalized.

Also remember that everything else aside, you just had major surgery. It can take your body quite a while to recover from that!

I am about 8 weeks out and still having joint problems. I do hope they subside. I may try this new stuff that Fred Couples (the golfer) is using called Anabloc. It has some kind of tobacco incrediants in it (does not cause cancer). I think there is high correlation between smoking and UC. I quite smoking about 5 years ago and that is when my UC started.

Cassiecass, yes there are eye problems associated with UC, about a year ago one of my eyes went quite red, and ached, I have glaucoma, compliments of the maternal side(UC compliments of the paternal side)anyway, went to my eye specialist, he asked me if I had any autoimmute diseases, I said UC, tho I have a J pouch so not really got UC anymore, he said, yes its still in your body and 'episclerosis'is caused by it, 'sclerosis'being more serious. If you try to find posts by a man called Dave on here, he went thru alot with his eyesight due to UC, sorry to say he lost an eye, but I think it was caused by over-steroidal use. Hope this is what you were looking for. I did a google search, complications of UC and it did throw sclerosis up, Heather