How the heck are you able to time your meds and eating? I think you know that T4 needs to be taken 1 hr before/2 hrs after food/drink other than water. This applies not only to levo but, Armour since there's T4 in it.

Because Armour is made from actual pig thyroids, it contains thyroglobulin which is the thyroid hormone transport protein. This can result in Armour working almost like a time-release med.

I'm having a hard time understanding why your doses are broken up as they are....

And, I can't imagine how you are able to time your meds and eating.

I think you know that T4 needs to be taken 1 hr before/2 hrs after food/drink other than water. This applies not only to levo but, Armour since there's T4 in it.

If you're not spacing your meds intake with this in mind, that alone could be the cause of your 10AM crash.....

I'd also be inclined to take your current doses in a more "user-friendly" manner:

90mg Armour + 50mg levo in the AM.......and 60mg Armour 6 hours later

And, I'd be inclined to make a dosing decision based upon your next labs....

Please know that 50mcg levo is a BIG dose adjustment when finetuning things and I don't see a reason to switch to Synthroid (more expensive and recalled more times than one can count).

My doctor never adjusted my T4 more than 12.5mcg once my FT4 got above mid-range.

Now that I've been maintaining optimal levels for almost 4 years now, she adjusts my T4 dose by no more than 6.25mcg.

In fact, most recently, taking an extra 12mcg T4 per *week* was all I needed to "bring" my too-low-for-me FT4 from 1.56 (.82-1.77)....up to 1.89 (the high end of my optimal range of FT4 levels).

Instead of taking 137mcg T4 4 days/week and 125mcg 3 days/week.....my doctor told me to take 137mcg 5 days/week and 125mcg the other 2 days.

I was taking a total of 923mcg T4 per week.....and now I'm taking 935mcg per week.

I couldn't believe such a small increase could make that much of a difference but my doctor was obviously right :)

I apologize for the redundancy in the beginning of my post....I actually meant to delete the first few paragraphs when I tried to "clean" things up.

If anything isn't clear, please let me know.

I eat breakfast at 8 one hour after I take my med. I don't eat until noon and eat nothing until 3. So the timing is fine.
I originally did what you suggested but went to breaking up the morning dose because it helped me feel better.
I don't think it's so much the amount of armour but the short span it lasts in my body??
I feel like I'm really close to my optimal.
Just trying to figure out why I have the strange 10am hypo reaction.
Breakfasts are very high in protein so it's not blood sugar.

I also didn't mean Synthroid. It's the same to me as levo but I know that's not correct (and we could probably have a giant conversation on that topic alone-ha!)
I just feel encouraged that I got to feeling a heck of a lot better in a month and a half. Two months ago all I wanted to do was sit on the couch and eat bags of candy!
Are you saying levo is not as "time released?"

Thanks for clarifying your meds intake parameters. I'm glad you understand what's involved with successful dosing.

I suspect your issues are being caused by the fact that you might need a little more thyroid hormone in some shape or form.

I take my T4 at night (because I didn't want to wait for my AM coffee ;), 1/2 my T3 dose at 8AM and the other 1/2 at 2PM.

If my thyroid levels head a bit low (doesn't matter whether it's the FT4 or FT3), I find myself thinking about coffee at 11AM.

Levo also works like a time-release med only because of its 7-day half-life.

And, it's because of that long half-life that we can "feel" a too-low FT4 level despite the fact that T3 is the active hormone. Certain body systems (brain, muscles, etc.) need "fresh" T4 to convert "on-site".

If there's a T4 deficiency, it will manifest in the form of symptoms that might not necessarily "correspond" to those needing "fresh" T4.....it all depends on what the body is doing to maintain homeostasis.

I think you're on the right track with your thoughts about needing more T4 but, again, the closer your FT4 level is to your optimal, the smaller the T4 dose increase you'll need to get it back there.

The fact that you got to feeling a LOT better in 6 wks. (yay!!) is a sign that you are thisclose to getting back to optimal.

Best of luck to you getting there!!!

I appreciate your comments, CD.
I think until my next labs I'll try moving breakfast/coffee back to give those first pills a better chance to absorb.
Kind of hard since I feel like eating a horse in the morning I'm so hungry. :-)