8years on levo after total thyroidectomy

Hormones
1

I want to see if anyone is in a similar situation.

I have been on levo 137 for 8 years now. For some time I thought I felt fine but went through a pregnancy and few miscarriages. I am having a bunch of symptoms lately - past 3-4 years. One of which is  crash fatigue. I get very very sleepy even during the day and sometimes my body starts aching all over almost like getting the flu and nausea and I have to just lay and sleep. When I wake up most symptoms are gone. But soon after I get sleepy again. All in all crash fatigue very low on energy. Some days dizzy amd lightheaded. Ever since I got my thyroid removed I am sleepy all the timeTSH normal always.

2

Yes I understand completely what you are talking about. When I was on the levothyroxine I was so lightheaded and dizzy all the time. Plus was so fatigued. I felt so bad all the time I quit taking it and started taking a natural supplement called Thyroid Support. Been taking it for a week and have started feeling much better. Plus take kelp. I also take a good multi and a B complex. 😀

3

It is not unusual to need T3 prescribed as Cytomel. For many of us our bidies are inefficient converting the Levo T4 to T3.

If you would like more information on this, please ask

4

My endo checks free T3 and it is in normal range so I thought that there is nothing to do there. I would like any info that might make me myself again.

5

I haven't been through this since I have stabilised on 125 Levo - but I would suggest that the pregnancies/miscarriges have messed around with your hormones quite a lot. Also, you haven't mentioned your age, but if you are over 40, consider that peri menopause/menopause might be starting, which again could bring changes with your hormone levels. Overall, you sound like you could do with a second opinion, which you are entitled to. Try and keep a healthy diet going, with plenty of fluid, and see if you can get someone else to have a look at you.

6

I agree, I am suspecting peri although I am 35. I do have one ovary only. I was thinking maybe it is a combination of many things. I was thinking of trying brand name but am not sure it will make a difference.

Thank u for giving opinion. It is important to me to read and maybe find something out.

7

I wrote this for out thyroid discussion....

We are a society that wants everything at warp speed...thyroid is ploddingly slow.

If I make a change in thyroid medication today, my blood will not show the full results of that change for 6 weeks. It is preferred to gradually increase every 6 weeks because if you overshoot optimum, the symptoms of hyper are going to be just as troubling as those of hypo are. So once T4 and TSH were where my endocrinologist wanted them, she increased T3 only. Think radio station, you have reception... and static. So you fine tune the reception with T3 and lose the static.

Only considering patients on Levothyroxine-Synthroid, about half will feel great improvement if their T3 is about 75% of normal range, for me that level is about 3.7.

Remember, my endocrinologist exclusively prescribes Synthroid not Levothyroxine. Her prescriptions specifically prohibit substitution.

T4 (Thyroxine), named for it's 4 iodine atoms, maintains a relatively stable blood level and is therefore termed long acting.

T3 (Triiodothyronine), named for it's 3 iodine atoms, fluctuates and is therefore termed short acting.

Let us ingest T4 (Thyroxine) Through chemical reaction, our body takes in T4 and converts the T4 into T3 (Triiodothyronine) through chemical reaction, our body takes 4 iodine atoms and converts it into a new compound with only 3 iodine atoms.

So from a strick biological & chemical viewpoint, many say if I can use one chemical compound to make the other chemical compound, I only need T4.

But, many studies have shown that about half of the patients on T4 feel better on both T4 and T3.

NEWS FLASH

Armour's Thyroid versus Synthroid...the mystery revealed.

One grain of ARMOUR'S THYROID is 60 mg.

Each 60 mg of ARMOUR'S THYROID contains .038 mg (or 38 mcg) of T4

AND each 60 mg of ARMOUR'S THYROID contains 9 mcg of T3 , plus unmeasured amounts of T2, T1 and calcitonin.

SYNTHROID is all T4

which explains why the addition of CYTOMEL (which is all T3) makes fifty percent or so of SYNTHROID users feel so much better.

Remember T3 is a short half life which is why T4 is prescribed as the backbone of treatment...some of us do not effectively metabolize T4 into T3. For these individuals, supplemental T3 should be considered.