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Just heard from Cleveland Clinic doctor because I put in a call yesterday. He told me to take 3 Tapazole each day. I have been on 1 10mg Tapazole.
My last TSH is .066. Why increase Tapazole? I don’t LIKE this pill. I have already put on 3 pounds due to this or menopause, I don’t know. I exercise like crazy, watch what I eat but can’t lose weight. I am afraid if I take 30mg a day, I will get fat as a house!
Why play with this drug? Why can’t we just cut to the chase and do RAI or surgery? This makes no sense to me.
Hello – The really important measure in making dosing decisions with Anti-Thyroid Drugs is Free T4 (and some docs measure T3 as well). TSH can remain suppressed for quite some time in Graves’ patients, so it’s really not a good benchmark for making dosing decisions.
It’s helpful to get hard copies of your labs so that you can see for yourself where your levels are compared to the “normal” range.
Dosing with anti-thyroid drugs is part art, part science…and it can take some time to find the “sweet spot” that will get you to feeling well again. We’re not allowed to interpret labs or make dosing recommendations here, but if your doc’s recommendation doesn’t make sense to you based on your labs, definitely be persistent and keep calling until you can get someone to explain the decision to you.
Although the dosing process with anti-thyroid drugs does seem arbitrary, keep in mind that it’s the same scenario with replacement hormone following RAI or surgery. Your doc makes his/her best guess at an initial dose of replacement hormone based on factors such as weight, age, and any co-existing medical conditions…and then that dose will be tweaked every few weeks until your labs and symptoms stabilize. Some patients dial in to the right dose fairly quickly, while others can take months (or longer) to find that “sweet spot”.
Take care!
thank you, Kimberly for your explanation, I truly appreciate it!
Wow tripling your dose?! Did the doc say you were extremely hyperthyroid or that your levels were way above normal? Totally agreeing with Kimberly that you deserve to get an explanation for this change that feels right to you.
yes, I think it’s a bit much myself. Going to blood lab in the next few days FIRST before taking 3 Tapazole! I don’t like this pill!!!! Did I say that? LOL!
Hello – I would really encourage you to try and get an explanation from your doc (or perhaps from a physician’s assistant), rather than postponing his/her recommendation on dosage changes.
The goal is to get your levels stabilized *and* to get you to feeling well again, so there very well may have been a specific reason for the change. (But you certainly deserve to understand what that reason is!)
I take three and I have been feeling good. I think you will notice an improvement in a few days?
Well, what is it that John Lennon said? “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans?” Mother is sick. Had to take her to hospital. Husband has appointments for his teeth and diabetes. I had to see eye doctor. It never rains but it pours and now it’s the weekend and no endo until Wednesday! So I can’t even get to the blood lab! Grrrrrr………….
Oh my. Any chance you can call the on call doc, ask them to send a requisition to a lab so you can get your lab work this weekend? Or at least, on Monday, so you will have the results when you have your appointment. THe results are done and available in just a few hours.
I hope your mom is getting better. Not fun go go to hospital. Sounds like your plate is really full! I hope you are able to sleep tonight.
ShirleyHello – agree with Shirley that the doc on call might be able to get a lab requisition to you sooner than Wednesday. Also, if you are still feeling really poorly, an urgent care center should at least be able to get labs done for you, so you have them available in time for the doc’s appointment on Wednesday.
Again, I would *definitely* encourage you to contact the doc’s office ASAP if you are still delaying making the dosage change that was recommended.
Hope that things are going better for your mom!
That’s very kind of you but my doctor’s appointment isn’t until March 13, 2013. The labs here are closed on Saturday and will be closed for the weekend and on Monday because of New Year’s Eve and then Tuesday, New Year’s Day.
We have the aftercare center where I just took my mother before they hospitalized her. She is 87 and has a very bad case of bronchitis which they think could turn into pnuemonia. This is very much like former President Bush. She is not in ICU, but it could happen if she doesn’t improve.
Husband has diabetes and went to his endo which used to be my endo and misdiagnosed me so I STAY away from him or I’ll have to punch him out.
He is about the only one that has Saturday hours along with his dentist. Lucky him.
So I’m pretty much stuck between a rock and a hard place and worrying about my mother who is the only parent I have left.
