hyperthyroid and strange symptoms

[Henrietta3]

Over the past 3-4 years I have gone from having Grave's disease to hypothyroid to normal and was closely monitored during pregnancy and now my thyroid is running a little high again.  I am on a low dose of synthroid (from when it was low) and the Dr. cut it back a little when my labs were a little high.  Anyways, during my thyroid problems, I have had some strange symptoms and I am wondering if they are related.  I experience some strange sensations such as buzzing, light tingling (sometimes rythmic in nature), twitches on different areas of my body, mainly my legs right now.  I have also had 2 episodes 2 years apart in which the skin on my entire body felt sunburned.  This lasted about 2 weeks and it hurt to wear clothes, however unlike a sunburn, hot showers felt good and skin was not hot to the touch.  
A few other symptoms I am having include: an achy left leg (on and off for the last couple weeks), forgetfulness, panicky feelings, a little shakiness in my hands, and a twice I have experienced some shaking in my right fore-arm and hand when making a fist and tilting the fist back. This lasted for a couple hours each time. One of my more bizarre symptoms occurs when I am breastfeeding my baby.  Depending on which side he is nursing on, when he sucks I feel a crazy tickling sensation down the back of that leg.  It goes away if his sucking pauses and resumes when he starts sucking again.  Possible or am I imagining it?
I am just not sure if I am just full of anxiety (which runs in my family), having thyroid problems or something worse like MS.  Any ideas?
Thanks

[suzytoo]

A related discussion, thyroid disorders was started.

[regina0321]

Doctors recently told me I had Graves.  My mother recently passed 60 days ago. She was in the hospital for awhile with vaiouis problems.  Mothers day of 2004 I hd taken her to a doctor that told us she had hypothyriod. She was 81 years old. She had the RAI and the meds followed.  She had tremendous mood swings.  She became anemic, conjestive heart failure sat in and a cancer cell was found on her lung.  Needless to say now that the doctors have found that I have Graves,I am frighten.  One doc. said I needed the RAI another says take the meds because we don't know if the cancer was the result of the RAI.  My eyes have been affected. I don't sleep, I have shakes,painic attackes. I am confused.  When I reflect, I must have had this problem for years undiscovered.  Can anyone lead me to the natural alternatives
Thanks

[BCLVSJC]

hang in there. My regular doctor prescribed a very LOW dose of Xanax (.25 mg) for the tremors and anxiety. He said I can use it 3x a day if I need to, but I only take it a couple of times a week to get sleep.  It can be EXTREMELY addictive.  He also prescribed me Atelolol (which is a beta blocker ) for the tremors a couple of weeks ago, and it seems to be helping. The PTU is still causing more weight gain though. ( but I do feel a little better so it is a trade off ) Hope you feel better soon.

[BCLVSJC]

No C-section.  I had an MRI to rule out MS. That's when we found the hyperthyriod. ( the doc did additional blood work. )

[davidn]

Did you have a c-section? Are you taking any vitamins with niacin? MS is a possibility, my sister and sister inlaw have MS and have conplained of simular symptoms.

[rhonda.39]

Ihave experienced alot of the same symptoms...had the thyroid scan yesterday...tingling feelings... helpless and hopeless...results not back yet...want some relief...thanks for the info

[BCLVSJC]

About a year and a half ago I suddenly experience what I thought to be air sickness as I was a first-time flyer and already 50 years old. I had extreme dizzyness, nausea, disorientation, and what I thought was an extreme adreneline rush.  The problem was that it subsided for a few hours then returned and lasted for four days. I thought I was going to die. I was visiting my son at his boot camp graduation and faced the probability of him serving in the middle east, so I thought it might be a really bad case of nerves. Well when I returned home out of nowhere it happened again one week later.  In addition to the previously mentioned symptoms, I experienced whole body tremmors and my skin turned red and felt like it was sunburned even though it wasn't hot to the touch. I went to the doctor and he told me it was menopause and gave me a shot of synthetic hormones.  It didn't work.  I couldn't eat because I felt so nauseated. When I did eat the food wouldn't digest and just came back up a few hours later. I went back to the doctor, saw another one in the same practice and he said it was menopause and possible panic disorder.  I began taking synthetic hrt ( which only made be sicker ) .  I consulted with a compounding pharmacist and got prescribed natural hrt. Although it didn't help it didn't make me sick and I am post menopausal for three years now.  I went to see yet another doctor in the same practice and he said it was anxiety and prescribed me anti-depressants. ( I didn't take them because I knew it had to be something physical ) meanwhile I dropped 30 pounds in 6 months. I went several more times to the doctor and the tremmors, anxiety, nausea and weight loss just didn't get better.  I started experiencing tingling in my arms and hands and a sort of tremmor of my tongue. I started getting chills and when I turned my head too fast it was like an electrical shock. Like getting startled. I could tell when a bad "attack" was coming because my tongue sort of swelled up and my mouth got really dry.  I also started a kind of muscle twitching and cramping in my legs, especially at bedtime.  It seemed that bedtime was the worst time because all along, since the episode on the plane, I just couldn't fall asleep very well and if I did I had vivid dreams. I saw a fourth doctor at the same practice and he gave me .25mg Xanax to help with the anxiety and to help me get a little sleep. It really did help me sleep, but I wasn't getting rested.  And I found out that Xanax could become extremely addictive and cause problems all by itself, so I limited that to just a .25mg pill when the tremmors and chills got out of control.Almost a year went by and I got so tired of not knowing when and if another attack was looming I decided I was going to take control of what ever this was and demanded to be sent to a neurologist.  He spent ten minutes with me and sent me for a thyroid blood test.  Sure enough my levels were very high. I took the results back to my doctor and he prescribed Propylthiouracil (PTU) 150mg a day. That, along with the .25mg of Xanax has helped minimally. One set back is that I have gained 25 pounds since the PTU.  I had a thyroid scan done and it revealed hyperthyroidism. It has been a year and a half now and this still is not resolved. I am still tremmoring and getting an electrical like feeling in my arms. I have mild palpataions of my heart and still can't sleep.  I am exploring the idea of the radioactive iodine to kill the thyroid and taking replacement, but do not want to take anything synthetic. I have to research a little bit more before I agree to a permanant proceedure that I may or may not be able to control later on.  My point is this...take charge of your own body and don't just take the doctors' words for anything. Make them give you tests. They told me it was all in my head and it wasn't. Research and go on the internet.  There are answers there to be found and information to arm yourself with when you go see your doctor. I will let you know how it ends up for me. If I decide to go through with the radioactive iodine then maybe I will feel better. Right now I still feel pretty bad. If there is anyone out there who has had a similar experience as I have had ( and I expect there has to be someone else besides me ) I hope you find this website and share what you did to feel better. Thanks for the space to share. Be well !!!

[kfk]

I have a thyroid disorder also and my hands would always tingle and my ears would ring.