New Labs, What the??

[Jackie419]

Been feeling awful forever--got part of it straightened out with the use of progesterone cream but still felt hypo. Certain endos insisted I lower my dose (based on my TSH lol) they wanted me to go down by 30 to 60mg. I have felt for a year it had to do with my high Reverse T3- have gone back and forth on if that is a real factor or not. Even to me, my numbers themselves (frees) seemed high to me over the winter, but I still felt hypo.

In the meantime, I lowered my NP Thyroid by only 8.5mg six weeks ago, just to see what would happen. I had already lowered it in the prior months. The first week I got a couple of minor boils....gained weight....by last week, I had a major boil that almost landed me in the hospital, cognitive issues and even more weight gain. All while having frees that most people would kill for. Next step, attempting to get T3 from my new doc to try to get that RT3 down and see how I feel.

Feb. '13  3 grains (180mg)
TSH            .006
FT3              4.3         (1.8- 4.6)    pg/ml
FT4             1.6          (.7 -1.8)    ng/dl
RT3             366        (90-350)  pg/ml

I had same numbers as above months before that on MORE med, couldn't get those numbers to budge downward, but then a decrease of only 8.5mg per day and they go down to this:

April '13 present

TSH     .03         .34- 5.60
FT3     3.4        2.0- 4.4
FT4     1.23     .82- 1.77
RT3     30.6      9.2-    24.1  (This range was officially changed from a high of 34!!)

I am wondering if it was MY blood they tested looking at these numbers right now!!

[Jackie419]

I was surprised at how much the frees dropped with such a little decrease. I did feel they were too high, and maybe they would have been if my RT3 was normal. The only other thing could be my adrenals, but not showing any signs of problems with those but I did have some issues a couple of years ago.

I got better and did well for almost a year between 2011 and 2012 with frees about what they are now, then for no apparent reason started to feel hypo and needed (or thought I did) an increase in med. Had to be the start of high RT3.

I have read that there is a way to treat adrenals with T3- which is also the way to fix RT3, so on the off chance adrenals are involved- this is the way to go for now. May break down and do the saliva test to be sure.

[Red_Star]

The body needs 20 times more free T3 than reverse T3. Using the trusty RT3-ratio calculator i found online...

Feb - FT3 4.3 pg/mL to RT3 366 pg/mL - RT3 ratio: 11.7
April - FT3 3.4 pg/mL to RT3 of 30.6 ng/dL - RT3 ratio:11.1

Your RT3 ratio dropped 0.6 and your symptoms worsened. RT3 rules your thyroid melodrama. It laughs at your optimal free numbers. I'm sure my RT3 has been in hysterics for decades. ha!

[Jackie419]

I always leave something out! April tests were on 172.5mg NP Thyroid