Hi all, I'm new here!

March 13, 2004

Hi all,

I'm new here and just wanted to introduce myself. My name is

(i'm female) and I suffer from Hypothyroidism. I was diagnosed

around 2 years ago after putting on 80 lbs in a year and being

fatigued to the point that I spent most of the day in bed. I was on

Levothroid but now, since they no longer make it, I'm on levoxyl.

It's not really helping. I've managed to get my weight down by 40

lbs through a combination of the atkins diet and Metformin (I also

have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, another disease that makes you put

on weight like crazy! UGH!), but I'M SOOOOOOOOO EXHAUSTED ALL THE

TIME! I can literally sleep for 14 hours, be up for three and then

need to sleep again. I'm currently unemployed (after all of this

happened to me, I hit a major depression and had to be hospitalized,

so I lost my job and my apartment and partner and am now living at

home at the age of 32, oh joy!) and I just can't see HOW I CAN GET A

JOB FEELING LIKE THIS! My disability ran out this month and I'm not

sure I'm going to get SSI...so I need to find other options.

Does anyone know of anything else that I could ask my doctor about

to help the fatigue, or is this all in my head?????? I kept thinking

that once the depression lifted and I didn't have to be on so many

meds the fatigue would lift, but it hasn't and now I realize that

I've just plain felt crappy since the months preceding my diagnosis

as hypothyroid. Any help/advice would be GREATLY APPRECIATED! I'm

willing to try anything at this point! I've heard that certain

combinations of meds sometimes work, but I'm not sure what these are

or what tests to ask the doctor for (my doc is very good, she'll do

any labs I ask for, but every time she does a thyroid check it comes

back 'normal'...but I think something has to be up, otherwise I

wouldn't be this exhausted, right?).

Thanks so very much,

Sincerely,

Baer

March 14, 2004

Hi and Welcome!

I think you're going to find out here that you're right on target. I took

synthetic T4 meds for yrs, then got so ill that I HAD to investigate other

things. I was going to work like this and just pulling myself along. One

year ago, I hit this thyroid site and another one and learned that I was

probably taking the wrong type of thyroid med for me. For the last 5 1/2

months, I made a transition to Armour Thyroid, which is the oldest thyroid

hormone around, made from pigs' thyroids, and the most similar to ours. It

has things in it, as our own healthy thyroid used to, not only T3 and T4,

but also T1, T2, and calcitonin. These are all the things that our own

thyroids used to do.

First, we really need for you to post your lab values here, along with the

reference ranges, to compare. The very best tests that you can have (but

many doctors don't know to, or won't give them) are the Free T3, Free T4,

and TSH. NEVER accept a verbal thing of " your tests are normal " . Always

get a hard copy of your test results to keep with you and to judge for

yourself. If you will get those posted here, we can all pitch in and see

what's going on there. It sounds like you are on an excellent diet, and I

probably don't have the discipline to do the Atkins diet exactly the way

they call for. It's not your fault. It's your thyroid, at this point.

Your metabolism has to pick up in order to lose weight, at this point, but

as a hypothyroid person, you are better off in this department eating 6 or 7

small meals a day, rather than 2 or 3, or starving yourself. As a matter of

fact, if you go too long without eating as a hypo patient, you're more

likely to put on weight because your body will think that it's starving, and

so it will store everything as fat and slow down even more so.

Tx

Hi all, I'm new here!

> Hi all,

> I'm new here and just wanted to introduce myself. My name is

> (i'm female) and I suffer from Hypothyroidism. I was diagnosed

> around 2 years ago after putting on 80 lbs in a year and being

> fatigued to the point that I spent most of the day in bed. I was on

> Levothroid but now, since they no longer make it, I'm on levoxyl.

> It's not really helping. I've managed to get my weight down by 40

> lbs through a combination of the atkins diet and Metformin (I also

> have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, another disease that makes you put

> on weight like crazy! UGH!), but I'M SOOOOOOOOO EXHAUSTED ALL THE

> TIME! I can literally sleep for 14 hours, be up for three and then

> need to sleep again. I'm currently unemployed (after all of this

> happened to me, I hit a major depression and had to be hospitalized,

> so I lost my job and my apartment and partner and am now living at

> home at the age of 32, oh joy!) and I just can't see HOW I CAN GET A

> JOB FEELING LIKE THIS! My disability ran out this month and I'm not

> sure I'm going to get SSI...so I need to find other options.

> Does anyone know of anything else that I could ask my doctor about

> to help the fatigue, or is this all in my head?????? I kept thinking

> that once the depression lifted and I didn't have to be on so many

> meds the fatigue would lift, but it hasn't and now I realize that

> I've just plain felt crappy since the months preceding my diagnosis

> as hypothyroid. Any help/advice would be GREATLY APPRECIATED! I'm

> willing to try anything at this point! I've heard that certain

> combinations of meds sometimes work, but I'm not sure what these are

> or what tests to ask the doctor for (my doc is very good, she'll do

> any labs I ask for, but every time she does a thyroid check it comes

> back 'normal'...but I think something has to be up, otherwise I

> wouldn't be this exhausted, right?).

>

> Thanks so very much,

> Sincerely,

> Baer

March 14, 2004

Hi, welcome!

Well, shall we start with the basics?

Your labs, 'normal'. Normal my be within normal ranges of the labs that

they've set up, but 'normal' may not be normal for you. So the first

thing we need to do is find out what your labs are showing... and, based

with your still feeling like crap, I would assume that your meds are

short, as in you're not getting enough.

There are a couple of other possibilities here, too, but first lets see

what the labs, and the ranges, are and go from there...

Ideally your doc would have taken at least three tests: TSH, Free T3 and

Free T4... There is a strong possibility that she may have only taken the

TSH, that's what a majority of the docs do.

A brief blurb here to help you understand what this stuff means..

TSH is the Thyroid Stimulating Hormone that your Pituitary gland sends

out to let your thyroid know if it has to increase or decrease

production.

Free T4 is the amount of the T4 hormone in the blood stream, available

for use.

Free T3 is the amount of the T3 hormone in the blood stream, available

for use.

T4 is the thyroid storage hormone, but is also used by some of the body

organs. T3 is produced by the body by pulling an iodine molecule off of a

T4 molecule... making it a T3.

Since you are on a T4 only med, synthetic, your body is dependant on how

well in converts (making T4 into T3). If you are a poor converter you

won't have enough of the necessary T3 in your system to allow you to feel

good. To be human. To not sleep all day.

There are a couple of ways of getting T3 up, if your levels are low...

You can take supplements that will help with the conversion process.

You can avoid foods and supplements that bind with thyroid hormone

reducing it's availability.

You can add T3 to your system by adding synthetic T3 medication (popular

brand name Cytomel), or by switching to Natural thyroid (popular brand

name Armour)

So..... check with your clinic to get copies of your labs.... post them

here.. and we'll get started on helping you and your doc get you

tweaked.....

....and, you're not alone. I'm 46, lost my house, and car, and BF and I'm

living with my dad.... No way to get to town (we're out in the country)

to get work.. so I do the best I can from home.

Topper ()

On Sun, 14 Mar 2004 05:41:51 -0000 " gundicus "

writes: