stacy,

i have a broken rt arm...please excuse my typing! i typed a looooong reply (w/my left hand!) and then my system froze up before i could send it to you.!

treating hypothyroid is not always easy and certainly isn't as easy as many drs assume (as in "take one pill a day and you'll be cured" or "you're fine...your TSH is within range")

as for the weight loss....you may lose it easily or you may be one of many hypos who ends up being undermedicate or developes or has insulin resistance and it may be a struggle. low carb diet & exercise may become very necessary.

you may have a good dr but most, including many endocronologists, don't have a clue! they know about diabetes but little about the thyroid...in spite of the fact their own org announced new "normal" TSH guidelines (.3-3.04) , this month, and raised (doubled!) their estimates of the # of people who have thyroid conditions, from 13 to 27 million...27 million, they stated, is more than diabetes & cancer, combined.

my best recommendation is to visit www.thyroid.about.com this site has all the information you could ever need to educate yourself and to be able to determine whether your dr knows much about the thyroid. now that you are on meds, you need to be familiar with both HYPER/HYPOthyroid symptoms as a med dosage can throw your body into a hyper state, just as the throid can. you will find excellant lists on this site as well as a "top doc directory" recommended by patients from the forum on the site. this forum is international and there are very knowledgeable people who offer what has worked for them, etc. you will find people there from homemakers to a Phd Biochemist!

you need to know that synthroid is not the only med available and many don't do well on it...it was only the #1 selling thyroid med...because mfg did a great marketing job on drs!....the FDA not only refused to allow synthroid to be "grandfathered" into approval, but wrote the mfg a NINE page rejection letter citing all the problems they had with potency,etc ...by FDA standards, the letter was just short of a reprimand.

i took .100 synthroid and i did improve....however the lingering symptoms did not go away until about 2 weeks after i switched to .100 unithroid. my twin sister, her daughter & my 20 yr old daughter have all switched and also have felt better. some do better on Armour (the 1st thyroid med) which is dessicated pig thyroid...many drs think it is "old fashioned" or the potency is "unstable"...not so....it meets federal mfg guidelines and has less problems w/ recalls than the synthetic meds do.

as you can see....you need to learn alot if your are able to optimize your thyroid treatment!

if i can help, let me know
faye