Severe Sinus & Headcold symptoms with raised T3?? - Thyroid UK

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Severe Sinus & Headcold symptoms with raised T3??

GB44 profile image
GB44
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I am hypothyroid and a few months back, I increased my slow release T3 dose from 25mcg to 30mcg. I got very sick the next day with a severe sore throat (in the area of my thyroid) and really bad sinus and headache issues. It was a horrible headcold but I still felt better than I had in ages due to the hormone increase so I sort of dealt with it. At first I didn’t associate it with the T3 increase as a few people in my office were sick. But after several weeks, it was getting worse even with all of the normal things I do that usually control sickness, and I rarely get sick for more than a couple of days. Eventually after researching for awhile I suspected it might have been sub-acute thyroiditis - all of the symptoms fit. Long story short, I ended up controlling it with a narrow spectrum antibiotic that targets sinuses - that was the only thing that seemed to make a difference - however my sinuses never fully cleared up, but it was manageable. After about 12 weeks of this, I was feeling undermedicated again and my BP was steadily dropping day by day really low for me (104/68) and I was feeling worse and worse. I took the opportunity to try direct T3 (for various reasons which is a future post as it is quite convoluted) and over the course of a week played with 5mcg doses every 3 hours and then 7.5mcg doses every 4.5 hours. It wasn’t a very pleasant experience and I went back to the slow release T3 after a week of trial. Within 2 days of switching back, I have become sick again with EXACTLY the same symptoms as the last time I changed my dose. so now I am convinced it is related to me playing with the dose rates. I wouldn’t worry about it except it is so extreme and it doesn’t really cleared up fully. After switching back to the slow release to the same 30 mcg dose I was on before trying the direct, my hypo symptoms started worsening again, so I have increased my slow release dose to 35mcg (what the heck, right, I already have had the sinus reaction, I might as well see if the increase helps). That increase seems to have pulled back the hypo symptoms (this terrible cold is now more like a cold than the flu it felt like before the increase) but I am still left with this horrible head cold, sinus, throat, headache thing. Does anyone have any ideas as to what might be going on? My body is obviously trying to tell me something like it doesn’t like the increase? But then why do I feel better in some ways? And my blood pressure is now quite high - especially the diastolic- (and was most of the time when I was playing with the direct T3 - I took my BP and temp every hour when possible) - today it has sat around 140-150/95-110 with HR mostly in the 70s. Not sure what to make of it as my high BP doesn’t seem to correlate with how I’m feeling - sometimes over stimulated, sometimes under. When I was trialling the direct T3, my BP mostly seemed to spike high when I needed to take another dose. This all has really thrown me and I am at a loss. I am mostly curious about anyone’s ideas on this weird head cold reaction to increasing/ playing with my dose rates. It has never happened previously with any other increases although I have had some slight sinus issues throughout this process, except the last time. And if my body doesn’t like the increases, why am I feeling better in other ways when I increase? Sorry for the long post. I’m going to see my GP tomorrow but I’m not really sure where to go from here. I’m so tired of feeling so sick all of the time. It has been a long 2 years.

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helvella profile image
helvellaAdministratorThyroid UK

I am sorry that you do not appear to have received a timely response to your post/question - or perhaps you got an answer on another post or in a Private Message? Please feel free to post a new question if you wish. Posts are sometimes missed as it is so busy. Or maybe no-one who read it was able to answer?

Please do not feel the need to respond.

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