So far, so great!
Well. Just got back from the doc’s office… and the appointment couldn’t have gone better.
- There is a virus going around that would explain most of my ‘returned’ symptoms.
- My blood test results were pretty much ideal.
- And best of all, even though my test results were fine, she agreed to give me an Armour prescription!
You may wonder why, if my symptoms are not due to my thyroid, and my blood test results were great, I would want to mess with my medication? Well, I’d love to say it’s all for the benefit of YOU, my dear reader, and my interest in providing you with a more complete tale of the variables available to today’s hypothyroid patient… but it’s not.
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Symptoms Suddenly Getting Worse?!
Well hell. I am not a happy camper this week. I was really hoping my .15mg levothyroxin dose would keep working for a long time, and I could convince my doc to write an Armour prescription for me this week. But now it looks like I’m going to need a higher dose. And then I’ll have to wait until the new dose is apparently “working” to my Dr’s satisfaction. And then maybe I’ll get to lobby for a trial run on Armour again.
Because my symptoms are suddenly coming back. With a vengeance. Just this week, I noticed my feet swelling up again. Then I noticed my leg muscles were feeling achy, and starting to cramp up for no reason again. My short term memory has gone AWOL again… and today when I woke up (after sleeping longer than I have in months), I felt exhausted. The only major thing I have not noticed is my hands and feet getting cold again, and I’m scared to set foot on a scale… But I’m not going to wait until I’m feeling 100% as horrible as I used to before getting something done about it.
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my advice …
People ask for my advice a lot around here. [Which is why I decided to leave the comments turned off when I brought the site back from the dead … I really didn't have time to keep up with them the way I'd like to.] So, first off, I want to re-iterate a few things: I’m not a doctor. I’m not even an “expert” on hypothyroidism… I was diagnosed back in October, less than six months ago. I have only tried one medication (generic levothyroxin) so far. I can only speak from my own personal experience, and what research I’ve done online and in books.
That said… It seems the number one piece of advice I end up handing out is: Get a second opinion or get a new doctor. And I stand by that. The number two piece of advice seems to be: Try a new medication or a different dose. I also stand by that. There are multiple medications available for hypothyroidism, and that wouldn’t be the case if only one of them worked. There are multiple doses available in each medication, and that wouldn’t be the case if it were a one-size-fits-all deal.
So. If you’re on a medication that is not alleviating your symptoms, trying a different med or a different dose would seem to be a logical step, so long as your blood tests aren’t putting you in hyperthyroid range yet. And if your doctor brushes off your complaints about your symptoms, your doctor is not doing his/her job, which is to help you, the patient, maintain optimum health. If your doctor is brushing you off, or refusing to try a different treatment, or saying everything is as good as it’s going to get, even though you still feel terrible… find a new doctor.
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