Blocked ears (ear infection) neck pain/stiffness and tension headaches, thyroid issues?

[Peanut31]

Hi

From my previous posts I have Hashimoto’s and an underactive Thyroid I self medicate on T3 after trying Levothyroxine on the NHS.

I never did well on Levothyroxine so tried T3, I was doing well, but, my current dosage never relived all my symptoms, I’ve tried to up my dosage, but my body doesn’t like it.

I recently started having blocked ears, ringing in my ears, neck pain/stiffness and tension headaches (not all the time).

I struggled to get an appointment to see my GP despite phoning every morning at 8am.

The neck pain get so bad I went to A&E, I felt a fraud going as it wasn’t an emergency, but, my legs were like jelly, I was sweating and my ears were blocked and I couldn’t cope anymore with the pain despite having ibuprofen and paracetamols .

I saw a GP, who was fantastic, told me I had an ear infection (looked in my ears) and prescribed me antibiotics.

He did a series of checks on my neck incase I had meningitis and said the neck pain and headaches were related to my ear infection.

I’ve been on antibiotics since Sunday, but, I’m not convinced my ear infection is the cause of my neck stiffness pain. The pain in my head only happens when I move my neck or bent down etc, and it’s a sharp headache, so much so it makes me stop what I’m doing.

At first I thought I was having a Hashimoto’s attack, but I cannot see this ever going away. My ears don’t hurt, they are not sore, just blocked and ringing.

Has anyone experienced this with Hashimoto’s. ?

Any advice greatly appreciated

Best wishes

Peanut31

[Rmichelle]

Hi Peanut i do not know whwther its the same thing but i put a post out similar a couple of days ago, i get bad ear pain, neck feels like its been bashed around, jaw pain and cannot bend my chin to my chest, i feel mine was a hashi flare and follows a hyper flare too, symptons have lasted around 9 days and have subsided a little now. Just wanted to say maybe a hashi flare? Gp must have seen some inflammation to indicate ear infection? Maybe the same thing or maybe not? Im sure others will guide you through.xx😊😊

[silverfox7]

Have you any test resultsxsince you wrntvon T3 only? That's the only true way you will find out what is happening. You may have payed your sweet spot, easily done, did that myself so you could drop down a quarter and see if that helps.

Also saying you can't raise it anymore could also indicate that you Vit D, B12, folate and ferritin aren't optimal so your thyroid isn't getting all the help it needs to work efficiently.

May be if you tel us more about how you did the switch over may give us a clue. Sometimes we need to do things in the right order for things to work better. I spent 5 months getting getting a few things optimal first and apart from missing my sweet spot it worked easily for me. I followed the STTM for changing over and was increasing by half grains till I reached 2 then I increased in quarters up to 3 and felt good but not better if that makes sense. Thankfully I'd planned to do this to match with my next Endo appointment. My FT3 was six and top of range 5.7 so he suggested a couple of days without then drop down to 1.75 and been on that since. Another Endo did suggest dropping to 1.50 butvthat didn't work out. But testing is really the only way to be sure what is happening particularly when it's something new to you.

[PiggySue]

I agree with some of what SilverFox has said. You might have passed your sweet spot...and you need to make sure that your Iron, ferritin, etc are all good for your body to be able to use the T3. Cortisol was key for me as well, but hadn't shown up as an issue until recently. Blood tests don't really work to analyse T3, because T3 will suppress your TSH and then the GP and Endo will likely panic, but it is normal for it to happen with taking T3.

Have you read any of Paul Robinson's books? He has brought out 2 more books with his original Recovering with T3 being really helpful.

The stiff neck that you describe can be a sign of overstimulation, and his books will help you work out what you should be doing/testing etc to start to feel really well.

The admins on here are really wonderful as well!

I hope you start to feel better and get over the ear infection quickly.

[Peanut31 in reply to PiggySue]

Hi PiggySue

I am having guidance from Paul Robinson and I have read his books. I am only on 37.5mcg of T3 and its been now 74 days since starting T3. I don't take it all in one go either it is spread out over the day. 12.5 mcg, 12.5mcg & 12.5mcg, as said I can't seem to increase this.

I am not convinced the ear infection is causing my neck pain, having looked up my issues I can only describe them as occipital neuralgia, chronic pain in lower neck, back of head, and a sharp pain in my head.

I had a 8am cortisol blood test on Monday and I am waiting for the results as the saliva test showed I had high cortisol in the morning and mid morning, once I have the results I can look at the issue more. My vitamin levels are all ok as I know to keep them up.

I wonder if I am being overstimulated with my T3, but its hard to know.

Thanks for all your support.

Best Wishes

Peanut31

[flo-jo100 in reply to Peanut31]

Hi I have Hashimotos and some of my first symptoms was stiff neck, headaches, blocked and ringing ears. Hope that helps

[PiggySue]

I wanted to ask whether you had high cortisol, but didn't want to worry you! My GP didn't really know anything about cortisol, and the Endo did check for Addison's (because I have very low cortisol according to 8am blood test). That test came back fine, but there is a further one that should have been done, but hasn't been and I have been discharged, so will have to get private blood tests done. Prof. Wass had previously tested me for Cushing's some 7 or more years ago and I was ok then, but I don't know whether I was tested because of high cortisol in blood test.

I have been taking 150mg a day for about 4-5 years, with no sign of overstimulation at all! Since I have started the circadian dose, which should help stimulate my adrenals to produce some cortisol, I quite suddenly needed to reduce because I had a headache all the time, with the stiff neck and my blood pressure shot up. I am now on 50mg and may reduce still further.

Good luck, I hope you find out what is going on, but in the meantime you may need to reduce a bit. Perhaps try to halve the evening/last dose and go from there? You may notice that you feel better fairly quickly once you have got it right.

[Peanut31]

Hi PiggySue

I have just received my 8am Blood cortisol results back

Time of sample 8am 453.000 (166.00-507.00)

Saliva cortisol test

waking *23.800 (6.00-21.00)

12.00 *7.920 (1.50-7.60)

16.00 3.370 (0.00-5.49)

before bed < 1.5 (0.00-1.99)

Best Wishes

Peanut31

[Crystalynn]

I have a sore throat like my tonsil on the left side and excruciating pain in my left ear and neck I have had the pain in my throat off and on for 4 months have had every test know. To man and just 2 days ago the pain in my ear had hootenanny worse they are blocked and they going as well going to the ER to see if I can get relief I hope you find some relief as well