Feeling dizzy, breathless, jelly legs 3 hours a... - Thyroid UK

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Feeling dizzy, breathless, jelly legs 3 hours after my dose

Incoguto profile image
7 Replies

Hey everyone,

Any ideas on this?

I feel okay in the morning, okay late evening, but few hours after taking thyroid meds I start to feel tired, dizzy, breathless and my legs are like jelly.

I take 86 mcg T4 and 23 T3 in Armour and synthetic T3 combined.

I'm in a process of eliminating Armour and adding T3, but I'm finding it hard to add T3.

Also issues with adding Levo last year. I can't take Armour on its own, it doesn't work for me. I'm hitting same roadblock each time at similar doses.

My ft4 is around 28% or less, ft3 is about 68%. 24 hours after taking meds (because t3 in Armour is slow released).

Vits minerals ultra optimal, also after iron infusion.

Thanks for any suggestions!

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Incoguto
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FallingInReverse profile image
FallingInReverse

Curious - is this a totally new symptom? If you started hydrocortisone 12 days ago are you still on it, or did you stop? Whether yes or now, would that new thing have created some instability and these new symptoms?

Incoguto profile image
Incoguto in reply to FallingInReverse

Not new, it's been happening since July.

I only did a 3 day trial, so I'm not on hydrocortisone at all.

Not sure if it's me not splitting the dose or being hypo or hyper? But I assume not hypo if it happens 3 hours after meds?

FallingInReverse profile image
FallingInReverse in reply to Incoguto

Well, I know from your posts that I probably won't have an "answer" for you and that you are on your complicated path of figuring it all out.

But just a top of mind thought - when you say "few hours after taking thyroid meds" I think that includes T3? Does it include all of this in one go: 86 mcg T4 and 23 T3 in Armour and synthetic T3 combined.? We do know that T3 peaks around 2 hours after dosing, and dips around 4-6 hours after dosing. I take 2.5 Lio at 6 am, 2.5 around noon, and 5 at bedtime to avoid those peaks and benefit more smoothly through the day.

Tired and breathless - sheesh... I feel tired and breathless 100% of the time lol. In my experience, this is a long term symptom that I am hoping gets better over the months and months of my titration plan.

Dizzy and legs are like jelly. Personally when I read that, it looks the opposite of my other symptions. Ie, my legs feel like they are full of concrete. Jelly sounds more like the opposite. And - in my shot-in-the-dark personal opinion - I would think that's a T3 thing. If it was me, I'd wonder if 23 T3 (combined) is too much at once.

That being said - I'm not confident on any of this, so just sharing my thoughts and hoping the experts jump on with something more useful for you.

Incoguto profile image
Incoguto in reply to FallingInReverse

Thank you 🤗Yes, you're correct, it includes everything in one go.

The tired and breathless is a weird one, I sometimes faint when I walk, so I had to stop working a few months ago. I haven't been to the shop in 7 weeks because of the dizziness.

Thank you, I think it is a t3 thing. I had this years ago when very overdosed at the time.

I tried splitting, but it didn't go away back then (I used to take my Armour dose 3 times a day, then 2 times a day). Only reducing dose helped, however, tweaking it down made me incredibly hypo.

It's a difficult one for sure.

Thank you for your opinion, I appreciate it 😀

McPammy profile image
McPammy

That definitely sounds like over medication as it peaks 2-3hrs after taking it. Best thing is to get your bloods taken as this is happening. Your symptoms sound over medicated. Get your bloods done with and without taking your meds.

DavePhoto profile image
DavePhoto

' tired, dizzy, breathless and my legs are like jelly' - this could be low blood glucose. I used to some times feel like that mid morning when out walking. Although I'm not diabetic and my HbA1c is fine I monitored my blood sugar using a Freestyle Libre device for a couple of weeks and it showed that my blood glucose levels spiked very high after breakfast and then dropped rather low before eventually coming back and stabilising. Changing what I ate for breakfast to basically low GI food (no processed breakfast cereals) has eliminated the problem. It helps that my wife is a Diabetes Dietician so was able to advise me - and she was spot on! Freestyle Libre blood glucose monitoring devices are expensive so you could just try a low GI breakfast and see what that does. One thing I should say is that my wife said no one should drink a full glass of fruit juice for breakfast (as bad as a glucose energy drink), so if you do I suggest you eliminate that first.

arTistapple profile image
arTistapple

I think what DavePhoto says is well worth looking at. Plus we know that introducing T3 can do strange things to sugar levels, and diabetes test results. I can’t find an answer to this but it comes up a bit on here. I seem to recall it was an observation from the Canadian website. My sense is that (in some people) it may be due to T3 releasing sugars held in mucin, in a rush and also creating a consequent burst of insulin, which drops the sugar levels creating hypoglycaemia symptoms. “Tired, dizzy, breathless and legs like jelly”. I always have some sort of protein for breakfast nuts etc and I find this very helpful. However not yet mastered the T3.

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