Hypothyroidism Support Group
Hypothyroidism is the disease state caused by insufficient production of thyrohormone by the thyroid gland. There are several distinct causes for chronic hypothyroidism, the most common being Hashimoto's thyroiditis and hypothyroidism following radioiodine therapy for hyperthyroidism. Advanced hypothyroidism may cause severe complications, the most serious one of which is...
New here and desperatley looking for advice. Ill try to make it short. around 10 years ago i had RAI for Hypothyroid. Been taking Levothyroxine daily since. Didnt take care of my eating habits, so I went from a starting dose of .75 to 200 during that 10 year period. Started a healthy Diet beggining of last year which included Chia Seeds and lots of fiber. (I was unaware of the effects from the fiber i lost 22 pounds in 3 months.) Had a flare from my arthritis and was taking 10 mg prednisone for 3 months. OMG talk about looking freaky..been off pred since oct 2013. During this year time my thyroid went from Hypo to Hyper symptoms, and had to slowly wean down the meds. The meds were killing me, Anxiety, Brain Fog, depression, oily face skin, my face felt raw, puffiness in face and insomnia, theres more but my mind is still not 100%. . I am now on .88. trying to get my levels normal. My latest test was TSH .04 and my T4 was 1.95. Doctor said it wasnt necessary to do a t3 test. Anyway my concerns are...Are my levels seem Normal and what is slightly off? also, I never had the following reactions to levo: Muscle Aches, Oily Skin. hands and feet swollen. It seems like my body doesnt like the levo. Also would i benefit from switching from levo to armour? i feel alot better today, but still not back to my normal self, the pain seems to be the worst. hands and wrists are always in pain. I take Actemra infusions for my arthritis and hyrocodone for pain.
First off, it's hard to tell where you're "at" without the appropriate tests...and so far, it appears you haven't had the appropriate tests.
A TSH test is only appropriate for "diagnosing" hypothyroidism and then, it's not really good for that for all types of thyroid disease.
The test that you must have in order to find out what's really going on with you are the following:
Free T4
Free T3
on your lab test it may read like this:
Free thyroxine
Free triiodothyronine
Once you get those, please come on back and post them like this:
Lab test name range result
And, we can help you figure out what's really going on with you. Symptoms of hypothyroidism and titration (going up or down in meds) can cause some wicked symptoms - these symptoms can also happen with dietary chances, weight gain/loss, and varying stress levels. So, the only way to know if you're truly hyper or hypo is to have those tests done.
If your doctor refuses to do the tests, it's a good clue that your doctor doesn't know how to properly treat and/or monitor thyroid disease.