Graves' Disease Support Group

after reading more about armour and seeing that people are having problems with it...i'll probably choose one of the other brands like naturethyroid or something. i really didn't know anything about other brands of thyroid meds until going to this site....

dayung mz - these freakin' docs!!!!!

Thank goodness for the internet 'cuz I think we'd all be comatose otherwise.

Sheesh, I think I'm going to bump up that thread about being properly medicated.

It IS truly the only way.

So sorry you had to go through this but so happy for you that you found this useful information.

Thank you for sharing it with us - we all learn when others share their experiences.

((hugs))

Carol

Crap mz...this sucks. This is one of the scariest things for me...if I ablate will I get the proper care to feel well. At least your on top of it mz...good for you! I hope you get this straightened out and start feeling better. Why would you not want to take Cytomel? From what I have read its easier to dose because you can control the amounts...mind you.. I think its synthetic...just curious. Big Hugs...Kathy

Mz,
I was on synthroid for 6 years. It wasn't until about 4 years ago I started to feel really horrible with good looking labs. I found that site, I can't remember how I found it, but it saved my life.
I learned a lot about natural thyroid replacement and being sub-clinical hypothyroid and what it was. I was literally in a comma walking through life with little bits of continuousness in between right before I found a doctor that would prescribe Armour for me.
Armour is not as good as it was last year, They reformulated it and eve I have problems with it. It is still better than T4 a lone though. I was told that Naturalthroid is the best now out of all of them. If you can get a perscription from your doctor for Erfa (canadien Armour I guess you could call it) it works just as good as the old Armour use to.
If you need a doctor that perscribes Armour ( they will do genaric too) you can ask your pharmasist and they can give you a list of names and numbers of the doctors that perscribe it. it will get you going int he right direction.


Angel

that's wonderful, i never thought of asking the pharmacy who prescribes what....maybe that will help me find another endo! YAY!!! yeah, i don't really think i want to go back on armour. i wouldn't mind trying cytomel, i wasn't 100% sure that would be what i'd need, but i will definitely bring that up when my endo (or rather, his nurse) calls me back about it. thanks for bringing that up kathy!

Hi mz:

So sorry about this for you. I have been following the replacement threads closely from here and elsewhere should I need to do something about 'em down the road. I once was undiagnosed hypO for over 20+ years until I went hypER in the last decade. Even back then during my hypO years all I was tested for was my TSH level which was not enough to figure out how I was doing.

{{{hugs}}}

Mz,
Make sure you take your cytomel in two doages abotu 6 hours apart as it is a fast acting and it leave the body quickly too. You do not want to crash in the eveing LOL.

Mmzctcass.
I think TSH test should be shelved. All the doctors go by it and they commonly miss things and attribute it to stress or all in yoru head syndrom. I was only tested TSH for about 6 months and put on Thyrolar when I did not need it. Supressed TSh could mean so many things. It is better to have FT's run just to make sure rather than the TSH.

Angel

I completely agree with you about the TSH test....and so do many doctors - I've certainly read enough articles.

It's just like the ranges....."everyone" knows they've been changed but labs don't want to change their testing kits (or some lame reason I read).....supposedly, labs expect the docs to keep up on these things.

You'd think the docs would but it ain't happening......this site tells the story all-too-well.

:(

Sheesh....forgot to mention.....yeah, SOME doctors know about the TSH stuff but they seem quite elusive to find.

3 endos didn't know.......my GP didn't know.....maybe my other specialists don't know.

So far, only my new internist knows (Yay!!!!)

And, this is only since I've been trying to find out :(

i guess you wouldn't know if you were converting the t-4 to t-3 unless you were tested for it, right...makes sense. Some don't convert well and even though t-4 level might be good, t-3 might be very low.