[catstuart7]

#1059018

For those of you who had RAI how long did it take before you got settled down on a dose of replacement hormone that worked and you felt healthy again?

[Bobbi]

#1171591

There’s no concrete answer to this question, catstuart7. I felt immensely better within a month after RAI than I had while I was hyperthyroid. I remember sitting in my endo’s office, hearing her say that this was the “worst” I would feel, and telling her that I felt pretty darned good! I always looked at “progress” rather than for some absolute sense of “normal,” which probably helped me to tide whatever months it took to be truly “normal” feeling after treatment. Other people, looking for other things, have reported longer periods of time until they felt well again. Some folks, for example, feel fine while hyper. They haven’t gotten as sick as I was. So, they don’t necessarily feel as well at the lower end of things as they think they should. All of it is subjective. Which is why there probably is no concrete answer.

[NLBatten]

#1171592

I am very new to this ride (DX 2/21/12; RAI 2/24/12), but for what it is worth, I felt a lot better within about 3 weeks – at first anyway. My first labs were 4 weeks after RAI and TSH still registered <.008 with slightly improved T3 & T4, but I had more energy than I had in a very long time and and the beta blockers had stopped my tremors, so she took me off them and I did fine. About 3 more weeks (i.e. 6 weeks after RAI), I started feeling tired, nails were peeling, was very cold (not at all like me), gained 9 lbs in 8 days....clearly HYPOThyroid in my mind anyway so I asked them to go ahead and redo labs as I was headed out of town and worried where the numbers were. I retested at 6 weeks and TSH was already 7.8 with low T3 and T4, so they started me on Synthroid (7 weeks post-RAI as they were a bit slow in responding to my test). Apparently Synthroid takes a few weeks to take effect, so I am trying to wait patiently. I don't feel awful but I don't feel as good as I did a few weeks ago. Hoping the Synthroid works soon.

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