Re: I got the Armour, but the Endo was pretty nasty to deal with . . .

October 18, 2004

1/2 grain is a small dose. Just keep an eye on how you feel because

your symptoms might return.

Also - check and see if your Drs office has a patient bill of rights.

Its your right as a patient to request tests. It's your Drs

obligation to run them. I think on about.com they have something if

the Dr won't run the tests YOU ask for.

Louise

>

> I ended up with 1/4 grain of Armour twice a day. and a lab slip to

test ONLY

> my TSH in 60 days. I'm taking it sublingually and don't find the

taste

> unpleasant. The smell when I open the bottle is another thing. I

did find that it's

> less stong-smelling since I put in one of those little silica

capsules that

> come in a lot of supplement bottles.

>

> I'm thinking this Endo and I am not going to get along. If I stay

with her,

> it means I'll probabaly end up getting the Free T3 and Free T4 at

my own

> expense -- yet if she orders it, it's $10 for the whole set of

tests.

>

> Since it's just been 6 days I've been taking it, I'm not sure if I

feel any

> better or any different yet, but sometimes I think I'm feeling just

a little

> bit better. Do you suppose that's just wishful thinking on my part?

>

> My test results were:

>

> TSH 4.2 uIU/mL Normal Range: 0.2 - 5.5

> Free T4(Analog) 1.1 ng/dL Normal Range: 0.8 - 1.7

> Anti TPO 153 IU/mL Normal Range: less than 35

> Free T3 Nondial 213 pg/dL 230 - 420

>

> Judy

October 19, 2004

While you have managed to get a dr who will give you Armour, it's not going to

stop your problem. The reason is because you're never going to get the dosage

that's right for your body. When you start feeling really shitty, the dr is

going to do her 'I told you so dance' and you will be back on something else

trying to deal with symptoms, and confused on what to do next. 1/2 a grain for

60 days eh? Yeah, this dr is used to prescribing what he/she thinks is best,

and Armour doesn't fit into the comfort zone.

Dr's are notorious for this type of behavior. I always wonder when somebody is

insistant on going through a physician who's got a 'gun held to their head' so

to speak which is kinda what's happening. You've now put your dr on alert, and

he/she really doesn't have to do much of anything now, cept to either dish out

the prescription, or else you'll be on your merry way. Do you really think a dr

like that is going to care how well your doing on it, when they obviously know

nothing about how the drug works? The only thing you were told was that it was

dangerous? That was your first clue by the way. Success won't be in the picture

for you, in my opinion. She's warning you you're going against 'her/his'

medical training and that does not include Armour.

A dr who'd only prescribe Armour and hasn't made it a study for themselves and

their patients is just a scary scenario. I think in the end, you'll find that

Armour will never work for you, mostly because your dosages won't ever be what

'you require'. You'd have done much better off to find somebody who does know

more about Armour and was trained under the Broada method.

This reminds me of the same thing people who opt to take atd's for with a dr

who's definately against it, when they are hyperT. You finally get a dr to give

the drugs, yet the treatment is never quite what it should be, so you are set up

to fail, because you just merely insist that you have no intentions of

destroying a perfectly good thyroid, then boom.......you get sub standard care,

non reduction of meds, meaning this was never going to be successful with that

DR because you are going against what they think is best for you. Your symptoms

won't make one difference to that type of dr. And the world is full of them.

I've had 3 so far.

SandyE~Houston

I got the Armour, but the Endo was pretty

nasty to deal with . . .

Hi folks. Last Monday I saw the Endo. that my Dr. referred me to. For over

3-1/2 months I had been taking Levothroid .025 mg once a day. I had never

noticed much difference since starting that, but had agreed to take it until

blood

tests after 3 months -- and the Dr. agreed to talk to me about Armour. The

last

month, I started to feel worse -- quite down and more tired all the time. My

tests from Sept. 30 are below.

My Dr. consulted with others and wanted to double the Levothroid; and when I

insisted that I wanted to try Armour, she referred me to the Endo. The Endo.

told me how dangerous Armour is, how unreliable the Free T3 tests are; and how

TSH is how they manage throid issues now -- and how wonderful and reliable

that test is. At that point I reminded her that I had been referred with my

condition that the Endo. I was referred to talk to me about natural thyroid

hormones -- Armour, as that was what I preferred to take, based on my

research. I

told her that I use natural progesterone cream, that I eat low carb, and what

supplements I take and why. She told me she wasn't a prescription machine, and

she believed that my lab tests for TSH (the only one she believes in) shows

that I should have an increased dose of Levothroid. I think I said something

like

-- if the TSH test tells everything and that my symptoms weren't important,

that we wouldn't need a Dr., just a lab tech. And further I explained that I

was positive I wanted Armour, and that I was taking unpaid time off of work to

be there, and that if I needed to be, I could be referred to another Dr. who

would talk to me about Armour -- and of course I wanted my appointment co-pay

back.

