Hi Sue…sorry to hear that you’re not feeling as good as you were. The bad news is that I think this can be fairly common. The good news is that it’s probably just another “stage” in recovery and will get better soon. If I remember correctly, it was right about this time in my own recovery (maybe a little sooner) that I went from feeling really good, not perfect, but pretty good…to feeling awful.
I was started on 100mcg of Synthroid & did really well on that. But I still had thyroid hormone in my blood. Once that depleted I went hypo, practically overnight (yes, like someone had “flipped a light switch!). At first I thought I was going hyper, but then realized that it felt a bit different. Got my labs and found my TSH had jumped from 2-something to the teens (I think those labs were only 2 weeks or so apart!). My dose was increased to 112, began to feel better, but never as good as I did in the initial weeks after surgery. Reported it about 3 or 4 weeks later, labs were repeated, and was increased to 125. Began to feel even better…much better…and my labs were all in range. Then I began to feel rough again at the 7 month post-op mark. I had gone hypo again, not as hypo as previously, in fact my labs were in the normal range. But my endo likes the TSH to be between 1 & 2 and I was 2.6 w/ symptoms and my T3, while in range, was at the bottom of the range. So she increased me to 137.5 just a few days ago. I asked if this is normal or if I’m one of “those” patients. She said she sees this often, it takes awhile, and for some it can take up to a year to fully regulate. That probably sounds scary, but in my experience each set of symptoms leading to a med adjustment is a little less severe than the time before. Still not fun, but at least I can tell that overall I’m making forward progress.
The initial month or 2 post-TT is a little complicated by the fact that you can experience a thyroid dump causing hyper days, and then at some point the hormones stored in the body are completely depleted. If replacement isn’t high enough yet, then you’re on to hypo days.
Just an FYI. Don’t panic if they increase (or decrease) your dose and you find that you feel worse for a few days to a week. I always do. Apparently I’m hyper-sensitive to “moving” my level, even if it’s in the right direction.
I want to reassure you tho. Even tho I am 7 months post-op and getting yet another adjustment in meds…I don’t feel nearly as rough as I did with the earlier adjustments. It’s an interesting phenomenon each time. The first one nearly knocked me down. Each one is so much less severe as I get closer to the “just right” spot. If you ask me if I feel better than I did a week ago the answer is sometimes yes, sometimes no. But if at any point you ask me if I feel better than I did a couple of months ago, the answer is always yes. If that makes any sense.
This WILL pass! 