If I call Cleveland Clinic, no matter who is on call, they can fax a req to the hospital for me but they still don’t have a person to draw blood until Wednesday.
vanillasky wrote:If I call Cleveland Clinic, no matter who is on call, they can fax a req to the hospital for me but they still don’t have a person to draw blood until Wednesday.That sounds kind of suspicious to me – a hospital has to be functioning 24/7, perhaps they could make a special accommodation to do your blood work if they knew your circumstances? I’m sorry your mom is ill and so much is happening for you all at once – the rain is falling in my life too, when it gets too much make sure you give a little time for yourself.
I think I remember that the Cleveland Clinic is not where you are. Right?
I am just thinking out loud, but how about the Cleveland Clinic faxing the lab request to you, and perhaps your primary care doc’s office would draw the lab?
But I don’t want to belabor this at all. trying to brainstorm a solution for you when we don’t know the facts (except that every darn place is closed for many days! I am visiting in California, and this family has doctor appointments on Monday! Go figure.Well, GW Bush is out of the ICU, and I hope your mother stays out of it. I hope she gets good care, recovers fast. Hospitals are not the places anyone wants to be, or wants a relative there. They are not conducive to any kind of rest, or familiar food. I hope she gets out of there fast!
I certainly approve of your decision to stay away from the endo who did not think of your symptoms and make a correct diagnosis. Happens too frequently!
Thinking of you, and sure hoping you are feeling a wee bit better, and that your mom improves and goes home soon.
Shirleyah, thanks, Catstuart! The only way to get a blood draw there this time of year would be to get admitted which I have no reason to be. I’m not in thyroid storm or anything that could be life-threatening. I’d have to fake it and go to ER which I certainly don’t want to do.
That’s how it is around here. That’s the reason my father died. He got sick over Christmas 2002 and when we called the doctor, they were closed. It was around 11:30 on Christmas Eve Day. my mother had called the emergency exchange and they lied. They said he could come in if she called by 11:30 a.m. which she did and got a recording that they were away for the holidays!
He then got a threat from us that we wanted him to go to ER and he refused. He died the next morning.
My husband’s kidney specialist that the health care in this country ranks number 36. he said he was ashamed of how americans are treated and hopes that Obamacare is going to help the situation. I certainly hope so!
He also was disgusted with the lack of staff we have here in our hospitals during weekends and holidays.
We have already closed 2 hospitals in the last few years. One was in the inner city and the other right in the center of the city. There is a shortage of primary care here and endocrinologists. That’s why I ended up at Cleveland Clinic. It seems like they just can’t do anything right here. And these doctors got their licenses at K-mart.
Our emergency rooms are not even rooms anymore. They are over-crowded. They now have beds in the hallways at my local hospital where I go. This happened when they closed the other hospitals. It never gets any better around here. It does not pay to get ill!
@Shirley! thanks so much for your great idea. I can try to get ahold of Dr. G and if he’ll cooperate, I could do that. He would have to send me to one of his establishments but I don’t know if they are open either – worth a try! Then comes the question of insurance. I am only allowed to go to RGH hospital for blood draw or they won’t pay. However, I could always wing it and pick up the bill.
My primary care isn’t particularly interested in my thyroid condition. I send all information from Cleveland to him but I’m not sure how interested he is. He told me he was against removing my thyroid or ablating it. I don’t think he understands that I have Graves’ and still sides with Bingham that I have Hashimotos. These doctors here stick up for each other and their egos get in the way. They NEVER admit they are wrong.
This really goes down to Bingham’s fault because he never looked at the extensive idea of testing TSI or TPO. He just assumed that I had Hashimotos and that the thyroid gland would “die.” I was even told by him that my thyroid was enlarged by an ultrasound they did at the RGH.
According to Dr. Siperstein and Skugor at Cleveland, it is not enlarged. It also shows no deterioration like a Hashimoto’s patient would have. So I really don’t understand what he was looking at or the tech that did the test here. Tgey are complete turkeys!
My husband has OPLL. That is Ossification of the Posterior Longitudinal Long Ligaments of the spine. They wanted to operate on him here. We went to Cleveland Clinic for a second opinion. They have the top spinal doctor in the country, He said if they had operated, he said there was a good chance my husband would be paralyzed in a wheelchair by now. So you see what I’m up against. Idiots!
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