Can anyone explain this, re: t3

[zekat]

Keav,
as frustrating as it is, HANG ONTO that doctor! It's sooooo difficult to find a doctor who will listen to how your feeling AND be so willing to try you on T3. I think Softcrush had a great suggestion - that you try a T4/Armour or strictly Armour med regimine. Many people feel much better on the natural stuff. However, if you really do feel better right not just not taking the T3, then don't take it!!

[keav]

Zekat, I know. I just re-read my response and I should not have said that my doc doesn't have experience in thyroid. Just the fact that he put my on t3 (and time-release for that matter!) means alot. I just have a love-hate relationship with him! When he told me last visit that he was going by how I feel and look, I told him, "do you know how many thyroid pt's want a doctor that says that?". He smiled.
I was going to skip my appt this week because I was kind of mad that he didn't call me back but I think I will go just so he can see how much better I look without the t3. I can see it in my face. I just cleaned my kitchen and don't feel exhausted....how sad!
I guess this is just trial and error. Sometimes it is so hard to be patient when we just want to feel good.
Thanks!

[softcrush]

Keav:

I noticed you say your doc isn't well versed in thryoid. Well, I hate to tell you....most docs aren't, but THINK they are. That can make them very difficult to deal with. So, in that respect you actually may be lucky.

I am on 37.5 mcg Synthroid and 2 + 1/4 Armour. I just bumped up my armour that 1/4 today. I'm still as dead as a rag doll, but I'm far more mentally with it, and feel more tucked "INSIDE" myself.

I have tried a time-released version of t3. Now, it may be just fine for you, depending on your condition. If you still have a thryoid gland, that is considerably different from the person who doesn't (like me).

Time released t3 left me still feeling hypo-thyroid...which was just as bad as having no treatment at all. My skin, went down the tubes. I look 10 years older just 10 months. That is just one of the more heartbreaking aspects.

One of the more insidious problems with T3, is it can move the labs, and trick the doctor into thinking you have been cured. When you still complain of symptoms, he'll refer you to another specialist, thinking that IT MUST be something other than your thryoid. (Sounds like your doc, is going to be more flexible, but its still something to be wary of.)

Now...you going in understand this will put you in a much better position to deal with it. I would perhaps tell the doc you'll give it a try, but if you aren't getting a reduxion in your symptoms in a couple weeks, you'd like to reserve the right to call and ask for an Armour script.

Sound good?

Good luck!
~S

[keav]

Thanks again S!
The input here means alot to me. I never want to go back on that time release t3 again! I felt horrible on it. I , like you, feel like I have aged also. My skin was so dry I could see the cracks and the white hair has been sprouting uncontrollably. I am 35 and know that is expected but I feel it has greatly increased in the past 6 months. I do think my doctor somewhat knows thyroid but at times I do have my doubts. For example, my tsh has been low the whole time I have been on t3. My understanding is that t3 will lower tsh. Well, he ordered an MRI on my pituitary. Better safe than sorry I guess.
I am afraid to go on any t3 now that I took myself off. I do have some armour here in my house. I am going to stay on the 225 mcg of synthroid for a few weeks and see how I feel.
I am sorry that you seem to have been through so much. Glad you are feeling a bit better. Hope you feel great soon. This is so mean to say, but don't you sometimes wish you could have people experience the fatigue we feel for just one day so they will understand??
Colleen

[softcrush]

Colleen:

Thanks for the kind response. Yes, I do wish they would take the thryoid out of all endocrinologists. Then they won't be so quick to judge Do you think we'd get any volunteers?

The thing I read about Armour is that it contains many vital things. One of which is something that are actually the "powerhouses" for your cells. Obviously some of those cells effect your skin cells and hair follicals. That is why we get dry skin and our hair falling out when we our thryoid glands faulter. In other words you get rapid ageing.

I also found out recent discoveries indicate all cells have kind of a little motor in it's walls, like an engine in your car with a stick shift! If that cell doesn't get the information (to pass along to its neighbors) it needs, it will die, or forget what it is supposed to do and perhaps turn against the other cells(cancer).

So in the end Science is discovering that low-life...is really very sophisticated!

The nuerotransmitters in the brain, are particulary sensitive to a lack of T3 because the information interruption effects your thinking...so you notice it more there. The body actually swells while the head shrinks when you are hypothryoid. The brain needs lots of fat in order to stay in good form, but what happens when you are hypo...is much like getting SEVERELY dehydrated. So you get to be kind of like a swollen prune. What you see on the outside is really only a fraction of what is happening on the INSIDE. Pretty whacked huh?

I know...I'm such a geek. But figured I'd share. LOL

~S