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How come that your face is swollen when you have hashimoto's disease?

Dear Hashimoto-survivors,

I'm asking myself this question for a long time but couldn't figure this out yet.
How come that your face/cheeks/eyes/hands is swollen/puffy when you have hashimoto's disease?
I'm sure it has something to do with to overall functions/metabolism of the patient and the fact that everything is
slowing down but there must be a better explanation...

Thank you so much in advance and I'm looking forward to your replies,
Jeffrey Bursens (a hashimoto victim since severall months)
48 Responses
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Avatar universal
I understand your concern about me searching info on different platforms.
I do however learned a lot doing so. You don't have to worry about me because I will never let it go this far that I'd hurt myself. I'd ask it a hundred times to be sure.

I will ask him to simply switch my meds to regular Armour. I might wait a little will dough.

But hey Barb, there is still no explanation for the following right...?
He told me the reason I was kinda sick was simply because I abruptly stopped levo and switched to Armour. The Armour was underdosed and that's why I felt so 'hypo'.
In fact, for me it's still hard to believe it went like this.
I am underdosed right now as well. The equivalent Armour - Levo was exactly the same... So in theory I had the same amount of t4 that I have right now. On the contrary, I had all the other 'stuff' (t1 / t2 / t3 / ...) too in Armour.
The statement he had is not that logical is it ?
Why would I feel so underdosed with Armour if I am taking the same in Levo... And I'm feeling better now.

If you might have a explanation for this, I can maybe understand why I need to try Armour again.
Thank you dear Barb
Helpful - 0
649848 tn?1534633700
COMMUNITY LEADER
I don't have any documentation about the XR med... I just know that we've had members on the forum who did not do well on the XR formula and when they went to regular Armour they did fine.  XR is intended to be released into the system over a 24 hr period, so it only has to be taken once daily vs multiple doses of regular Armour and for some reason, it doesn't seem to be absorbed as well for most people.  I'd have to look back in old threads, which could take weeks to find the right ones.  I'll see if I can do some research on that, though.

I'm not saying it's "bad"... I'm simply saying that from what we see, it doesn't seem to work well for most people. You might try the higher dose and see if you get better on that... part of my contention was that you need more T3 so he gave it to you.

He can't know what you've been reading if you don't tell him.

Maybe the pregnenolone will help you feel better.  

I'll do what I can to help you, but I worry about your well being when you combine information from too many websites, some of which aren't necessarily trustworthy.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Hey Barb,

I went to my doctor today. I told him I was so bad with the Armour and he told me he thinks I'm actually taking to less of it. He updosed me to 90mg a day. I took 60mg. He also put me on Pregnenolone for my adrenal. I did not dare to tell him about you advising against XR. I already questioned enough about the meds he prescribed and as he's so proud of his 'XR' I really did not had the courage to tell him that I've red somewhere that it would be bad.

In fact I don't know if I'm gonna take it right away. I was so bad on it that I don't quite have the guts to take actually more of it. Are you really claiming XR could be the problem? Could it actually be that bad? Can you maybe show me or tell me a similar situation where I could see and believe XR is that much of a problem? After all it's made to work even better. I don't say I don't believe. I am considering all you say because you've helped me enormously to understand how to read blood work and so on... I just want to see it.

As always, thank you so much
Helpful - 0
649848 tn?1534633700
COMMUNITY LEADER
I've been telling you all along that I think it has something to do with the XR form of the Armour, since we've seen others who do poorly on that, and that you need more T3, which correlates with symptoms.  But you did seem to convert well on just the T4 med, so maybe that's all you need.

Your adrenals may have something to do with it, but I think your anxiety may be making it worse.

It's time to take all your info to your doctor and go over it with him.
Helpful - 0
1756321 tn?1547095325
I can't take Armour either. I need synthetic T4. I was taking up to 3 grains a day of Armour and still had major breathing issues. At $1 a grain that is expensive too!  So not cool Armour lol.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Thank you for everything Barb,

I'm seeing my doctor tomorrow and we'll discuss.
I hope everything will turn out ok for me, it's been hard.

Since yesterday I'm taking the t4-only med and I'm feeling so much better.
I really want to know what happened. Could you guess why I felt so wrecked when I took Armour? My doctor told me 3 weeks ago 'look, start with 1/2 grain and we'll see if you need more at the following blood test' and than I calculated the equivalent of Armour into Levo and I took less than I used to took on Levo. So I asked my doctor for upgrade to 3/4 grain. As I told you, I could not bend them in two so what I did (without asking him) was taking 2! (1 grain)

And apparently I am not capable to handle 1 grain. I felt like an absolute mess! Sunken eyes, very very swollen and my mental state was terrible.
What went wrong? Do you have a theory ?

I keep reading that 1 grain is actually really not that much and most people have to have much more than that.

Maybe it's the t3 that I just can't handle for some reasons or maybe it's my adrenal that could not follow... All I know is I felt instant relief when I stopped Armour. You keep telling me my levels have to go up and especially my t3 but I don't know how to do that when I am feeling so strange when t3-meds kicks in.

Thanks Barb
Helpful - 0
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649848 tn?1534633700
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