Extreme fatigue?

[lau99]

Good afternoon, everyone. I hope you're all well.

I'm just making this quick post to ask if anyone might know what could be going on with me? I'm due to have the second of two Levo absorption tests tomorrow (the first one was last Monday), but in addition to not really feeling any different after taking last week's megadose (1000mcg), I've actually been feeling extremely tired in the last few days.

I just can't keep my eyes open for longer than 20 mins at a time today and have been sleeping nearly all day, save for a short, non-tiring walk I took in the morning at around 9. I feel exhausted, and didn't even wake up to the sound of my name being shouted loudly at me several times from just outside my bedroom door to say that lunch was ready. I ate it in my room, and then fell almost immediately back asleep again. This seems a bit unusual compared to my usual tiredness, and as you can imagine, isn't very conducive to getting a whole lot of work done.

Any ideas on what might be going on here? I haven't seen my vitamin blood results recently, but had a telephone appointment with my gastro last week who said that they were all a good level through the range.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

I haven't seen my vitamin blood results recently, but had a telephone appointment with my gastro last week who said that they were all a good level through the range.

You are legally entitled to printed copies of all your results and ranges

NHS only tests and treats vitamin deficiencies

Anything “within range” is fine in their view

If you haven’t had any levothyroxine since “mega dose” …..levels are probably bottoming out

[lau99 in reply to SlowDragon]

Thank you Slowdragon, I'll definitely ask his secretary if I would be able to get my hands on the actual results. You're right that I was told not to take any more Levo until the day of the next test (tomorrow), so it makes sense that this would be the reason for how I'm feeling.

[tattybogle]

This is what i would expect to happen. when you have taken 7/10 ?days dose all at once . T4 levels will start high and get too low as you get towards the end of the week / 10 day period and so you're quite likely to feel at least 'a bit rubbish' towards the end of the week... and possibly 'a zombie ' Did they not warn you this was likely to happen ... .. honestly , you would have though it would be smart to warn patients doing this test that they might well have to get a taxi /crawl to the next test. and may also need a day or two off work.

[lau99 in reply to tattybogle]

That's a bit of a relief, thank you tattybogle I'd never felt a crash like that before so was a bit concerned, especially as I was so difficult to rouse this afternoon which isn't like me at all. I wasn't given any warning or indication that this could happen, but then, they hardly gave me any information about the ins and outs of this test at all.

[Lulu2607 in reply to lau99]

Hi lau99. The Dr recently lowered my dose from 100 to 75. Within a couple of days I couldn't stay awake, I know that fatigue. I've had to go to 87.5 to see if it solves the problem, but for a week or so the messing around with dose (I tried 100 to see if I could rectify the problem but that didn't feel right either) I really didn't feel well. I couldn't cope with your mega dose scenario at all. I'm sure your body wonders what's going on.

[lau99 in reply to Lulu2607]

Thank you for this insight, Lulu2607. I'm sure that's the case as well, I began feeling really, really depressed a couple of days before my energy crash yesterday as well, so I suppose that could have been a warning. I've already taken this week's megadose this morning, so at least I'll be prepared for what to expect in the coming days...

[Lalatoot]

Lau some folks like me need to split our daily levo dose because we feel ill with the bigger spike in levels. There is a theory that for some the level of the spike affects conversion.For us when the body thinks the level of FT4 is high it will reduce conversion to t3 to protect itself.

It could be that the spike of your super dose means that your body has reduced conversion as it sensed that levels were too high. So in effect you are working on lower ft3 levels than you would have had if your dose had been split.

Don't think I've explained it well but hope you get the meaning.

[lau99 in reply to Lalatoot]

That's really interesting...could that perhaps be at least part of the reason why my T3 never goes higher than the bottom of the range, even when my T4 has historically been quite near to the top (and have been on 200mcg Levo despite my relatively small size)?

[Lalatoot in reply to lau99]

There has been a fair bit of discussion on various threads recently about folks who feel better if they split their levo dose and this theory was highlighted.I have always split my dose. Even split into 3 at one time but didn't notice any benefits from my usual 2 at am and bedtime.

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to lau99]

I am also experimenting with splitting levothyroxine …..was taking split as two smaller doses for last 6 months

….now trialing levothyroxine as 3 doses

(as I already need to take T3 as three doses spread through day)

Seen noticeable improvement splitting levothyroxine

I can’t imagine being able to tolerate a huge full weeks dose in one go

You shouldn’t drive if feeling so exhausted

(if you do normally)

[lau99 in reply to SlowDragon]

Thank you for the insight and advice! I actually still don't know how to drive (was going to get lessons when I turned 20 but then the pandemic started...still haven't quite gotten around to it...). Annoyingly, I took a nearly hour long train journey to the hospital today, only to be told that they misunderstood the absorption test protocol and they should have instructed me to take the medicine on Monday ready for my test today, so they sent me home after roughly 5 minutes of being at the hospital...I now have to go back again on Friday for the test.