Super racing heart!

[sam1986]

Think I'm on week 4 of levothyroxine 50mcg. Today ice noticed a racing heart, palpitations and feeling very nervous. What's going on? I was feeling like a million dollars few days ago

[Jackie]

Hi This can happen. Worth starting on an even smaller dose, say 25 mcg every other day, then gradually build up. A friend had to do this and was fine. I on the other hand because of major heart problems react badly to Levo and have to have Armour or Erfa, expensive. I would just take a long time to get to the dose. My best consultants always say you should do this with all drugs, except of course, antibiotic and things like cardiac.

I hope this works. You could also ,when on a higher dose again split the dose and take it at a different time of day.Although instructions on levo are first thing. , away from food etc. I cannot do any of that due to my very heavy list of drugs that must always be taken at definite times. I have never found this has influenced my results in spite of this, been on treatment a long time, very frequent blood tests never take before a blood test.

Best wishes,

Jackie

[Heloise]

I'd cut back as Jackie mentioned to half dose and after a week or so split your 50 mcg into two doses, one morning, one night and see how that works.

[Hidden]

Hi Sam1986,

You are on a very low dose. Often after starting the levo on a low dose it knocks your natural thyroid function (what's left of it) and you can go even more hypo. It happened to me, very badly. My heart was racing and thumping so much I had to go in for tests. It seemed to rock my body with each thump and I couldn't sleep at all. I did notice time and again that if I took an extra 25mcg of levo, it would calm my heart down. Dr S says if your thyroxine is very low your heart overworks to try and pump what little is there to vital organs. After I got up to 175 mcg my heart started to calm down.

You shouldn't be left on a starting dose too long. Ideally it should go up by 25mcg every 4 weeks.

Good Luck,

Helen. X

[sam1986 in reply to Hidden]

I ended up in a & e. they checked my thyroid function and its actually improved massively on 50mcg. My tsh was 29 and t4 9.9, 4 weeks ago my tsh was 100 and t4 4.4. I don't think they will increase it much at next appointment, maybe to 75mcg. I've also had some more blood tests that have come back. Got post partum thydroitis. X

[Hidden in reply to sam1986]

Hi Sam, it's good you got checked out and there has been an improvement, BUT your TSH is massively high and it may take months to get it down. For instance my TSH went up to 5.7 when on Levo, and Dr S raised my meds from 75mcg to 200mcg, very gradually of course. We are all individuals, but it will give you a good indicator of how much your dose will need to go up. It was common place before TSH blood tests for doses of levo to go up to 400mcg a day!

You will probably need to keep nudging your doctor to put your dose up every 4 weeks. I was left on 75mcg for well over a year and it damaged my heart.