Yes, Meredith will be attending a new school in the fall. So will Madeleine. Public school. Our Lady Of Perpetual Tuition is a lovely little school, but my Health Crisis has forced us to scale back from Frugal to Maniacally Frugal. No big deal. We live in a district with excellent public schools. Ironically, the only reason we live here is because I wanted a swimming pool and this neighborhood had affordable houses with swimming pools back in 1995.
Right now the plan is for me to go back to work in the fall (oh PLEASE let me feel better by then). Roger is already receiving a retirement stipend from taking an early retirement package from the State of SC. He was working full time to supplement it, but we can't live like that any more. I mean, we just can't do it. There is no way that I can hold up my end of the bargain on getting four people to four different places (work, school) every day and picked up, crawling through evening traffic, any more. So Roger has quit his full time job and will be looking for a p/t job with hours that will allow him to get the kids to school (the SAME ONE THANK YOU LAWD) and pick them up in the afternoon. Without paying private tuition, afterschool care, etc. we'll almost be at the same level of income/outgo even if Roger doesn't get a job.
A few questions:
If you've been hypothyroid, how long did it take before you feel better? I've been on Synthroid for two weeks and I don't feel much better. HELP! (I know all the websites say anywhere from a month to four months). I am so tired of being so tired and hurting.
Has anyone tried Thyromine? I can't find a single site that isn't an advertisement.
Update: I'm on 75mcg starting dose & will return for blood tests on June 28. I'm sure my doc will bump doses as needed. She is very patient friendly.
PS To people who have the symptoms--Remember that blood tests are not always the be-all and end-all. Also, the "normal" range of TSH levels is now 3. It used to be 5. My doctor told me that my thyroid was tested in 1999 with a level of 4.7 which would today be "hypo" but in 1999 was considered "normal." I was put on Paxil for panic attacks, and I'm certain that if I had been put on thyroid medication I would have been a lot better off. Shortness of breath is a classic symptom of hypothyroidism. Paxil added 30 lbs that took me a year to lose.
Find a doctor who will listen to you, and treat your symptoms, not your test results!! And read this site: http://thyroid.about.com/
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10 comments:
Others are probably easier to manage and I hope that is you, but I was diagnosed almost two years ago and am not regulated yet.
I don't know if your dr is the type to prescribe 50ug and send you on your way. Other drs keep raising the level (I've been on Levoxyl and Synthroid, but not Armour yet) until you do feel better and hypo symptoms are gone, regardless of it crashing the TSH very low.
I talked to one woman for whom 7.5ug was plenty for her (a tad more and she would be aggressively wanting to jump the desk to kill you, she said), another takes 600ug. It is impossible to predict.
For me, it is very precise as well. A tiny bit too little (125) and I'm cold/tired/foggy, etc. A tiny bit too much (150) and I am agitated, anxious, and shaky w/an unhappy stomach. The latter is where I've been this week. My dosage was raised (125 to 150) because my last bloodwork still had me pretty hypothyroid (TSH>3), but the higher dose is an overdose. So now I'm on 137ug.
For me, this has not been an easy battle.
Get the newsletter and other info from thyroid.about.com. Mary is very knowledgable.
Yikes Cricket! I updated the blog to suggest the About site- I too find it very helpful.
Do you think that Armour is the One True Path that we're missing out on? I don't think my doc is going to be enthused about that, but everybody seems to love it.
I wish I understood about Armour (natural thyroxine vs. the synthetic version in Levoxyl and Synthroid) and why my doctor has not gone there. When I faxed her this week about the overdose symptoms, I asked what else could I possibly be trying or doing. She came back with the 137 compromise, which I have little faith in working.
I went to a different doctor today for something else, but I got her to write a TSH order for me. I am very curious what my TSH looks like as I am oversensitive and overdose again. I suspect it is still high and the synthetic is the problem.
I certainly understand how this is a process, but I have lost patience, especially with the way this is affecting me. I am truly depressed along with the frustration. So I had an antidepressant introduced today. It is all too much.
