Bone Pain tingling in fingers and excessive weight gain

[jessica6]

Hi

I recently posted re my thyroid problems. I had a thyroidectomy 18month ago and have had my medication reduced again to 100mg daily. I have constant bone and joint pain, tingling in fingers and excessive weight gain. My results show low TSH hence the reason for the 2nd reduction

T4 Level 20.5pmol/L

TSH level 0.19 mU/L

Parathyroid homon level 4.4 pmol/L

I am worried if I reduce further the weight gain will become worse

I would appreciate any help please

[greygoose]

Your doctor should not be dosing by the TSH. You are only over-medicated if your FT3 is well over-range. Tell him you refuse to reduce your dose without having your FT3 tested. It's perfectly rediculous that someone without a thyroid should be on less that 100 mcg levo. Time to stand your ground!

[jessica6 in reply to greygoose]

Thank you. I will request the FT3 and not reduce my dose until I have spoken to a thyroid consultant and not a GP

[greygoose in reply to jessica6]

By thyroid consultant I imagine you mean an endo? Chose your endo wisely, a lot of them don't know anymore about thyroid than GPs do. They are just as likely to dose by the TSH, because it's easiest for them. But, that doesn't make it right.

[pennyannie]

Hello Jessica :

Can I just add that a fully functioning working thyroid would be supporting you on a daily basis with trace elements of T1, T2 and calcitonin plus a measure of T3 said to be at around 10 mcg and a measure of T4 said to be at about 100 mcg :

T4 - synthetic Levothyroxine is a storage hormone and needs to be converted by your body into T3 the active hormone that the body runs on : T3 - synthetic Liothyronine is said to be about 4 times more powerful than T4 with the average person said to utilise around 50mcg T3 daily, just to function.

Your ability to convert the T4 into T3 can be compromised by low vitamins and minerals and it is important that your core strength of ferritin, folate, B12 and vitamin D is maintained at optimal levels. You may well find you are in the NHS ranges and need to supplement these yourself, as living without a thyroid, we need higher than average vitamin levels.

The thyroid is a major gland resposible for full body synchronisation, including your physical, mental, emotional, psychological and spiritual well being, along with your inner central heating system and your metabolism.

Some people refer to the thyroid as the body's engine, whilst others describe it as the conductor of all your bodily parts including the wind section.

As you will see from the above by not restoring your own natural T3 production, you have in effect been down regulated by some 20% of your overall well being and overtime I am sure this can pull you down even further.

Some people can get by on T4 only, some people at some point in time find T4 doesn't work as well as it once did, whilst others need a mix of T3 and T4 whilst others need T3 only whilst others prefer Natural Desiccated Thyroid.

Sadly, it does appear that currently routinely, within the NHS system, there is only T4 - Levothyroxine prescribed.

The first step is coming on here and opening up, the second is arranging a full thyroid blood panel plus the vitamins and minerals as already requested in your previous post.

If your doctor is unable to run the full tests for you there are private companies listed on the Thyroid UK website who are the charity who support this amazing forum.

When you have these results simply throw the results and ranges back up onto this rolling screen for considered opinion and you will have everything explained to you.

This is how we all start off and initially it is all a bit daunting but you too can turn things around, some of it by yourself, and take back some control and restore your health.

I'm with Graves Disease post RAI thyroid ablation in 2005 and now manage lingering Graves, thyroid eye disease and hypothyroidism. I found this site when at an all time low in around 2016 and am now so much better it seriously makes you wonder why doctors don't know how to keep us healthy and well.

[jessica6 in reply to pennyannie]

Thank you for your advise. I am ready to take control of my medication problems and will request a full thyroid blood panel from one of the one of the companies on the site. I value all the advise and support from members of Thyroid UK and hope eventually I can feel better

[pennyannie in reply to jessica6]

Well done you :

The Thyroid uk website is an excellent place to start reading up on all things thyroid and I also found the following book very useful and it was on the Thyroid uk website last time I looked.

Your Thyroid and How To Keep It Healthy is writen by a doctor who has hypothyroidism. Barry Durrant - Peatfield writes in an easy to understand manner and this book is so relevant as although we both don't have this amazing little gland any longer, we do need to know what it does so we can try and understand and compensate for its loss.