No thyroid, Graves, breathless, lower BP

[leftbehind]

I am taking NP thyroid and have recently increased my dosage from 60 mg to 75 mg. I did this because I was still having bloat and crying a lot. it has been 3 weeks and my blood pressure has dropped tu-114 and I have become very out of breath several times. Also bad muscle aches. Does this sound like I've gone hyper now? I don't want to get another blood test yet I don't know if I should continue with me 75mg or should I go back to 60 I can't do anything in between because they don't have that size pill. my plan was to wait it out but now I'm getting kind of worried. any input would be interesting somebody else had the same problems. I also just added folate to my vitamin list and feel emotionally better. thank you for your input I love this website it helps me so much or I would be completely crazy now I'm only partially crazy.

[Greekchick]

Dear Leftbehind,

Please get your bloodwork retested if you can. It will be important to see if your blood results match the symptoms you are having. Since you are on supplements, you might also get readings for the significant ones as well. That will help with making a decision about how much medication you need. If you are unsure , please see your doctor (or endo if you have one).

Hope this helps you and that you feel better soon.

[leftbehind in reply to Greekchick]

Thank you. My GP doesn't recognize symptoms of thyroid levels, wants a CT of lungs, heart stress test, on and on. I'm going to see a new Endo, hopefully he will know about Graves and thyroid levels, heart and breathing symptoms. I have been feeling really fine up to this low BP and breathing. Could just be allergies, spring plants! It just seems whenever I go to a general practitioner they blame every single symptom of low thyroid on some other disease. Even when I improve and those symptoms go away because I have increased thyroid medication myself, they still I want to send you to all these other doctors it's scary and awful. I'm hoping this new Endo will know something about Graves and help me the way I need help. I'll report it again after I see him. Thanks for your support.

[Greekchick in reply to leftbehind]

I wish you all the best. Maybe you can get a family member or friend to go with you to your appointment for support, because you are so understandably upset and worried. It often helps to have another set of ears listening and the comfort of not being alone.

[leftbehind in reply to Greekchick]

All the symptoms dissipated. I think the breathing was pollen allergy. The next day my BP went up to 118, oxygen was good at 98. So I'm not doing any more tests for now. I recently added folate to my vitamin regimen and think that is helping, I also take B12. I have been on an emotional rollercoaster. I will be seeing a counselor today. I'm not interested in antidepressants as I find they don't work. I'd rather get the hormone levels right. Thanks for your support, onward and upward into thyroid battle!

[Greekchick in reply to leftbehind]

So glad to hear that. All the best!

[SilverAvocado]

Leftbehind, you don't mention how long you've been on the new dose. If it's the first few weeks I would wait out 6 weeks unless the symptoms are so bad you can't cope.

In my experience absolutely anything can happen in the first few weeks, I tend to have a bad hump around week 3 or 4.

Hopefully you're taking pulse and temperature regularly, and if you do you will probably recognise a pattern. For me while things are settling it will often be a bit up and down, but once things are settled I will get similar results each day with variation that makes sense given what I've been doing.

If you don't know whether you're over or undermedicated you will need to get a blood test in the end. Or stick with the new dose until or becomes more clear what is happening.

[leftbehind in reply to SilverAvocado]

New dose has only been two weeks. Increased from 60 mg to 75 mg. I was thinking of waiting it out but the sudden BP drop...103, I'm always in the 120's, scared me, and breathing...notbad unless exercising. I already feel better today. I can't get a new labs until six weeks.

[leftbehind in reply to leftbehind]

I'd rather wait it out than go through all these tests for the wrong reasons.

[SilverAvocado in reply to leftbehind]

My policy is to always wait it out unless you absolutely can't stand it. You definitely want to stay on the same dose for 6 weeks to get an accurate test, so that works out perfectly.

I've found some of these things get worse before they get better. A low BP sounds more like an undermedicated symptom rather than over, so it may just be things going strange and will settle down. I used to get BPs in the 100/60 kind of order. This is on the border of being considered a low pressure, so I haven't been too bothered about it.

[SilverAvocado in reply to SilverAvocado]

I've also had bresthlessness in the past while getting improvement. I think it was the energy starting to come through, but my lungs, muscles, etc not being ready to use it properly yet!

[leftbehind in reply to SilverAvocado]

That's probably what is going on. I'll wait it out. In general, I do feel more whole than I have since the thyroidectomy, 2 years of this rollercoaster.

[SilverAvocado in reply to leftbehind]

Good luck!