137's or 150's????

[Gatorgirl39]

Okay here is the deal- Thyroid cancer last year-got the whole thing removed-back and forth to endo to get synthroid level right- so far my labs are best with 137's. HOWEVER I have been feeling crappy for months and my friend says "you need a higher dose" so I self medicated and took some of the 150's I had left over from post surgery.  I felt soooo much better! I called endo- they want blood work-so I went today. Now I know they are probably going to say my levels are too high but will anyone ever treat the patient and not the labs????

[gimel]

Do you know what tests will be done?  I hope it is for free T3 and free T4, along with the ever-present TSH test.  Free (unbound) T3 is the active thyroid hormone that largely regulates metabolism and many other body functions.  Free T3 is four times as potent as free T4.    Free T3 correlates far better with symptoms than any other thyroid test.  The correlation between TSH and hypo symptoms is very poor.  Many doctors put most of their emphasis on TSH levels, and if your TSH is in the low end of the range or below, you're right, they may say your levels are too high.  
If it isn't too late, I'd call at the earliest possible time and make sure that free T3 and free T4 were to be tested.  The ideal situation would be as you describe, to treat the patient's symptoms by testing and adjusting free T3 and free T4 levels to bring the patient to the Euthyroid state, which means neither hypo nor hyper symptoms.  Getting to this may require a lot of serious discussions with the doctor.  Please keep us tuned in to your progress.