[Kimberly]

#1060698

From Laurenleeholley:

Hello,
I’m new to the forum. I am hoping to gain some knowledge about what’s happening with me.
I’m 36, female.
I did RAI in 2009.
I took levothyroxin 112mcg for 6 years, no problems.
10/2014, I stopped converting T4 so they added Cytomel and I continued levothyroxin but only 100mcg. Its been rocky, but for the most part working.
Last week I started having intense over active symptoms. Got tested, my TSH is nearly 0.
I stopped Cytomel 8 days ago. It seems though, however, my hyper active symptoms are getting stronger each day.

I originally thought, hooray, I’m once again converting the t4! But now that I’m off Cytomel well long enough for it to be out of my system, being over-active with 100 mcg of levothyroxin seems unlikely.

Has anyone ever done RAI and then their thyroid starts working again?
Thank you!
Lauren

[Kimberly]

#1184197

Hello and welcome! We are fellow patients here, not docs, but here are a couple of thoughts…

1. We’ve heard stories from other patients who experienced a return of their hyper symptoms with products like Armour or Cytomel. So it could just be that you need to get recalibrated with a dose of a T4-only product like Synthroid, Tirosint, etc..

2. For patients who were treated several years ago, docs used to try to give just the right dose of RAI that would kill off *part* of the thyroid but not all of it. The theory was that if you destroyed just the right amount of thyroid tissue, that the patient would end up euthyroid (normal) and wouldn’t have to take *any* meds. However, some of these patients ended up experiencing a recurrence of hyperthyroidism and needed to be re-treated. So you might go back to your doc and ask about the original dose that you were given.

Either way, you and your doc will definitely want to keep a close eye on things. Keeping tabs on Free T4 and T3 will be important as well, given that your TSH suppressed and you are obviously having symptoms.

Hopefully, you can get some relief soon!

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