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...
Hello,
I am completely new to hypothyroidism. I am in my twenties and was diagnosed with hypothyroidism about 3 weeks ago by my doctor. So, I started taking a low dose of Levothyroxine. The medication makes me nauseous and gives me indigestion. It also makes me drowsy : (Plus the whole take it in the morning with an empty stomach and then eat 30 minutes later is inconvenient. (I am sooo not a morning person) So for the past week or so, I have been setting my alarm for an hour or two before I normally wake-up. I keep the medicine, a full bottle of water and cereal bar by my bed. I take the medicine, go back to sleep, wake up 30 minutes later to eat the bar and then go back to sleep until I need to get up. By doing this I dont feel the nausea of drowsiness as much.
Question? Is anything about this method hindering the medication from working fully?
Thank you!
I am completely new to hypothyroidism. I am in my twenties and was diagnosed with hypothyroidism about 3 weeks ago by my doctor. So, I started taking a low dose of Levothyroxine. The medication makes me nauseous and gives me indigestion. It also makes me drowsy : (Plus the whole take it in the morning with an empty stomach and then eat 30 minutes later is inconvenient. (I am sooo not a morning person) So for the past week or so, I have been setting my alarm for an hour or two before I normally wake-up. I keep the medicine, a full bottle of water and cereal bar by my bed. I take the medicine, go back to sleep, wake up 30 minutes later to eat the bar and then go back to sleep until I need to get up. By doing this I dont feel the nausea of drowsiness as much.
Question? Is anything about this method hindering the medication from working fully?
Thank you!
Sorry for the reason you're here but, glad you found us.
Your method is completely appropriate.
You know, I just love my AM coffee and just didn't like the idea of waiting 30-60 minutes before having it.
After reading this:
http://thyroid.about.com/od/thyroiddrugstreatments/a/bedtime.htm
I opted to take my levo around 11PMish making sure it was 2 hours after last food/drink other than water and 4 hours apart any iron/calcium.
For whatever it's worth, Dr. John Lowe did some groundbreaking studies on fibro. He concluded that it's a manifestation of undiagnosed/improperly treated hypothyroidism.
If you'd like to make sure that your hypothyroidism is properly treated, you'll want to ask your doctor to check your FreeT4 and FreeT3 levels every 6 wks.
You'll also want to ask him/her to keep increasing your dose until your FreeT4/T3 levels are similar to the types of levels healthy people have: FreeT4/T3 in the upper half/upper third of the normal range.
If you'd like some help interpreting your labs, please feel free to post them here and we'll show you how. Please be sure to post the reference ranges for your FreeT4/T3 results since different labs use different ranges and your results can only be properly interpreted within in the context of your lab's ranges.
Proper treatment of hypothyroidism is a long journey and full of ups and downs. However, once you are stable at your optimal levels, you can look forward to being free from thyroid symptoms.
It's awesome :)
Best of luck to you moving forward!
I hope you both have a good day.
Since our bodies can process just so much hormone at any given time, we all have to start off slowly and titrate up on our doses.
I shared with you in my earlier post how thyroid-savvy doctors would do things.
It's going to take awhile to achieve freedom from symptoms so, I hope you can dig down deep for patience.
The meds titration process is long one but, it's worth it.