Monitor My Health Result

[Jelley93]

I know it was probably a waste of time doing it now. However with being off on the sick I wanted to see if me lowering my dosage as per Drs request would help me as they said TSH was too low at 0.05. This test was done yesterday, levothyroxine was taken 24 hours before test and also I didn't eat before test. Still got the off balanced symptom however it doesn't come on as soon as before and sometimes fades away. Im hoping that these results are heading the right way.

[tattybogle]

fingers crossed your dizzy thing continues to improve . it will be interesting to see if these result have changed again after a full 6 weeks on 100mcg.. i suspect they might.

[Jelley93 in reply to tattybogle]

Im hoping so! The main reason was I wanted to see the T3. Is that a good reading?

[tattybogle in reply to Jelley93]

These things are so individual it's impossible to say if it's 'good' or bad .

Some people might feel slightly overmedicated with T3 too high for them even if it was in range at 6.5 , but some people would feel undermedicated if T3 was not over 6.

50% for T3 is not utterly lousy by any means, but it might not be high enough for some people.

Finding the best levels for you really is a case of 'suck it and see'.

if how you feel on 100mcg continues to slowly improve (or at least stabilise at 'OK')once you get to week 5/6 /7 .. then stick with it for a bit and see how you go .. but if how you feel is getting worse after week 5/6/7 and you are beginning to feel symptoms of undermedication then perhaps put it up a smidge to 112.5mcg ?

Just try not to think in terms of 'more is better '.. it often isn't ,sometimes 'less is more' because thyroid hormone has such a narrow theraputic index ... too much and we feel naff , too little and we fell naff..... and everyone is individual .. and our personal setpoints for T4/T3/TSH don't seem to equate to how big or active we are.

[Jelley93 in reply to tattybogle]

When I first started on Levo 50 then obviously upped to 75 then onto 100mcg. Once on that dosage from mid 2018 to 2021. I was most stable although I did get some swallowing difficulties at around early 2020. I was then prescribed Lansoprazole which I took daily. That coupled with the fact I had become complacent about when I tookthe medication usually straight after breakfast. This meant the Levo 100mcg wasn't absorbing well at all. Although I had no idea as I still felt well until it was too late. This was late April last year as you know by previous posts. TSH shot up to 8.3 and T4 went down to 17. So I was put on 125mcg on 08/05/2021 by the start of June I felt a lot better with a medichecks test confirming that the following had happenedTSH had gone down to 0.31 (0.27-4.2) T4 had gone up to 26 (12-22) and T3 was 7.4 (3.1-6.8) I then continued improving and feeling fine. Last August the Gp showed concern that my TSH had dropped to 0.11 (0.3-5) and T4 was 23 (09-25) I remember she advised me to drop back down to 100 or alternate with 100/125. Looking back now I regret that I did not do that back then. However I was feeling absolutely fine around then. Working week upon week 37 hours with hardly any tiredness cycling daily 5 miles a day as well. Thats the thing though, I did not know that I was overmedicated at the time. So last month when symptoms returned I had no warning no signs. It just started again.

[tattybogle in reply to Jelley93]

Yes , i think it's very hard to recognise 'slightly too much' or 'slightly too little' ... because thyroid related symptoms often seem to improve or worsen with a long delay of several months after the dose change.

possibly once we get more in tune with our more subtle reactions , we will get better at making subtle adjustments 'just in time' .. rather than bigger adjustments 'a bit too late' .

I'm pretty sure that just because thyroid tablets come in 25mcg increments, it doesn't mean 25mcg up or down is the way the body would do it for itself. Once we are somewhere near the right average dose for us , i reckon 12.5 mcg up or down is probably smarter than 25mcg .

I think to be honest, we probably all have some mental resistance to a suggestion of lowering our dose . I know i do .....our thyroid condition is treated with such belittling disregard by most medics we encounter, that somehow the suggestion that we need to take LESS , just pushes our button that says "there you go again , saying i don't have a 'proper' problem."... so we instinctively resist.

If ,instead of the usual dismissive attitude, they discussed in more serious terms that the correct level of thyroid hormone is vital for every cell of our body to function properly, and if not optimal for us , we would begin to suffer many and varied symptoms ... so our dose and symptom response would need to be very carefully monitored over our life to keep us feeling as well as possible .... because we have effectively taken over 'manual control' of our very complex automatic regulating system .. and it would now be us and the Doctor together who needed to compensate for all the changes we encountered in life, by finding the best average dose every few months rather than the body being able to alter the dose by itself every hour of every day to adjust to demand as intended by nature ...

i think if they gave our condition the credibility it deserves, we would all be more inclined to accept somebody saying "i think your dose might be just a little high at the moment"

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Ft3 is on low side and likely to drop as dose has been reduced

Can you get GP to test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12

[Jelley93 in reply to SlowDragon]

I had b12 and folate done as well as vitamin D done at hospital. However they've not showed me the results. I rang for them last week and they said they would ring me back. Yet they haven't. Might have to test private for that.

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to Jelley93]

Contact them again and request (in writing if necessary)

You are legally entitled to copies of your test results

[Jelley93 in reply to SlowDragon]

Probably may have to do alternate dosages 100/125. I'll see if things improve on 100 first though.