[Anonymous August 7, 2007 at 3:05 pm Post count: 93172]

#1020145

I just picked up my lab slip and my TSH reads in the normal range……however I am still having all the symptoms of hypo! I am so hoping that the dr understands that being within the normal range does not necassarily mean I am normal and does a little tweeking. I am wondering why they don’t check the other levels once you are on synthroid, prior to the ablation I would have a normal tsh level and a slightly higher or lower t4 level, do they ever check your other levels? Im just scared that they will never get me back to normal.

thanks for listening all

[Anonymous August 7, 2007 at 4:06 pm Post count: 93172]

#1076132

Hi Standing firm Iam having the same problem too. When my DR.
put me on 1.00 synthroid 3mts later he said I was to close
to hyper so I was put on .88 3mts later I was to close to hypo.
Now I alternate between 1.00 and .88 I am in the normal range
but having hypo symtoms. My Dr. doesn’t want to see me until
Nov. I have decided to change Doctors. I have an appointment
next week.I have heard a lot of good things about this Dr.I am
praying that He will be able to put me on the right dose and
listen to me instead of just looking at the numbers.
I will pray for you too. Our hope is in the Lord!

[Anonymous August 9, 2007 at 7:50 pm Post count: 93172]

#1076133

A bit of my own experience: I have felt hyper and gone to have my blood checked and had a TSH of 2.0. I have felt hypo and gone to have my blood checked and had a TSH of 2.0. I have also felt totally normal and had my blood checked (routine visit) and had a TSH of 2.0.

This experience has suggested to me that how we feel is not necessarily reflected in the TSH. We are so used to being ill, and recognizing certain symptoms as being symptoms of that illness, that I think we tend to forget that before we got Graves there were good days and bad for which we had no explanation. So, if your endo resists “tweaking” it might pay to try to figure out whether something else is going on that might be influencing how you feel. Are you under stress? Have you had enough time “at” normal levels of TSH for your body to heal? Etc. Sometimes the endo will “tweak” things a bit, but often they will not.

I do hope you are feeling better soon.
Bobbi — NGDF Online Facilitator

[Anonymous August 9, 2007 at 11:20 pm Post count: 93172]

#1076134

I don’t want to take away from what Bobbi is saying, because especially further down the road from treatment, not everything we experience is related to our thyroid levels. We forget we had bad days even before we had Graves’ Disease.

It also takes our bodies time to heal once we start on the path to stabilization of thyroid hormone replacement. In my case, I didn’t feel very well until I’d stopped changing doses frequently, and had been on a stable dose for at least a year. Every time I changed doses I went into a new period of hair loss, for example.

However, something else to keep in mind is that especially early in the course of stabilization, our doctors should not be looking only at the TSH reading. Free T4 and Free T3 readings are important too, since the TSH reading can be suppressed by thyroid antibodies called TBII, which attach themselves to TSH receptors in the pituitory gland and act like TSH, thus turning off (or lowering) our actual TSH reading.

This means that measuring our TSH can indicate that we have too much thyroid hormone when actually we may not have enough. Knowledgeable endocrinologists are aware of this, but some aren’t, and may still look at the TSH reading only.

It may be difficult in the early days of recovering from Graves’ which symptoms are a result of inadequte thyroid replacement and which might indicate you need more time to adjust and heal. I understand from my own experience how difficult it is to be told to be patient, when you’ve already been through what feels like so much already.

Still I suggest you give it some more time, and if you still don’t feel right, it’s a good sign your symptoms might indeed be thyroid related, and if your doctor isn’t willing to adjust your replacement dose to see if you feel better, it’s always worth getting a second opinion.

Best wishes,
Dianne W
Online Facilitator

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