Intro

[TWoman]

60 year old female. Hashimotos for 30+ years. 80Lbs overweight. Limited mobility due to 5 ankle surgeries (permanent severed nerve) Neck fusion and 2 stents now facing knee surgery. Consider myself active even though limited. Very active outdoors/mini farm.

Medications:

Carvedilol 25mg. BP 2x day Lisinopril 40mg BP 2x day Ranexa 500 2x day Synthroid 50mcg 1x day Alprazolam .25mg 1x night Tizanidine 6mg 1x night Occasional 81 aspirin

Vitamin D3 B complex

Depressed. Majorly overweight. No energy. Hopelessly disgusted. Started journey 110 lbs lighter than I am now. Rare fast food. Lots of water. Sparatic eater. Minimal carbs.

Next blood work May 30th. Will post last numbers next.

[shaws Administrator]

Am I reading your thyroid hormone dose correctly? i.e. 50mcg of levothyroxine per day?

You state you are having a blood test next month.

This is the method you have to do to get the optimum, correct, numbers of your thyroid hormones.

I hope it is the very earliest appointment, fasting (you can drink water) and allow a gap of 24 hours between your last dose of levothyroxine/synthroid and take it afterwards. If not, make a new appointment.

Levothyroxine is known to cause weight gain, particularly if dose is too low.

The aim is a TSH of 1 or lower with Free T4 and Free T3 in the upper part of the ranges. You actually need a Full Thyroid Function Test which is :-

TSH, T4, T3, Free T4, Free T3 and thyroid antibodies. Ask for B12, Vit D, iron, ferritin and folate to be tested also.

Always get a print-out of your results with the ranges and post if you have a query.

The aim is a TSH of 1 or lower, with Free T4 and Free T3 in the upper part of the ranges.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

For full Thyroid evaluation you need TSH, FT4 and FT3 plus both TPO and TG thyroid antibodies tested. Also extremely important to test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12

Low vitamin levels are extremely common, especially if Thyroid antibodies are raised

Recommended on here that all thyroid blood tests should ideally be done as early as possible in morning and fasting. Last Levothyroxine dose should be 24 hours prior to test, (taking delayed dose immediately after blood draw). This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip, best not mentioned to GP or phlebotomist)

The aim of Levothyroxine is to increase the dose slowly in 25mcg steps until TSH is around one and FT4 towards top of range and FT3 at least half way in range

[lisabax]

Looking forward to your last test results as they may be quite revealing.

[TWoman in reply to lisabax]

TSH 3.32

T4 FREE 1.3

T3 FREE 2.8

T3 TOTAL 94

T3 REVERSE 16

Any other results that you need?? This was 5-2018

[lisabax in reply to TWoman]

Thank you. Can you add the reference ranges, that’s the figures in brackets after each result. Labs do differ, so it would help to know the range. However if the TSH range is 0.5 to 4.5, then a TSH of over 3 is too high for someone on thyroid medication and you should be on more than 50mg of thyroxine. But it would be good to see those ranges first. LB

[TWoman in reply to lisabax]

TSH 3.32

0.40-4.50 mIU/L

T4 FREE 1.3

0.8-1.8 ng/dL

T3 FREE 2.8

2.3-4.2 pg/mL

T3 TOTAL 94

76-181 ng/dL

T3 REVERSE 16

8-25 ng/dL

I can also tell you that my adrenaline levels are very low (flat line through the day) and my Vit D was low even though I take a supplement.

[TWoman]

I have been taking my temp in the am. It ranges from 96.3 to 97.