Armour Thyroid problems with blood test

[fayroz]

I have been taking armour thyroid for more than two months. I can say there is a slight improvement, but I'm experiencing chest and heart pains. I started with one grain and increased it to 2.5 grains by .5 grain interval ( +/- 10 days for each). tried splitting the but with no avail.

Two weeks ago I woke up with a sore throat and headache. it stayed for around two weeks. Ultrasound showed " features of thyroiditis and bilateral benign looking cervical region, submandibular and intraparotid, submental region lymphadenopathy. The largest lymph node in the right submandibular region was 2 cm.". It has settled since

Currently I'm at 1.5 grains felt better the first week, but then hypo symptoms started showing. Gained some weight in the process. I do not know what to do, do not want to go back to T4, but I fear that I might be doing more harm than good.

Blood test on 2 grains:

FERRITIN 229

ug/L (30 - 400)

Folate (serum) 7.0 ug/L (> 2.9)

Vitamin B12 549.40 pmol/L (156-698)

Vitamin D 39.31 (optimal level 30-50 upper normal 50-70)

[fayroz]

Cortisol 137.200 nmol/L 4.974 ug/dL

salivary cortisol a.m 6.34 nmol/l

salivary cortisol p.m 5.22 nmol/l

Reference Range

AM (171 - 536 ) nmol/L

(6.2 - 19.4) ug/dL

PM ( 64 - 327 ) nmol/L

(2.3 - 11.9) ug/dL

[shaws Administrator]

If you were taking levothyroxine before switching, what dose were you on? Usually we switch from one to another in an equivalent dose. Also blood tests were invented and introduced along with levothyroxine alone. Therefore if we take NDT or add T3 to T4, tests wont correlate and it is all about 'how the patient feels' which is the guide.

When taking NDT in an equivalent dose, we can raise by 1/4 tablet every two weeks but you must keep an eye on your pulse/temp and if either goes too high/fast reduce to previous dose. If you copy/paste the tinyurls below you may find the info helpful and also the link.

tinyurl.com/ycxpz565

tinyurl.com/ya5blrr2

tinyurl.com/y7ejh9sh

web.archive.org/web/2010103...

[fayroz in reply to shaws]

I was on 100 mg and once a week 150. tinyurl.com/y7ejh9s Link is not working.

[shaws Administrator in reply to fayroz]

thanks. I will have a look at it.

[shaws Administrator in reply to fayroz]

I have looked at all the tinyurls and they work but you cannot click on the link, you have to copy and paste onto a new page. Then open each one.

[MaisieGray]

Total T3 & T4 tests don't tell you much that is useful, it is only the "free" (ie unbound from the transport protein) results that accurately reflect what is available to the cells. So without a FT3 result it's not possible to accurately comment; but generally if those results were mine I'd conclude I was under-medicated. It is to be expected that your FT4 will be low when taking NDT or T3, but your TSH is too high and your total T3 is very low given that you are symptomatic.

[fayroz]

Unfortunately I have asked for the free but the lab made a mistake. The heart pain is stopping me from increasing the dosage. Is it normal or am I doing something wrong?

[danym in reply to fayroz]

did you find something that worked?