I too am not regulated after two years. For me 50 mcg is too little, 75 is too much. However, my doctor still believes up to 5.5 is normal -- interesting to hear the news about 3. He has always said 2-3 is best, but we can't seem to get me there -- currently TSH is 6.5, but the other two readings (whatever they are) are normal and I am asymptomatic, so he is OK with it. However, I am worried about long-term -- symptoms may appear later. The other interesting thing he told me is that one person can have a TSH reading of 6 and have all kinds of symptoms and another person can have a reading of 20 and have no symptoms. Plus as Cricket mentioned, there is no rhyme or reason as to how much medication one person needs vs. another. I am under the impression that how ever much you need to get the symptoms under control is fine. It sounds like you already know this, but it does take 6-12 weeks before they know where you will level out with a particular dose of medication.
I hope you are feeling better very, very, very soon! Take Care.
My sister's friend has a thyroid condition - not sure it is the same as yours, so I will ask and see if she has input.
I hope that you're feeling better.
Your girls are beautiful!
Hi! I'm lady m's sister's friend :-) Talk about a long shot. I was diagnosed hyperthyroid (Graves' disease) and treated with radiation. I went pretty much completely hypo, my TSH at its worst was 104. Because it came on so slowly, though, I just assumed it was a normal thing. I went to my new doc complaining of wrist pain and she tested me and started me on levoxyl.
I'd say I started feeling better, but nowhere near "good" after about a month. It took about two years of playing with my dosage before I felt fairly good, but I just had to learn to accept that I was not a high energy, do everything all the time now, type of person. Things are slower, but accepting it makes me a lot happier.
Oh, and changes can still happen! I was treated at 24(ish, it's all still a little fuzzy) and I'm now 30 and we're adjusting me yet again because I was starting to feel a bit sluggish. I seem to feel best with a TSH of 2. Still, every once in awhile I feel symptomatic - hair loss, weight for no reason, sluggish. Just one of those things you have to go zen about and accept.
Good luck and relax :-)
It takes a while-I'd say it could be several months. I've had my dosage adjusted (always upward) 5 times in the past 7 years. It's never-ending vigilance.
But I do recommend making yourself get at least some exercise (even just walking), even if you don't feel you can do it, and getting plenty of regular sleep (even if you have to use a little Unisom or something to make it happen.)
Diagnosed hypo when I had fertility problems after my first son -- so about 7 years ago. It is a constant adjustment process. When I had my second son, I was whacked out for about a year, adjusting does every 3 months. I have been stable and feeling great now for about 4 years. I will say that weight loss (I lost about 70 pounds and have kept 60 off) helped a great deal. Who knows why. Just keep getting tested. Make sure you take your supplement AT THE SAME time every day. You'll get there.
DS-L
I was diagnosed a year ago. My TSH was 152. I could barely move. They put me on 150ugm.After a month they dropped me to 100. After a few months, my neck was swollen up and my TSH had dropped into the hyper range, they put me on 88ugm and sent me to an endocrinologist.
He diagnosed me with having a virus that settled into the thyroid and it caused the thyroid swell, and shed some cells, this makes you appear to be hyper thyroid when you really aren't. He said it would clear up in 6 months or so. GRRR. I was happy he upped the dosage back to 100ugm as I could tell I was gaining weight again. I just had my repeat bloodwork, hope to see him again this week. Did you know that your thyroid regulates tear production?
My eyes completely stopped making tears, so I was horrible problems with my contacts. Also my skin is as dry as the desert.
I'm a year into this diagnosis and while I don't feel it is regulated appropriately yet, I am definitely functioning and feeling pretty much close to normal again.
My regular doc, gave me the first prescription and said come back in a month, after my 1 month check she said, see you in a year. If my neck hadn't swollen up and hurt like hell, I wouldn't have gotten re-checked. Luckily she just said, none of your tests make any sense - you must see a specialist.
And it all seemed normal to him, this ping-ponging, thyroiditis crap.
Also L, have you read the stuff about soy and thyroid? I know you are veggie like me, the evidence seems to be anecdotal,and it seem to be people who ate ENORMOUS amounts of soy, which is not something I do. But just in case, I scaled back on a few of the things I was supplementing with (Luna bars!!).
ann r.
dear fellow thyroid sufferers,
most docs (including endos) know
little about thyroid - and most
of what they "know" is wrong.
if you can't get a diagnosis or you
still feel like cr*p on the meds
you've been given, check out this
site (very pro-armour, and a little too belligerent, but full
of info you won't get from your doc.)
http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/
also, join one or both of these
thyroid patient support groups.
the second is more armour-focused.
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/thyroid/
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/NaturalThyroidHormones/
it's your body. if you think something is wrong, you're right,
no matter what the doc says. keep
looking/reading/researching.
best, gina
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