Hello,
I am a woman, age 48. I have been reading the forum for about a year and a half, when my symptoms started interfering with my ability to do my daily ‘tasks’, and live my life normally.
I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism back in 1999, by an endocrinologist who was pretty progressive back then. He did the full thyroid panel, as I recall, and put me on Synthroid. The Synthroid made me feel anxious, and I did not continue for very long. After a few months, I stopped seeing the doctor. I’ve been having, what I now know to be thyroid symptoms, for years, but just started getting help from a doctor about 1.5 years ago.
In June, I started working with a thyroid specialist, and he put me on 90 mg of Armour.
Since then, he supplemented the Armour with Liothyronine.
I was to start with 5 mcg - 2x/day, and increase to 10 mcg - 2x/day, until I was at 60 mcg total per day.
The Liothyronine seems to be helping, but I was an anxious mess at 20 mcg/day, so I started tapering myself off after talking with doctor and getting another consultation with a nurse practitioner about other health stuff. Just seeing me she thought that I was hyperthyroid. When I taper down, I have to do it really slowly, 2.5 mcg/week of Liothyronine. I can reduce my Armour at about 15 mg/week. If I don’t do this, I will wake up in the middle of the night feeling like I cannot breathe, it feels like the air is restricted to my brain.
Please see below for my most recent lab work. I will be going this week to get additional lab work and Will update this post when I do so.
My most recent lab results, with ranges - 8/31/21:
(When I had this blood work done, I was taking 90 mg of Armour, and 10 mcg Liothyronine.
After these tests, my thyroid doc added the additional T3 (Liothyronine, as stated above. -
His explanation about the higher T3 test, is that my thyroid surges at times.
I do not take any thyroid meds in the morning, prior to bloodwork, and always have my blood drawn by 9 am.)
TSH 0.01 L (0.40-4.50)
T4, FREE 0.8 (0.8 - 1.8)
T3, FREE 4.7 (2.3 - 4.2)
T3, TOTAL 173 (76-181)
T3 REVERSE 8 (8-25)
Thyroid peroxidase antibodies 1
Other related tests:
Iodine, serum/Plasma 43L (52-109)
Aldosterone, LC/MS 8
DHEA SULFATE 39 (19-231)
Since the above labwork, I did increase my Liothyronine, per my Dr.s instructions, above. I started to have symptoms such as racing thoughts, extreme anxiety and excite ability, and I was having a hard time getting to sleep at night. It felt as though I could jump out of my own skin, and I could not relax. So, I started tapering down, as above, and am now at 90 mg Armour and 10 mcg Liothyronine per day.
My current symptoms: My heart is racing walking up stairs, and from small tasks... I get winded and out of breath easily, and I do not have much stamina. I feel as though I have to catch my breath periodically throughout the day. Brain fog and memory problems, waking up some nights at 3 am and not being able to get back to sleep. (Sleep was not an issue for me prior to thyroid treatment.) l have symptoms of numbness in both legs, and pain on the left side of my body (from my head to toes) that gets worse when I forget to take my thyroid and take it late. I also feel this left side pain in my thyroid area most of the time, and it gets worse when I take a dose late, or when. I was tapering down too quickly.
Previous Labwork - I will update this posting with all previous lab results, from July 2021 when I find it. My email is not loading properly.
From memory, my B-12 was low, and Dr. is having me supplement with 5k mcg/day.
Vitamin D was also low, and he has me supplementing 10,000 IU/day.
My total iron was 142? I am not supplementing because I am sensitive to the ones I have tried, suggestions appreciated.
I also had an ultrasound, and will get these official results, if needed.
The doctor told me, from my ultrasound, that I have a goiter and inflammation in my thyroid.
Thank you so much for reading!! I sincerely appreciate your input and time.