Hi all,
When I took my labs a couple weeks ago I was on 50 mcg Levo and 1.5 grains Naturethroid. I had been slowly increasing the Levo from 12.5 mcg to 50 and had been on 50 for four weeks (now six) when the test was done. I was feeling a little overmedicated at that time. I have felt strangely weird since starting Levo in June, but in the past two weeks I have felt increasingly bad (I only sleep 4-5 hours a night and have to take sleep medication, low stamina, VERY low mood, hair falling out, feel hot, dry skin, loose bowels, then constipation, feel like a zombie, not like myself).
My normal low blood pressure of 90/70 that I've had all of my life has gone to 135/60. What??? For the previous 6 years I was on only Naturethroid but I was unable to tolerate dose increases above 1.75 even though my T3 and T4 were right on the border of out of range low. Adding T3 made me feel awful. Adding Levo was the next thing to try.
Have addressed all vitamin/iron issues and all my vitamins are in the high end of range, so all good there.
I feel so messed up that I lowered the Naturethroid to 1.25 grains (with the consent of my doctor). Still feel bad, but it's only been a few days.
I'm confused because the higher my T3 and T4 have gone, the worse I feel in a certain respect, but then when they are low I feel bad in a different way.
I do not have Hashimotos.
Latest labs:
TSH: .006
Free T4: 1.47 ng (.82-1.77)
Free T3: 3.9 pg (2-4.4)
rT3: 18.8 ng (9.2-24.1)
Cortisol (morning, fasting): 14.7ug (6.2-19.4 for morning)
PTH: 23 p g (15-65)
My calculations have my T3 at 88% range and my T4 at 83%. This is the highest they have ever been. When they were slightly lower when taking NDT only, I felt like death warmed over (in the overmedicated sense and was sleeping 3 hours/night), so I seem to be tolerating the higher hormone levels better with the Levo, but still don't feel good.
My resting heart rate has jumped from 62 to 67 in the past few days.
I have never felt right on any combo or dose of thyroid meds, but there was a time when 1.75 grains was OK, for a couple years but a year ago was too low. Been trying different things since and really don’t know what to do.
I’ve mentioned in another post that I’m thinking of going off all meds (with supervision) and taking my chances. I didn’t feel as bad off meds as I do on so it seems futile. I have some pipe dream that my labs were low because I had a reoccurring kidney infection about 4 months before my diagnosis. I’m terrified of going off meds thought because I know my thyroid will crash before it kicks in again and I don’t want to be ill for months with the hope that my thyroid returns to its premedicated state. I have had a suppressed TSH (.004-.008) for six years. I’m holding out for now trying to see if I can find the magic combo, meanwhile I struggle through 34 hours/week job plus full time graduate school feeling unwell.
Thank you for your help.