Intro

[heartofwisdom]

Hello. I am a 55 yr old female. We live outside Nashville TN

I've been exhausted and thought it was anemia (I am anemic but not enough to be this exhausted). Blood work came back low thyroid and dr called in meds. He left a message on my phone so I didn't get the numbers.

Once I looked up hypothyroidism all the symptoms made sense. I was blaming every thing on menopause.
• low temp - I go to hematologist every week temp averages 97.5 in the afternoon
• low hear rate 40-50
• low bp avg 100/60
• exhaustion
• dry skin
• insomnia
• restless legs
• weight gain (25 lbs this year)
• muscle aches, joint aches
• brittle ridged fingernails

Last night my mother told me my grandmother was on thyroid medicine for years, I didn't know.

Dr prescribed Levothyroxine 25 mg

I read about the natural is better but I am kosher and won't do pig.

Today was 1st day on med and I can tell a difference already. I assume it is a placebo affect??

I got the message about blood work Friday so over the week end I doubled up on some things I had at home like vitamins and spirulina.
I ordered:
• Iodoral
• Chollera
• Kelp
• Selenium
• Beta-Carotene

I know it is possible to get too much iodine so I don’t know if I should take Kelp or Iodoral?

I am glad to know what is wrong. I had open heart surgery 4 years ago and was worried it was my heart again. So thyroid is good news to me.

Questions

Any idea how long until I get my energy back?

What should I ask my doctor when I see him beside test numbers?

Thanks,
Robin

[seastan67]

Hi Intro, My thyroid problems are not at all similar to yours however I have found that keeping a note book of all my questions and notes really helps. Take this everywhere with you to appointments etc and if you can always take someone esle with you as this also is a good way to help retain all the information you are given at appointments. Thyroid conditions are so varied and complicated and I can tell you know you may be waiting several months to get to the bottom of your condition. This forum has proven to be a life saver for me personally and I think you will find you get some great information here, good luck :hugs:

[Andros]

Hello. I am a 55 yr old female. We live outside Nashville TN

I've been exhausted and thought it was anemia (I am anemic but not enough to be this exhausted). Blood work came back low thyroid and dr called in meds. He left a message on my phone so I didn't get the numbers.

Once I looked up hypothyroidism all the symptoms made sense. I was blaming every thing on menopause.
• low temp - I go to hematologist every week temp averages 97.5 in the afternoon
• low hear rate 40-50
• low bp avg 100/60
• exhaustion
• dry skin
• insomnia
• restless legs
• weight gain (25 lbs this year)
• muscle aches, joint aches
• brittle ridged fingernails

Last night my mother told me my grandmother was on thyroid medicine for years, I didn't know.

Dr prescribed Levothyroxine 25 mg

I read about the natural is better but I am kosher and won't do pig.

Today was 1st day on med and I can tell a difference already. I assume it is a placebo affect??

I got the message about blood work Friday so over the week end I doubled up on some things I had at home like vitamins and spirulina.
I ordered:
• Iodoral
• Chollera
• Kelp
• Selenium
• Beta-Carotene

I know it is possible to get too much iodine so I don’t know if I should take Kelp or Iodoral?

I am glad to know what is wrong. I had open heart surgery 4 years ago and was worried it was my heart again. So thyroid is good news to me.

Questions

Any idea how long until I get my energy back?

What should I ask my doctor when I see him beside test numbers?

Thanks,
Robin

Hi there Robin!! My thought is that maybe undiagnosed thyroid disease damaged the heart. It is common amongst those of us w/thyroid disease.

Where is your Ferritin at? It should be 50 to 100; the closer to 100, the better!
Ferritin http://www.thewayup.com/newsletters/081504.htm

Not sure about all those iodine supplements. Hope that works out for you! Many of us w/TD have become severely allergic to iodine; myself included.

I hope that your doctor has you on an 8 week schedule for labs and titration of your thyroxine replacement?

When you have a chance, if you like, please post lab results and the ranges. We need the ranges and different labs use different ranges.

Have you had any of these antibodies' tests?

TSI (thyroid stimulating immunoglobulin),TPO (antimicrosomal antibodies) TBII (thyrotropin-binding inhibitory immunoglobulin), Thyroglobulin Ab, ANA (antinuclear antibodies), (thyroid hormone panel) TSH, Free T3, Free T4.

You can look this stuff up here and more.........
http://www.labtestsonline.org/

People that are hypothyroid don't process Beta Carotene that well so you may find your palms, feet and other skin surfaces turning yellow.

Re the "piggies"; there is Bovine dessicated thryoid but I don't think it is FDA approved in the U.S...................................yet!

Let's just hope you do well on the Synthroid! It takes about 8 weeks for it to build up in your system so an 8 week lab schedule is perfect.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v129/LuLu1471/welcome.gif

[heartofwisdom]

My Ferritin is 5. Iron infusion scheduled next week. He wanted me to go in hosp today for 2 unit blood transfusion (heart goes nuts when blood goes down) but I opted for iron infusion.

Have to wait a week because but insurance won't cover the one he had on hand. Bed rest till then, thyroid meds stopped. Feel like I'm swimming in mud.

The only thyroid test was T4. It was slightly low. I asked about T3 and he said insurance doesn't usually cover it??

I'm not going to take any supplements until this iron think works out.

When my hgb gets down to 11 my heart races, angina, bigeminy. By 10 I need a transfusion. It is 10.5 now.

Sept had blood transfusion.
hgb went from 12.5 to 10.5
hct went from 39.8 to 31
Ferritin went from 30.30 to 5.5


Thanks
Robin