Had to take levothyroxine for a few weeks.

[KEOB]

Hi I was just looking at this idea, and wondering if you could help me. To make a long story short, I take Armour and had it retained by customs in Spain for a month, in which time I had to supplement with Spanish levothyroxine brand. Had no idea what the right equivalent dose was but I looked online and figured it out to be over 200 mcg of levothyroxine so I started to take that and felt horrible: muscle pains, slow brain, extreme fatigue. Unfortunately, no doctor here would attempt to advise me on the right dose, though they did write a report so it would get out of customs. As I felt bad, I started lowering and went down to 175 mcg. Started to feel slightly better so thought I must be doing right. Then miraculously my Armour was released.

Do I go back to taking the same exact amount of Armour I was taking for the last five years or are my coffers going to be full of too much T4 from the high dose of levothyroxine I took for two weeks, and should I reduce the Armour? I am afraid of going hyper (or continuing hyper if that is what I did to myself). I suppose it is possible that the body takes what it needs from the available circulating T4 and and excretes what is not used?

[Clutter]

KEOB,

If it's only been a month I would resume the dose of Armour you were previously taking. Fyi 1 grain of Armour is equivalent to 65mcg Levothyroxine.

[KEOB in reply to Clutter]

Thank you! I started back at 1.5 grains, though I was previously on 2.75 grains. The reason I tapered down to start off was that the Levothyroxine dose I had started with was way too high and I felt awful. My muscles went slack and pain everywhere--plus I had a feeling I was hyper. I am going to go back up to 2 grains next week.

[KEOB]

Now I have a blood test back with results of this fiasco. My T4 has gone to 1.15 (range .80 to 1.76) and my T3 has dropped to 2.86 (range (2.30 to 4.20). I am normally top of range in T3 when on Armour. MY TSH has gone up by .004. I am hoping to go back to my regular Armour dosage but wondering if you have to be careful about going directly back up to my normal Armour dose after a month of wacky levo dose?