Graves after thyroidectomy

[leftbehind]

I am confused about all the things that say they help your thyroid, or your thyroid is low or your thyroid is high, after a thyroidectomy. If you have no thyroid then what is happening when you take naturethroid? Since there is no thyroid to stimulate. I have not achieved a balance in two years. I now a small lump on the left side of my windpipe. The endo nurse practitioner told me to go to my GP about it. I have no faith at all that I'm getting right treatment as I just get back bounced back and forth between practitioners. So my question is how can I relate to the information that applies to a thyroid when I don't have one anymore? Thank you for your help I love this website because it's so supportive and the subject is so frustrating.

[greygoose]

When we talk about Naturthroid and other forms of thyroid hormone replacement, we're not talking about the actual thyroid itself, but about suppling the body with the correct amount of thyroid hormone. And that applies whether you still have a thyroid or not.

If your thyroid is failing, for one reason or another, there's nothing you can do to save it, so it ceases to be the centre of attention. What is more important is keeping the body alive. And for that, you need the right amount of T3 - not too much and not too little.

So, even though your thyroid has gone (mine has too, killed by Hashi's) most of what is said on here is of great importance to you. You need to be adequately replaced on the form of thyroid hormone replacement that suits you best. You still need your TSH to be low - 1 or under for most hypos, suppressed for Hashi's people and those that have had their thyroid removed due to cancer. You still need your FT4 and FT3 tested, to make sure they're in the right place. You still need to optimise your nutrients so that the body can use the hormone you're giving it. And you need the right levels of cortisol to help your body to use it. All this has little to do with the thyroid gland, but everything to do with thyroid hormone replacement, which all of us hypos need.

So, I hope I've interpreted your question correctly (I'll feel a right fool if I haven't!) and answered it adequately. I hope this helps.

[shaws Administrator]

I am not medically qualified but if you now have no thyroid gland at all, then you need proper replacement of thyroid hormones, of which NDT (is the very original replacement) i.e. naturethroid, armour etc) made from pigs' thyroid glands. The Active Thyroid Hormone i.e. liothyronine also known as T3 is absorbed into our millions of T3 receptor cells in order for our metabolism to function normally. Heart and brain contan the most.

When we talk about thyroid being 'high, low' etc. We are referring to the TSH. TSH means thyroid stimulating hormone and it rises if our thyroid gland isn't producing sufficient thyroid hormones for our body to function normally. We will be below par but doctor will still say we are in the 'normal' range. Normal doesn't mean optimal and most on this forum have been helped by others who've gone through the same procedure and insufficient hormone replacements which cause unpleasant clinical symptoms. Many doctors (poorly trained) believe that if our TSH is too low we'll have heart problems. This isn't true as they are mistakenly thinking of someone who is hyPERthyroid and not hypothyroid.

NDT (naturethroid) and levothyroxine are hormone replacements. They are not medcations. They are supposed to fill our body's needs as thyroid hormones are required to be at an optimun level for everything to work in our body to enable us to function, from head to toe, normally. We should be on a dose which relieves all our clinical symptoms and we feel well again. Thyroid hormones allow our metabolism to work effectively.

If you are in the UK, doctors don't really understand anything but levothyroxine as the blood tests were introduced along with levothyroxine (which is T4 only). Levo is synthetic T4 only and it has to convert to T3. T3 is needed in our millions of T3 receptor cells and our brain and heart contain the most, but our bodies don't function optimally if dose is too low or hormone replacements don't suit us.

You are on Naturethroid which is one of the original thyroid hormone replacements and contains all of the hormones a healthy gland would have as it is made from pigs' thyroid glands. In use in various forms since 1892 safely.

If you have a blood test doctors or endocrinologists aren't quite sure how to proceed as they may be unaware that NDT has all of the hormones and isn't T4 alone (and blood tests were invented for T4 only).

One of our Advisers took a blood test initially and thereafter concentrated on raising the dose according to the clinical symptoms until they were relieved.

If you request a new blood test, if you haven't had a recent one and should follow this advice:-

All blood tests have to be at the very earliest, fasting (you can drink water, and allow a gap of 24 hours between last dose of hormones and the test and take afterwards. This helps keep our TSH at its highest as that seems to be the only result they take notice of.

The method when taking NDT, is to increase by 1/4 tablet every 2 weeks until you feel better and symptoms are relieved. You should also take temp/pulse regularly and if either go too high, drop to previous dose.

The following chapters are from one of our deceased Advisers which you may find helpful. It was him who only took a blood test for the initital diagnosis and thereafter it was all about how the patient improved on their doses. Copy and paste onto a new page.

tinyurl.com/ycxpz565

tinyurl.com/ya5blrr2

tinyurl.com/y7ejh9sh

[leftbehind in reply to shaws]

Thank you so much for this information re more or less Naturethroid. I kept telling the GP and the Endo I had no thyroid, so how could my thyroid be making hormones?? Now I see why TSH is meaningless since my missing thyroid is not making any hormones. I am now going to dosage myself as I have a good idea of my optimum levels after doing this for two years.

Thank you sooooo much. It has been totally frustrating.

[shaws Administrator in reply to leftbehind]

It comes as a huge surprise that the medical profession seems to have no basic knowledge of hypo. That's why they should now be forced to learn all the clinical symptoms.

If we have a child we go to the doctor and state the symptoms and expect them to take action. I know there may have been errors when dealing with children who may have autoimmune conditions - and ignored by GPs - (my family have found that out to our cost) but when it comes to thyroid I think they are badly lacking in thyroid hormones themselves as brain doesn't seem to work

Considering that it is so common.

The guidelines laid down in the UK are abysmal and causes unnecessary suffering for patients with up/down doses to try to 'fit' into a range.

[leftbehind]

Just what I thought, the endo is decreasing the dosage when she should be increasing the dosage of Naturethroid to attain higher T3. Right now it is low middle range! Thank you so much.

[shaws Administrator in reply to leftbehind]

I think few doctors or endos really know much about how to treat us. They are more concerned about where the TSH is than the relief of crippling symptoms (they also know none it would seem).