I’m on a road to recovery from a very low period in which my medication had been repeatedly reduced by my GP until I’d ended up in a bit of a Hypo crisis and found this place and worked out how to help myself out of it.
I’ve been self medicating since (bout 5 weeks), and now I’m on enough combo t4&3 that my energy levels are about back to normal.
My question is how long it will take for my muscles to return to normal strength.
My energy is back, but my right arm, although better, still has numbness and rotator cuff injury and burning sensations in upper arm. My back also has burning sensations when I have to lift my toddler age daughter to get her in her pram. I’m still very weak compared to how I was. Even writing on phone now aggravates it a lot and is painful.
Does anyone have any experience of how long it takes for this type of recovery?
I guess I’m worried that I will be left with lasting disabilities I can’t recover from after this hypo episode I went through.
Other people’s experiences with this type of symptoms would be welcome. Are there any exercises I could do to help? What’s the best thing to help my body recover?
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Frances0008
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For full Thyroid evaluation you need TSH, FT4, FT3 plus TPO and TG thyroid antibodies and also very important to test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12
Private tests are available. Thousands on here forced to do this as NHS often refuses to test FT3 or antibodies or vitamins
Medichecks Thyroid plus ultra vitamin or Blue Horizon Thyroid plus eleven are the most popular choice. DIY finger prick test or option to pay extra for private blood draw. Both companies often have money off offers.
All thyroid tests should ideally be done as early as possible in morning and fasting. When on Levothyroxine, take last dose 24 hours prior to test, and take next dose straight after test. This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip, GP will be unaware)
If also on T3, make sure to take last dose 12 hours prior to test
Dear SlowDragon, I am not the lady who made her request for help, but I regularly come to the site to read and get information and see if maybe I can help someone, and while doing that tonight , I was able to get the site /link for information about low vit. D, the signs and symptoms. I wanted to thank you for your excellent advice and important information. I no longer have a thyroid, I had my ttd done aug. of 2017, and they cant seem to get my thyroid balanced. My tsh is at 8 something, and I just had blood work done recently, so I will get the new numbers soon, I had thyroid cancer, so they keep checking my blood for thyroid globulin(I think thats what its called) anyway, I just wanted you to the link was very helpful, I have 85 percent of all the symptoms, pretty bad😡, but knowledge is power, thank you, the forum here has always been so helpful, and its a real comfort to me. Iam 73, and sometimes I feel Iam not listened to, blessings❤littlebowpeep
With parathyroid issues vitamin D is perhaps more complex.
But B12, folate and B12 all need to be optimal
TSH needs to be under 2, most need. It under one. After thyroid cancer they often want a TSH totally suppressed
Many patients after TT need the addition of small dose of T3
Very important to test FT3 and FT4, not just TSH
Dr Toft, past president of the British Thyroid Association and leading endocrinologist, states in Pulse Magazine,
"The appropriate dose of levothyroxine is that which restores euthyroidism and serum TSH to the lower part of the reference range - 0.2-0.5mU/l.
In this case, free thyroxine is likely to be in the upper part of its reference range or even slightly elevated – 18-22pmol/l.
Most patients will feel well in that circumstance. But some need a higher dose of levothyroxine to suppress serum TSH and then the serum-free T4 concentration will be elevated at around 24-28pmol/l.
This 'exogenous subclinical hyperthyroidism' is not dangerous as long as serum T3 is unequivocally normal – that is, serum total around T3 1.7nmol/l (reference range 1.0-2.2nmol/l)."
You can obtain a copy of the articles from Thyroid UK email print it and highlight question 6 to show your doctor please email Dionne at
tukadmin@thyroiduk.org
Professor Toft recent article saying, T3 may be necessary for many. Note especially his comments on current inadequate treatment following thyroidectomy
Dear SLOWDRAGON, my tablet has been not working, but I just saw your reply. Thank you for all the effort you put into it. Iam thinking about getting a second opinion, because my endocrinologist has me at 4.79 TSH, and after cancer surgery, thats too high, also, my thyroid globulin level is at 5, and she said since I had Hashimoto's this was normal for it to still be high after surgery. She did say that, yes, the cancer could have come back(its been a year and three months since the tt) but she thinks its because I have Hashimoto's. How can I have Hashimoto's, when I dont have a thyroid anymore?I have autoimmune disease, Iam confused. But thank you so much for all this information, I will follow up on it. Hope you are doing well, blessings, Littlebowpeep
Sorry I don't know the answer to your question if you post all of your blood test results on here with the ranges someone will help you
After my TT I was put onto Levo and had so many aches and pains then I joined this site and asked for help I did a Blue Horizon Thyroid plus 11 blood test and then followed the advice I then bought NDT
I am 72 years old and don't have pains like you say you have
Dear Bunnyjean, you are a year younger than me, and I have so many pains, in my muscles, all I have to do is bend over, and my bum muscles hurt and burn like Im completing a set of ten squats. This whole thyroid balancing is taking so long, in the meantime I have hypothyroidism, with all its attending symptoms. But you had a TT, and now your feeling better, that gives me encouragement, thank you, blessings, Littlebowpeep
A rotator cuff injury, burning arm sensations and numbness, and burning sensations in your back are separate issues. Is this a torn rotator cuff or just micro tears? A torn cuff might need surgery because it cannot heal on its own. Which part of your back is effected? Sounds like nerve and rotator cuff injury pain, possibly nerve impingement, and possibly a disk problem. Nerves to your arms, back, legs, and every part of your body originate in your spinal column and branch out between facets of your vertebrae. Disk problems can cause the burning pain you mention. Have you had an MRI of the correlating areas? Cervical, thoracic, lumbar or sacral?
First you need the right diagnostics to determine the cause of your symptoms. Starting any exercise without knowing what is really going on might cause more damage that you don’t need.
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muscle pain after thyroidectomy 
Muscle pain...not sure why.
How quickly have you recovered with T3 only?
Is there a way to recover from Hashimato’s? 