I think by then she realized I was quite serious; and said she needed to know

that I was aware of the danger and risks of taking Armour. I told her I had

done significant research; and followed a couple of internet groups on the

issue -- and that I was determined not to take the synthetic drugs for my

thyroid.

I ended up with 1/4 grain of Armour twice a day. and a lab slip to test ONLY

my TSH in 60 days. I'm taking it sublingually and don't find the taste

unpleasant. The smell when I open the bottle is another thing. I did find that

it's

less stong-smelling since I put in one of those little silica capsules that

come in a lot of supplement bottles.

I'm thinking this Endo and I am not going to get along. If I stay with her,

it means I'll probabaly end up getting the Free T3 and Free T4 at my own

expense -- yet if she orders it, it's $10 for the whole set of tests.

Since it's just been 6 days I've been taking it, I'm not sure if I feel any

better or any different yet, but sometimes I think I'm feeling just a little

bit better. Do you suppose that's just wishful thinking on my part?

My test results were:

TSH 4.2 uIU/mL Normal Range: 0.2 - 5.5

Free T4(Analog) 1.1 ng/dL Normal Range: 0.8 - 1.7

Anti TPO 153 IU/mL Normal Range: less than 35

Free T3 Nondial 213 pg/dL 230 - 420

Judy

October 19, 2004

Sandy - this is so true. I talked my doctor into giving me Armour

because she had sent me to oodles of specialists who could not solve any of

my problems and she did not know what to do next. However........ she

started me on the dosage listed on the Armour website to convert from

$ynthroid. After the next blood test, and my TSH was lower, she declared

me 'hyper' and to DECREASE the Armour! I refused, and she said she was

'not going to be talked out of it.' So while I finished the Armour

prescription, I ordered from myrxforless and took matters into my own hands.

Now I started taking Mom to an endo who is listed on the Armour

site, who does not want to give her Armour. We see him for a

followup tomorrow. And I have been given a referral to him and will

make an appointment for myself. I will go once, tell him I am on 4

grains, watch him freak, and see what happens. Well, it's worth one

more try, I guess.

.....joan

>>>

Do you really think a dr like that is going to care how well your doing on

it, when they obviously know nothing about how the drug works? The only

thing you were told was that it was dangerous? That was your first clue by

the way. Success won't be in the picture for you, in my opinion. She's

warning you you're going against 'her/his' medical training and that does

not include Armour.

A dr who'd only prescribe Armour and hasn't made it a study for themselves

and their patients is just a scary scenario. I think in the end, you'll

find that Armour will never work for you, mostly because your dosages won't

ever be what 'you require'.

October 20, 2004

Joan, the more I read in here the more I'm sure that is the exact scenario for

most dr's who don't know. They will give it if we beg them to, maybe, or if we

swear we won't take a T4 supplement, forcing them to, but in the end, it's just

not going to work, because there will always be a dr at the other end of the

scope who's looking at TSH being suppressed, FT3 being too high, for their

comfort, not ours, and T4 that is too high in their books. Now, I've been

hyperThyroid, and I definately have Graves disease, I know what hyper is, and

what I'm feeling ain't hyper. It's normal, the way I used to feel many years

ago when I didn't have a 100 aches and pains, and carpal tunnel that the dr's

told me wasn't thyroid related. I have enuff proof by being made to live hypoT

for a year or better without anything but suppression drugs, they just can't

pull that on me anymore. I am really glad that the idiot did that to me,

because he made my decisions for me. I get crazy everytime I read a post that

asks: " does my TSH mean I'm hyper? " Trust me, when you are hyper, there is no

mistaking it.

I guess that's why I finally decided to just go it on my own. I felt great my

last appt with an Endo at the end of May, and the entire month of June, I

managed to help paint and pack up my son's house in Humble, after they'd moved

to Dallas. And that was after working full time every day, then I did it the

weekends too. That week on Levoxyl that I let her talk me into had me getting

back to square one in less than a week? Now, I'd love to amuse her, but I'm not

going to do that at my expense of feeling healthy and being able to live again.

Trust me, this wouldn't have ever happened without Armour. That is the one

thing I am sure of. I could hardly move without pain before I started taking

it, much less lose a lb, but boy, I could sure gain it, with no effort, or be

able to be on my feet for any length of time. Dr's just aren't all the are

cracked up to be, but that is just how I feel about them. You let them have all

these gnarly symptoms with no hope for anything better, and trust me, they will

be dosing with symptoms included, not just looking at TSH and saying oh Gee, I'm

hyper, gotta cut that dose. lol. They are clowns to me.

SandyE~Houston

Re: I got the Armour, but the Endo was

pretty nasty to deal with . . .