...tell her you're injecting B12. Actually, she was quite a good egg. Apart from blanching, she listened to what I had to say and acknowledged my expertise!
So I am still injecting alternate days, and after 6 weeks the numbness in my left hand has disappeared, leaving barely a trace. The word-finding problems have improved by about 70% and I am far more alert than I have been for - cheese, as long as I can remember.
But I feel I've slipped back a bit with the thyroxine. I was on 75mcg of levo with 1grain of Nature thyroid, and felt ok. But I got swayed by the endo, and tried to bring up my virtually unmeasurable TSH, from >0.03. I dropped to 50mcg of levo and -guess what happened? TSH came up to levels acceptable to the lab rats, even though t4 was at the bottom of the scale and I felt cr*p. So back I went up to 75mcg of levo.
But after a few weeks on B12 I started having chest pains. I read on here somewhere about chest pains, angina and NDT and decided to up the levo to 100mcg with 1grain (my ft3 was at the highest limit even after 24hours with no NDT, which is why I raised the levo) and the chest pains seem to be resolving.
You know, one can get to the point of wondering how much more one can fight.
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Schenks
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Schenks, go by your instinct. The TSH is meaningless and (my view) doctors should take more notice of clinical symptoms for an initial diagnosis. Dr L did write an article ' The Tyranny of the TSH ' in which he said that's the reason why so many of us remain unwell is the reliance on the TSH only and trying to keep it 'in range' and adjusting up/down etc of thyroid hormones.
The very best way to try to find good health is to listen to our body and allow it to tell us if we need more/less. i.e. it is how we 'feel' which is the best judge.
Oh, Shaws, thanks for your support. I'm so damned tired. I take 3 steps forward and 2 back, 5 forward and 3 back ... I feel really lost right now. I can't remember fully what felt when I took what in what quantities, it's a bit of a mess. I dropped the s**ding TSH anguish years ago, then when I feel physically strong but emotionally weak - BANG! I screw up.
I'm doing really well with the B12 - even deciding that I'm continuing alternate day injecting until not one shred of improvement is left, yet I go and screw with the thyroxine - I sometimes wonder if I can fight on so many fronts.
Two weeks ago I stopped the HRT after 10 years (endo said to stay on until stable) because of shooting pains in my breasts - those have stopped, but now I can't sleep for the terrible flushes every 20 minutes through the night. And last week, my lovely OH went in to hospital for a major biopsy because he was diagnosed with prostate cancer 18 months ago, and he's only just beginning to get his strength back. Thank God it's very low grade, and the biopsy was an 18 month routine one, but it was still under a general anaesthetic because they took over 80 cores! I didn't realise how upset I was, being strong and calm and matter-of-fact, until i left him in the ward being clerked-in, went to the reception to ask when I should come back and found I couldn't speak from trying not to cry.
So what with having to take on all the jobs, which I managed - including the help of the hired electric tramper at the local park to walk the dogs, and seeing him so weak and tired, I guess I was rather wappy.
I think i remember now, that on 75mcg of levo + 1 grain of NDT, I felt ok, but because the ft4 was so low on the blood test, with the ft3 being so high, i decided to increase the levo to 100mcg rather than up the NDT. Also, more NDT seems to raise my heart rate, and i remember reading here that as a rule of thumb the ft3 should be in the upper range and the ft4 just a bit lower - can't fully remember. Not sure what to do now - if I should just go back down to 75mcg levo + 1 grain, or stay at 100mcg + 1 grain. And I'm frightened that all the messing about is hurting my heart.
You've had a lot on your plate with your other half's serious illness and I am glad he's now recovering. By chopping/changing our doses too quickly or thinking 'if I do this it might help' but may well not do so.
Dr Lowe doesn't bother about results after the initial blood test as it is all about how our metabolism feels and, of course, when we feel good.
You can start again on a dose which you felt good on. and I'll give you a link which may be helpful.
The blood tests were invented for the use of levo alone. When we add T3 or NDT into the mix, I don't think they can correspond (my own view) and I think you're aware I'm not medically qualified. Excerpt:
Dr. Lowe: With most patients, I use thyroid function tests (TSH, free T3, and free T4) and thyroid antibodies only for a patient’s initial diagnosis. Afterward, I follow the practice, in principal, of Dr. Broda Barnes—that is, measuring tissue effects of particular dosages of thyroid hormone rather than remeasuring TSH, free T3, and free T4 levels.
My reason for this different protocol is simple: the TSH, free T3, and free T4 tell us only how the pituitary and thyroid glands are interacting. Of course, the test levels may also tell us something of the influence of thyroid hormone over the hypothalamus in its secretion of TRH, another hormone that influences the pituitary gland's secretion of TSH.
Tissue measures of thyroid hormone tell us what is most important, that is, how the patient's tissues other than the pituitary and hypothalamus are responding to a particular dosage of thyroid hormone
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