Re: reply to Kay

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Kay, I've been out of work for almost 4 yrs.....I've been hypo I think for about 6-7 yrs when I got off the pill to get pregnant with my 1st child....didn't get pg right away and at about a size 3-5 or smaller my whole life I started to gain tremendous wt fast and kept telling my idiot ob that something was wrong...she took a push away from the table attitude and said they don't start thinking infertility until after 6 months....so at 8 months they did hormone levels and till the day I die I will never forget the nurse calling and saying...no wonder you're gaining wt, you are hypothyroid.....started synthroid and dropped 35 lbs then got pg....everything was fine and managed successfully until I got pg with baby #2....not sure if it was thyroid yet but I had everything in the book and had to quit work.....the day of delivery by c-section they kept coming in the room asking me if I feel ok or is my heart racing....they finally said my heart rate was up and so was my thyroid so they called my Dr and he took me off my thyroid med and put me on an appropriate heart med....after getting home and researching it I had post partum thyrotoxicosis and treatment was appropriate although I'm not sure about stopping meds...I'll never do that again ....ever.....my TSH went to 73 and I couldn't hardly get out of bed....stayed in bed most of 3 yrs.....there were times I had hubby check my vitals and couldn't get any they were so low and as a RN knew I should be in the hospital but couldn't get to the car and my brain obviously wasn't working or we would have called 911. I started having every symptom in the book one of which was migrains and forgetfullness....at 40 I thought I was getting alzheimers so I went to a neurologists who looked at my thyroid labs and noticed they fluctuated briefly to hyper and ran the antibody test and diagnosed hashimotos thyroiditis....I also had an abnormal EEG.....some sort of seizure activity without jerking.....I did develop myoclonal jerks later with many other problems....when feeling able to get up I'd do research and came across articles on hashimoto encephalopathy.....I knew this is what I had but no Dr would validate it...one neuro had a working dx of it and treated me with first line drug of prednisone and that made me feel horrible so we went to 2nd line treatment of IGIV infusions and that worked.....but my thyroid level didn't normalize and most symptoms go away till I had my gallbladder out this past Nov 17th......I can't find a correlation but there has to be one for me to go in the hospital one way and come out another....I still have some symptoms and after this long I'm wondering if they will ever go away, what is related after a prolonged illness like that and what is normal old age crap for an old woman of 41. I still can't go to work and filed disability so long ago I can't remember and still waiting for a hearing. Will be glad to answer specific questions but can't remember anything else except I've been married 21 yrs and this is hard on it and my 2 girls are 3 and 6.

-- reply to Kay

Hi Kay, Have you had your ferritin checked? Ferritin is the iron storage. If it's low you will not be able to optimize your meds. Ferritin is needed for the hormone to work properly. Note that iron and calcium can NOT be taken within 4 hrs of each other, nor can thyroid meds be taken within 4 hours of either calcium or iron. Although, ferritin labs give a normal range from 10-300 or similiar, you need to be between 50-100 -75 is best. And over 100 is getting too high. Another option could be to try Armour Thyroid, which has both T4 and T3 in it. I do better on Armour as the fillers, binders, and dyes make me worse -sicker. HTH -BJ>> Hello,> > I'm so glad to have the opportunity to talk to people who understand this disease/illness.> > I am a 68 year-old woman who was diagnosed with Hashimoto's Disease in October, 2005. However, I know I've had a thyroid problem for at least 20 or more years. I just could never convince a doctor. (I probably was hyperthyroid when I was young - in my 20's.) Even the thyroid tests they took "proved" that I did not have a thyroid problem.> > Finally, last October my daughter-in-law (who also have thyroiditis) insisted I see her endo/thyroid specialist.> > After a sonogram and a battery of blood tests, the doctor determined I have Hashimoto's.> > It was such a relief when she told me what was wrong that I cried. Not because I had an illness, but that I finally found out what was wrong with me.> > She (my doctor) prescribed 25mg of Levoxyl 1X@ day. Great! I thought. I'll start feeling better right away. > > Six month later and I still don't feel much better. I'm still tired all the time. I have cut back my hours and days at work and that really hasn't helped. I have quite a stressful sales job -- who doesn't have a stressful job?! My company has been very agreeable and supportive about my cutting back. But I feel as if I should be stronger and simply ignore the fact that I'm so tired.> > About two months ago my doctor increased my Levoxyl to 50mg. I immediately starting getting palpatations. Then last month she suggested that one day @week for one month I increase the 25mg to 37-1/2mg. The next month I was to increase the dosage to 1 day @week to 50mg. At that point, I again got palpatations. So now, I'm back to 25mg @day.> > When I thought the increase in dosage would help me to feel better, I began increasing my work hours. Evidently that was not a good idea.> > So, here I am. Tired all the time, have put on 50 pounds over the past 20+ years, and feel as if I'll never have any energy or enthusiasm again. I also feel ashamed. Ashamed that I have to take one of my days off to lay around to "recover" from my work week.> > Since October, I have had additional blood tests. All have been within the doctor's/testing lab's reference range. These are the results of my thyroid blood tests:> > Test Name Results Reference Range> > Thyroid Peroxidase> Antibodies 85 (High) <35> > T-3, Total 193 (High) 60-181> > T-4, Free 1.1 0.8 - 1.8> > TSH 1.35 0.40 - 5.50> > T-3, Free 296 230 - 420> > Have you ever had to quit your job or taken a leave of absence while you coped with your exhaustion? > If you had palpatations from increased dosage of Levoxyl, how did you finally increase your medication to the necessary dosage.> > I'd appreciate hearing from anyone who may have had the same problems I'm experiencing.> > Sincerely,> Kay>

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