Re: reduction in tap and other ?'s

April 20, 2002

Hi Court,

Regarding your dose, I would really suggest you take what has been

prescribed and call your doctor on Monday and request labs...and make sure

he is not using just a TSH to monitor you...hopefully he is doing the Free

T3 and Free T4 to get an accurate picture of what is really going on with

your thyroid numbers.

A dosage change really does need to be accompanied by labs before making one

or you can really bugger things up.

RAI is what caused my constant hypo state that I struggle with daily and I

hate it and would never ever recommend it to anyone, even my worst

enemy...that being said, Hyper can be life threatening if not treated, it

can leave us with permanent heart damage, it is a muscle and when it is

beating far to many times, you are building that muscle up and leaving it

opening to enlargement. Untreated hyper can put us in thyroid storm which

can kill us. I know because I survived the storm, but barely.

What you are working towards is euthroid, when your numbers are in the

normal range for you, your feeling good and your thyroid is producing enough

hormone to keep you there...and this can all happen while on atds...then it

becomes a very slow process of weaning you from your atd's and making

remission. This won't happen over night <sigh>

Your questions regarding weight gain and other, what I call *vanity* issues

is a legit question. We have all faced it. You may gain some weight while

your on atd's, your hair may fall out in handfuls, you may ride the roller

coaster of hypo/hyper for a bit, especially until your very intune with your

body and what it is telling you, to get labs, call the doc, going hypo,

going hyper and this will come.

As you attain a euthroid state, you can deal with any of the vanity stuff

then, in the mean time, Health diet, exercise (if approved by the

doctor!)stress reduction, can help to keep things from getting out of hand.

Take care,

Jody

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April 21, 2002

Court,

It sounds legit to me. chances are that you're not all that hyper, or you're

still feeling the effects of your megadose of ATDs. Perhaps you can ask your

doc or his nurse if you can hold off on the meds until you have thyroid

function tests to see where you're at. A TSH level can be misleading because

of the 6 week lag so be sure you have at least an FT4 and perhaps also an

FT3.

Then again, it could be that you can reduce your symptoms with alt medicine,

including dietary changes and herbs, or get by with only 5 mg of ATDs. The

idea with using the meds is to keep you euthyroid (normal thyroid function

tests) and your immune system slightly suppressed until you achieve

remission. It would be good to see what your TSI titer is to so you'll be

able to predict when you achieve remission. Take care, Elaine

April 21, 2002

jody,

i just got labs done like 2 wks ago, that is why i

knew i was way hypo, i felt horrible and fortunatly i

work in a docs office so i can get labs done whenever

i want to. i dont have insurance for this one month

because my husband just switched jobs so i just paid

for the labs this month (like $98) myself. this month

i just had the doc i work for call my endo to discuss

the results and decide where to go from there. that

was easier than paying for an office visit also. that

is when the endo said go off for 1 wk and start back

on 10mgs. and the doc i work for relays the info to

me. so i guess what your saying is stay on the 10mgs

until my insurance kicks in in may and get bloodwork

done then (just two wks away) and dont try to adjust

it myself because i could get myself into trouble? it

just feels like i can deal with this better when i am

closer to hyper than hypo and i am just trying to feel

out my body and make sure i am not going hypo because

i feel like i cant deal with anything when i am

hypo-to depressed and everything looks so grim. i know

this a long road and i am not looking for easy

answers. do you think that me being tired the past

couple days could have been a side effect from going

back on the tap? maybe i should try taking it a night

or is that not even an isssue? do you know what i

mean, i know i am rambling but my point is i just want

to make sure i am not taking too much tap. i just

know i felt so much better after i reduced the dosage

and when i got tired again i panicked.

soory for rambling but sometimes when i type its just

me thinking outloud and helps me to figure things out.

thanks for listening, court

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April 21, 2002

jody,

i just got labs done like 2 wks ago, that is why i

knew i was way hypo, i felt horrible and fortunatly i

work in a docs office so i can get labs done whenever

i want to. i dont have insurance for this one month

because my husband just switched jobs so i just paid

for the labs this month (like $98) myself. this month

i just had the doc i work for call my endo to discuss

the results and decide where to go from there. that

was easier than paying for an office visit also. that

is when the endo said go off for 1 wk and start back

on 10mgs. and the doc i work for relays the info to

me. so i guess what your saying is stay on the 10mgs

until my insurance kicks in in may and get bloodwork

done then (just two wks away) and dont try to adjust

it myself because i could get myself into trouble? it

just feels like i can deal with this better when i am

closer to hyper than hypo and i am just trying to feel

out my body and make sure i am not going hypo because

i feel like i cant deal with anything when i am

hypo-to depressed and everything looks so grim. i know

this a long road and i am not looking for easy

answers. do you think that me being tired the past

couple days could have been a side effect from going

back on the tap? maybe i should try taking it a night

or is that not even an isssue? do you know what i

mean, i know i am rambling but my point is i just want

to make sure i am not taking too much tap. i just

know i felt so much better after i reduced the dosage

and when i got tired again i panicked.

soory for rambling but sometimes when i type its just

me thinking outloud and helps me to figure things out.

thanks for listening, court

__________________________________________________

April 21, 2002

pam

hmmm, maybe i will try half in the morning and half at

night. i just dont know if the tap is making me tired

because i take it in the a.m. and i am confusing the

tired with hypo symptoms. i am just so scared to be

on the hypo side of things cause it was so bad. but

maybe that is what i will try, not to lower my dose

but to split it up until my next labs and see what

that does. if i am still hypo at my next labs then my

doc and i can lower the dosage. that sounds like a

good plan to me. thanks i just needed to find a small

moment of clarity.

court

__________________________________________________

April 21, 2002

pam

hmmm, maybe i will try half in the morning and half at

night. i just dont know if the tap is making me tired

because i take it in the a.m. and i am confusing the

tired with hypo symptoms. i am just so scared to be

on the hypo side of things cause it was so bad. but

maybe that is what i will try, not to lower my dose

but to split it up until my next labs and see what

that does. if i am still hypo at my next labs then my

doc and i can lower the dosage. that sounds like a

good plan to me. thanks i just needed to find a small

moment of clarity.

court

__________________________________________________

April 21, 2002

Good advice, Jody...as usual! You're wonderful!

Kristi