Thyroid disease, anyone?

Has anyone else known something was wrong with them, had a really hard time getting it diagnosed, and then found out it was a thyroid problem? From some books and stuff I've been reading recently, it sounds fairly common.

Here's my situation: I've always been fairly low energy, had a couple of instances of clinical depression, but otherwise, I've been pretty healthy. But about 2+ years ago, my energy plummeted and my weight increased. During the first few months, I toughed it out, took a few sleeping pills as recommended by my doctor, and got progressively worse. I had some aches and pains, extremely dry, flaky skin on my face, horrible short-term memory, trouble concentrating, and difficulty getting out of bed in the morning (even when I'd planned things I was looking forward to). Having experienced clinical depression firsthand, though, I knew that I was NOT depressed, and told my doctor so. He wasn't convinced.

He put me on various sleeping pills and antidepressants, none of which worked. By this point I was falling asleep at my desk at work. And when I wasn't falling asleep, it took me much longer to do the things I'd normally do. I was a mess, but my doctor insisted that I had anxiety and depression and that was that. No blood tests. No referrals to specialists. I lost my temper and insisted he send me to a sleep specialist. He was angry but did it anyway.

I had a sleep study done (unfortunately at the wrong lab, I later found out. This one was used to dealing with sleep apnea, but they weren't really keeping an eye out for anything else). My sleep specialist (a pulmonologist) decided to treat me for periodic limb movement disorder, which helped some. He also kept insisting I see a psychiatrist. I saw one and he was card-carrying insane. Months later at his insistence, I saw another who said, No, your mood is fine and you're not depressed. Let's do some bloodwork (smart lady). The bloodwork and new primary care physician led me to an endocrinologist. Ding! We have an answer! Hypothyroidism.

So over the course of the last couple of years, I've seen at least five specialists multiple times. My copay is $35. Plus, I've been put on multiple scripts, the most expensive having a $45 a month copay. Some had side effects that made me heat up all of a sudden like I was having a hot flash, or left me foggy and dull during the day, or made my feet sweat. And my insurance let me pay a nice little chunk on that sleep study, too. And my new neurologist had me set up to do another sleep study, which would have been more money and stress. So I've spent well over a couple thousand dollars, gone through immeasurable stress, been misdiagnosed with narcolepsy and depression, stopped wearing my contacts because my eyes were dry and gritty and my eye doctor didn't know why, and missed out on hundreds of opportunities to hang out with friends or take in extra work to increase my income - all because I was too tired to keep my eyes open.

And if I'd started out with a doctor who actually believed what I was telling him, we could have done the thyroid testing for a minimal cost, and the medication is $8 a month. I'm glad that I finally got diagnosed and that I'll eventually start feeling better and getting back to normal. But I'm not done being angry that this whole mess was avoidable.

Does anyone else have a similar experience that they'd like to share?