WHY DID I STOP??

[Ashleyp]

About 8 weeks ago (I have severe health anxiety also) I convinced myself I no longer needed my thyroid medication... worse decision in my life.. by week 5 off of it my hair was falling out in clumps, my bones hurt, I weak, I had 0 energy...at that point I convinced myself I had something horrible wrong with me. My anxiety was so bad I couldn't get up and I'm a mom of 3 and it was crippling. I never put it all together though. A week ago i said i wonder what happens when you stop medication cold Turkey. As I began researching and reading ...it was me and everything I was going through. I'm here to tell you never stop! It ruined me. I have learned a very tough lesson!!!

[StillEverHopeful]

Thanks for the warning.

I hope you are being kind to yourself and remembering as you restart your medication all those horrible symptoms of hair loss & bone pain will begin to improve.

I had crippling anxiety when my son was small... you deserve praise for what you do get done in a day, just getting them up, fed and off to school, plus the end of day essentials like food & bed is a miracle in itself anything else is a bonus. Be kind to yourself. X

[Ashleyp in reply to StillEverHopeful]

Thank you!!! And your correct the problems will fade. I never truly understood what your thyroid controls until I stopped. That was an awful experience and I pray nobody ever does that!!!!

[shaws Administrator in reply to Ashleyp]

Ashleyp I doubt any doctor or endocrinologist really knows how much suffering someone can have if not optimally medicated or undiagnosed and told there's nothing wrong. The professionals are completely unaware of any clinical symptoms and it is the symptoms which should be relieved instead of them concentrating on the TSH - which is from the pituitary gland - not thyroid gland.

You will begin to feel better as your dose is absorbed.

[Baobabs in reply to shaws]

I so support this shaws. My bone/muscle pain and stiffness when very under medicated with T4 was indescribable and relentless. It made me shiver. I was convinced I had bone cancer. I really don't understand why Endos dismiss these symptoms particularly, as having nothing to do with the thyroid? I have been told so many times it must be something else and not thyroid. Do these folk know anything?

[Ashleyp in reply to Baobabs]

I agree I thought I had bone cancer to. Its truly unreal how much our thyroids effect us!!! I feel like an idiot explaining how horrible myself and body feels. They dont care half the time that's for sure

[Baobabs in reply to Ashleyp]

Once again I will say it. I think if I hadn't found this forum I would be in a very dark place by now, in fact the light may well have been obliterated altogether.

[shaws Administrator in reply to Baobabs]

Unfortunately - they appear to know absolutely nothing about clinical symptoms. One of the most experience doctor - not an Endocrinologist - was one-man against the whole of the Endocrinology at the way patients are diagnosed these days i.e. only a TSH result and no knowledge of clinical symptoms.

This doctor was a virologist and was being referred patients who had 'mysterious diseases' but he realised they were hypo through their symptoms. He also stated that people were being put in parlous situations due to be uniagnosed/unmedicated and arranged a Conference and invited all Endos and one by one they all refused, the last the night before. For his humane act he was called before the GMC several times for treating people whose tests didn't diagnose hypo but was always discharged as doing nothing wrong. What other doctor in this country would have had 10,000 letters sent to the GMC in favour of this doctor whose lives 'he saved'.

[EbonyEvans]

May I ask what dose you restarted on and how you’re increasing?

[Ashleyp in reply to EbonyEvans]

I started back up on my 50

[Baobabs]

But you are still in the land of the living to be able to tell all you have learned a lesson. Not an easy thing to do. Well done to you.