not dense...
 

Hi nancy...

Let me try and be a better explainer :daze: some days are way better than others....

In my personal experience, I was prescribed Cytomel (the synthetic version of T3) in addition to Synthroid (T4). Essentially, that is what you get in one neat pill and it's natural. When I started on the Cytomel, I became VERY hyper. I never needed it and it made things worse. The doctor (if you can call him that :mad: ) gave it to me before doing labwork that would prove it was necessary. Labwork revealed that I only needed help with the T4.

Perhaps that is similar to what is going on with you...perhaps your body doesn't need that much help with T3 and needs more T4. But with Armour, it's all in one pill, so when you take more grains, you're upping the T3 along with the T4 and the worse things get. If you need some T3 but more T4, you'll have to augment your thyroid regimen with more T4 (synthroid, levoxyl, unithroid etc). On thyroid.about.com, there are alot of people who do wonderfully on this course.

The only way to know for sure is to get labs worked up with your Free T3 and Free T4 (TSH won't tell you the whole picture). Thank your lucky stars you have a doctor willing to work with you to make you feel as normal as your labs say you are!!

Did I do better this time? Hope so..but hey...if not...ask again and I'll try again!!

hmmmm
 

I've been on synthroid for almost 2 years now, the dr. is still trying to get it regulated. I am exhausted all of the time. she added cytomel, I gained a ton of weight!!! I went for my latest apt and the dr. is no longer there and I started over with someone new, she took me off the cytomel and said that it has put me at hyper!!! No heart stuff, but tremendous physical fatigue. she upped my synthroid to .175

I am really stumped now. along with trying sooooo hard to get my weight under control.

Hi there....two things...if the cytomel made you hyper, why did she INCREASE your synthroid? That seems like backward logic to me. You sound alot like me this past February...I was on 250 mcg Synthroid and felt terrible...fatigue mostly. I was still "complaining" to the doctor that I didn't feel better and he gave me cytomel and it did the exact same thing to me...made things horribly worse. But my Synthroid was reduced after..not upped!

You know what helped me the most? I read Adrenal Fatique and in it, the author asks you to do a comprehensive health history for thepast 1 year, 2 years and 5+years. That really opened my eyes to things OUTSIDE of my thyroid giving me grief. :eek: When I got in to see the new endo, I told her about it and we discussed everything and she suggested that the chronic sinus infections I suffer from were far more tiring than my slightly underfunctioning thyroid. Then she changed my thyroid med to Levoxyl.

In my opinon , if you've been taking a medication and after two years you aren't stabilized AND you don't feel better, it's time to start talking to the doctor about a brand switch to test and see if anther one will work better. It made a world of difference for me! Good luck with the new doctor! :thup:

I'm hoping this new dr will make a difference. I forgot to add that she immediately took me off the cytomel when she upped my synthroid.

I will take your suggestion, I have a cronic draining of my sinuses down the back of my throat and nothing gets rid of it...

I am going to go and get Adrenal Fatigue right now, I have been saying for a while that it is more than just my thyroid, but no one wants to check anything else...

I love your "by-line" of "you create your own happiness"...that's nice!! But it also applies to thyroid stuff..you create your own wellness. I got lucky and found a great doctor and my diagnosis didn't drag out for years...I was a simple hypo for two months and then came the autoimmune diagnosis.

As for the allergies? Today is my last day at work...I am having sinus surgery tomorrow to fix my septum...it's so crooked that it prevents my front sinus' from draining and VIOLA! Here comes another sinus infection...or rather...I have one pretty much all the time but I've learned how to "live" around it. She said there is a lot of scar tissue in there too that she's going to take out while she's in there. ON TOP OF THAT...I'm also taking the allergy shots. Apparently, hashimoto's makes your allergies go nuts. I'm just a ball of mess...but I've kept a really positive attitude throughout and I'm sure that light at the end of the tunnel is NOT a train! :lol: