I’m not a doctor.
I’d say try to reframe how you think about it. I’m the opposite. I usually think the GP is a waste of my time and money. Going to the doctor and not getting good treatment and not getting better is frustrating and pisses me off. That happens a lot at the GP in my experience.
Back in the day of the HMO we had to go to the GP to get referrals to the doctors who actually had enough knowledge to help us. If my foot hurts I know I need to see a foot doctor. Skin problem a dermatologist. Thyroid problem an endocrinologist. Heart problem a cardiologist. The GP has a high chance of diagnosing wrong and treating me wrong, or me winding up needing a specialist anyway.
I think the first time I asked you about your thyroid I asked if you were seeing a GP, I think I asked you two or three times, because I did not think the GP would be adequate to help you. They were dismissing what you were feeling with your heart. Luckily, thankfully, your GP tested your thyroid. He gets credit for that, a lot of GP’s don’t test thyroid and patients suffer for months even years, but since you already have an existing thyroid problem it was more likely he would.
Most likely you just need to take a little less thyroid medicine and you will be better. It will be your specialist that makes this simple fix, because for some reason your GP couldn’t do it, which is not typical and not surprising. My guess is nothing has changed in your body, just need a doctor competent to change your medicine dose. Seeing a doctor who can help you is a happy thing if you can think of it that way maybe. Once you get your thyroid regulated, assuming that’s all that is wrong, then YOU will begin to understand better your thyroid numbers and be able to deal with it even better than your GP. Always look at your own blood tests. I once had a doctor tell me through the nurse to increase my medicine when I needed to decrease it. When I pushed back the nurse initially seemed to want to be annoyed with me, but then I pushed harder and she checked with the doctor and I was right. If I had not looked at my blood test results I would have increased my medication when I needed to decrease it. Just like diabetics know what their numbers mean you should too. You will gain more control and have less anxiety about it.
Overactive thyroid, which is the state you are in now, typically causes high anxiety and fear. Anxiety often can be combined with depression. Patients who go inpatient to psych hospitals are given a thyroid blood test so doctors don’t mistakenly diagnose them as bipolar or depressed when all it is is their thyroid.
I was really upset when I first was diagnosed with a thyroid problem. Now, since the hypothyroid is just a fact for me, all I care about is seeing a doctor who sees thyroid patients all day long and is familiar with common problems related to thyroid. Not a doctor who knows a little bit about everything. Plus, the GP office has sick people. I used to say this before covid. People with the flu, strep, colds go to their GP, it is the LAST office I want to go to. Right now that is not the case because of covid, but that’s traditionally how it is.
Almost all doctors cause me anxiety, because I fear I won’t be taken seriously or that they will be incompetent, so I understand your anxiety, but for me the GP is where I have the least trust in competence to actually treat a lot of things. If they are good diagnosticians then that’s great, but I think that skill is fading.
Are you feeling physically better? Did your heart rate come down? Is your thyroid enlarged in your neck?
My guess is all the endocrinologist is going to do is weigh you, take your blood pressure, talk to you, repeat the blood tests, maybe feel your neck, maybe order an ultrasound so he can make some more money.
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