Hi Laura:

Replacement meds do take longer time than ATD to show the differences. I'm sorry you are feeling this way. No one really wants to be either hypER or hypO. I'm a bit hypO and I just lowered the MMI downwards just a teensy bit. I'm still waiting to get labs as my doctor's office didn't really read my email when I asked for labs of the Free Ts and the TSH. They thought I wanted an RX script of MMI! :-(

{{{hugs}}}

I am on Synthroid but I still have my thyroid so I'm not sure it works the same. For me...a lot of things come into play...diet,stress and physical activity. My doc told me that replacement T4 is constant and since I still have my thyroid and it still works to a degree I will have fluctuations. My thyroid still responds and spits out on a regular basis so I'm not supposed to be to concerned about daily or hourly fluctuations.

I'm wondering if that can be the same for you even though you dont have your thyroid. Perhaps when your stress levels go up or your activity fluctuates and diet changes...so does your bodies reaction to the amount of T4 your taking. For me...when I'm working...since its physically demanding...I take a bit more T4 replacement on those days and on my days off I take less because I'm pretty laid back. Also...when my stress levels go up...things seem to speed up...I need less on those days. These are just thoughts...I guess I'm putting this out there as a question rather than an answer. Big Hugs...Kathy

Hi,

I am thinking you might want to have labs drawn and find out if you should consider alternating your doses? Maybe 100 one day 88 another two days...I am cutting pills to achieve a 95 mcg dose, and started to feel really, really good..almost too good and energetic. It kinda scared me, so I cut it back to 88 for several days, today I took 95mcg. I need to lab too. I am now 12 weeks out as of Friday and want to make sure all levels are good. I do notice if I eat raw cashews (high in selenium and copper)I become much more energetic (selenium converts the T4 to T3 far more efficiently). In fact, I was going to add in Cytomel, but eating raw cahews I didn't need to do that. If you are taking your med on an empty stomach with just water, waiting an hour to eat, avoiding Calcium and Iron for at least 4 hours, you might find you don't need as high of a dose as you think. I hope this helps! hugs!

I just had labs done last week.

TSH less than .02 (0.465-4.88)
FT4 2.16 (0.78-2.19)
FT3 3.0 (2.0-3.5)

So the endo reduced my dose. He gave me the option to do 100 or 88. I chose 100 and just started those yesterday.

It could just be the stress of the holidays, I guess!

Bummer. :(

Adding replacement hormone is so sloooow. That's the reason they normally don't test sooner, but as we discussed, your early tests are right for you, at this particular time. but I say it again, to help you see why the symptoms change in a much different time-line, than when e take ATDs.

When I started on my 2 year replacement hormone portion of my therapy, my thyroid levels were only a bit low, my thyroid was working, but I had been held too low on my ATDs for a long time. So it took longer for me to feel any change. I felt absolutely no help from the pills for the first 6 weeks. Then at 6 weeks I felt a tiny bit of improvement.. but so little I sunk into a frustrating depression. Is this all there is? sob
Then at exactly 8 weeks, suddenly I realized I felt NORMAL !

I only tell this story as a way to show how slow these changes take place. Mine took so long to help because it took that long for the cells of my body to start to absorb the missing hormone. Longer still for me to begin rebuilding muscle and flexibility.

The way we feel, and how long it takes to improve varies for each of us, since we all have a different starting place, but the way replacement hormone works in the body on a cellular level will be the same.

clear as mud..LOL

Hey, how about some warm lemon balm tea?
Here's the link to Elaine's article.
http://www.elaine-moore.com/MyArticles/GravesDisease/LemonBalm/tabid/180/Default.aspx