When you do find out about the Free T3, you will know for certain. It does sound like from your symptoms that you may be heading that direction with getting hypER again.

Could you still be having that fluid problem in your throat...?

{{{hugs}}} :-)

Hi!
Your jump is just about how quickly mine used to move up. Also, some times, after being off of Methimazole I yo-yo'd around a bit (going up and down) until I eventually just got stable and my FT4 wouldn't change very much at all. It never felt very pleasant.
Are your vitamins free of Iodine? How is your diet? If you are worried about going hyper, you can start adding in the goiterogens again (peanuts, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, corn, peaches, strawberries, grapes) etc, but with an enlarged thyroid, be cautious and pick one type for the day and have the recommended serving size only (like for peanuts, 1/4 cup is about a serving.)
I'd avoid iodine sources at this time like dairy, deli meats, egg yolks, bakery items and processed foods and seafood, and the sneaky sources like agar, algae, carageenen and irish moss.

I have had good luck eating the following when I was in transition:
Breakfast:
Oatmeal or if I have more time scrambled egg whites with sauteed mushrooms, onion, bell pepper and black pepper

mid morning snack:
Fruit (probably something like an apple or pear or banana if I'm in transition, if I'm slightly hyper I'd have a peach)

Lunch
(Depends on how much time I have) I make homemade tomato based soups with veggies like carrots, potato w/o skins (the skins are often high in iodine), green beans, squash and the like. If I was hyper, I'd add in cabbage.

Mid afternoon snack
Veggies like sugar snap peas, carrots
If I was hyper, I'd add in some nuts like 1/4 cup of peanuts or brazil nuts. I like almonds a lot and they're a good source of calcium. If I wasn't hyper, I'd eat almonds, pecans or walnuts.

Dinner
I like mexican food, and would make chicken or steak tacos with corn tortillas and salsa. Often, I'd just get ground chicken from foster farms with no salt added, and it would be a quick way to make a filling dinner. If I was hyper, I'd make a nice peach salsa with peaches and purple cabbage, cilantro, red bell pepper and green onions. If I'm not hyper, I'd make a tomato based salsa instead of the peach salsa.

If I felt like Italian, I'd use spaghetti squash a lot, instead of semolina pasta and would use no-salt added tomato products to make my own sauce, or would try to pick a sauce at the store with as few ingredients as possible and under 300mg of salt per serving.

I also liked making my own thai food, and would use coconut milk and make curry, etc. If I was hyper, I'd make peanut based sauces, and if I wasn't I'd limit the peanut. I'd usually go heavy on the basil, and would use which ever veggies were around. I get a lot of veggies and fruits I guess.

I hope you feel better, really soon!

Big hugs!!
Hannah

I wanted to add that I did have a goiter on my right side of my neck, and it went down after I got normalized thyroid levels. How weird! This disease just really sucks. I'm so sorry that you're going through all this, but hopefully that uncomfortable feeling in your neck will subside, soon. The TT should take care of it for good, regardless. Just a little bit longer and then you should be done with all this mess!
Big hugs!
Hannah

The menus Hannah mentions makes me drool. I eat a lot like this way. I eat so simply on many things that contains the least amounts of ingredients.

My husband makes for dinner like a stir fry veggies of cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and onions which helps my thyroid. He tries not to cook these as long as to keep as close to raw state as possible to help with the Free Ts for me. He also uses a special blend of seasonings which doesn't aggravate me.

I tend to eat more veggies than fruits due to my having RA and the sugars if I eat too much of it, will bring on more inflammation.

He's starting to bake more and more wholesome foods with certain modifications to the recipes.

{{{hugs}}} :-)

Thanks ladies.... WOW Hannah! You made me hungry :) I actually eat pretty good... in the past, I was steaming broccoli or califlower and would chop it up and add it to scrambled egg whites with ground turkey and salsa or to a plain baked potato with black pepper and a little cheddar cheese. I was actually planning to make turkey meatloaf tonight with spinach mixed in (I chop the spinach up really fine and add it to the meatloaf and my husband and oldest daughter even likes it). I almost always make my food homemade (as much as possibly) including my spagetti sauce as everything has so much sodium in it and ever since I got this darn disease, I've taken every precaution possible to make sure i'm on the right path.

None of my vitamins have iodine in them... I've avoided iodine at all cost for the last year (since being diagnosed)... I avoid any triggers or possibilities of triggers too...

I just wondered if this is my body fluctuating as my levels try to even out (if I am indeed in true remission). I can't stand it! It's so darn frustrating... I just keep my head up and keep thinking that soon, this will be behind me and hopefully, I will feel better in given time. I keep thinking about the people I have met and come across who have had a TT and years later, they are doing fantastic. I wanna be one of them. :) Of course, they all have the story of trying to find the right dose and I'm okay with that... I just want normalcy at some point! I hate this feeling in my throat.... almost feels kinda scatchy....

MMZ: that pocket of fluid went away on its own (assuming) since when I had the last ultrasound (last Friday), the endocrine surgeon didn't mention it... she mentioned a nodule sitting next to my trachea which is what I feel in my throat. But now my throat feels swollen on the right side as well... :(

I miss cheese. I have had to cut out all dairy. 1/4 cup of dairy usually has enough iodine for three days worth. Isn't that crazy? I am just that totally-crazy sensitive to Iodine. I once had a small shake from In-and-out and it kept me awake and jittery for days.

I can sprinkle with very wee amounts of cheddar cheese on top. But I don't have it very often. If I were to eat a yogurt, woo wee...I just bounce away...!

{{{hugs}}} :-)

Me, too on the yogurt. I started to get lactose intolerant before I had the hyper issues with dairy. Milk and yogurt was much worse for me than cheese, but I got so sensitive to any dairy that I even had to cut out breads and stuff made with milk. Its such a bummer. I haven't found a good cheese substitute yet. I hear some make substitute cheese from nuts, but when I've looked for commercially available types, they always seem to sneak in agar, algae or carageen.

I've been following a low iodine diet kind of like the one described here:

http://www.saintbarnabas.com/hospitals/community_medical/radiology/lowiodine.pdf

It had been really hard to follow at first, but my body seems to do best on it.

I can relate with the cheese.... I usually put a sprinkle on a plain potato so I can at least taste it :) lol. And I always use the block of cheese and grate it... figured it doesn't have preservatives like processed cheese?... maybe? I also eliminated breads from my diet a year ago not knowing if it would help or not... I just figured breads had preservatives in them to keep em fresh so I didn't want to take a chance. I don't do any milk or yogurt or ice cream either. I did find an organic ice cream at whole foods made with coconut milk that tastes good if you like coconut as I couldn't taste the vanilla flavor at all. The one thing I am looking forward to after surgery is a hot chocolate... I haven't had chocolate in a year and I was SO addicted to chocolate.

Wow you guys are SO disiplined....good for you! It does help to try to avoid certain foods. It's hard though.