Desperate- Levoxyl bad reaction??

[MimiH]

Desperate for help! December's test showed:
T4 (free) 1.1
T4 (Thyroxine) total 9.5
TSH 5.11
T3 Free 381
Doctor put me on 0.125mg Levoxyl daily pill. Was fine for about a month, but have reached horrible crisis point: palpitations, breathless, weak, hair loss, terror (anxiety), chronic insomnia, warm/cold tingly discomfort. Help! Will stop taking it but will I recover soon? Feels like I'm going crazy.

[thyroid man]

if depends on how overdosed u are and for how long. if u just started feeling hyper and went off ur pills it should't take that long to get normal. maybe a few days. but u have to keep in mind that a person can feel nervouse and feel like they are taking too high a dose when they are first adjusting to a dose. whenever the doc raises my dose i start to sweat a lot and get nervous
and think it is too high. then i eventully feel better than b4. it can take awhile to totally adjust to a new dose. up to 2 months. if us really think it is high i would go have it checked asap.

[GravesLady]

What is your Labs reference range.  Your FT-3 looks like a T-3 reading for US Labs. Or did you forget the decimal? Regardless, it looks too high compared to your FT-4 which could suggest something going on. A high
F/T-3 can cause hyper symptoms. Of course this depends on what your Labs reference range is.

Was your test done before or after the med. dose?  

Was this your first dose? If so 125 is way toooo high.  Should have started you out on a 100 and go slow from there.   You sound over dosed  per you your symptoms, call the doctor let him know!  Don't stop meds. without your doctors knowledge and approval.  If you feel worse, symptoms more pronounced,  get into doctors or the ER fast, you might be having a med. induced thyroid storm.

Let me know how you are doing and your Labs reference ranges.

Stay cool.

Just my personal opinion and/or experience. Always discuss your health issue with your doctor , always adhere to your doctors advise and, you always have the right to a second opinion. Nothing is a 100% or a 100%, 100% of the time. However, we are not all alike!

GL,
1990 - Hyper/Graves'
1997 - Dia/RAI
1997 - MVP - Mitral Valve Prolapse
1999 - TED - slight Thyroid Eye Disease
1999 - Visible Nodule (suspect Marine-Lenhart-Syndrom/hyperfunctioning nodule)
2000 - SAS  - Short Attention Span (short, spaced paragraphs, sweet and to the point helps)
2002 -  IED  - Intermittent Explosive Disorder (Graves' Range)
2007 -  A/ITP (suspect)

[MimiH]

I'm so grateful for your quick replies. I had the blood tests done here in the USA and copied the numbers as it was printed out-- tests were done prior to any medication. The bottle said to take 1/2 a pill for 4 days, then a full pill, which I started doing Dec 29th (so about 8 weeks ago). I've never been on any thyroid medication, and I forgot to add something that may be important: Doctor also put me on hormone therapy (natural progesterone, testosterone, DHEA and then the thyroid pill.)

I started feeling kind of freaky last week nut since I've had pretty bad insomnia for 6 weeks, I attributed my symptoms to that. But today seems like the worst day so far. I get weird flashes of fear, sweats, anxiety, heart palpitations... just reading about what a  "thyroid storm" is has scared me greatly! I have sort of "mild" symptoms but now I'm so worried-- do I need to go to the ER? (I've never been to an ER, so that's scary) My symptoms seem to have started about 2 days ago and flare up every 2 hours.
Now I'm petrified.

[GravesLady]

Its time to be tested again to see if you are on the correct dose or if levels need adjustment, in which I think  might due to your symptoms and hormone therapy which could effect your levels also.

A true thyroid storm is very rare.  However hyper symptoms are nothing to fool around with either.  As long as your symptoms are mild you should be ok, although I'd call doctor Monday for safe assurance.

I am so sorry.  Please don't be petrified, just be aware and listen to your body. Being aware is half the battle. Your symptoms could be from something else going on although you won't know until you talk with doctor.

Please - you are going to be ok. And stressing is not good, so relax.  You'll be alright.

Just my personal opinion and/or experience. Always discuss your health issue with your doctor , always adhere to your doctors advise and, you always have the right to a second opinion. Nothing is a 100% or a 100%, 100% of the time. However, we are not all alike!

GL,
1990 - Hyper/Graves'
1997 - Dia/RAI
1997 - MVP - Mitral Valve Prolapse
1999 - TED - slight Thyroid Eye Disease
1999 - Visible Nodule (suspect Marine-Lenhart-Syndrom/hyperfunctioning nodule)
2000 - SAS  - Short Attention Span (short, spaced paragraphs, sweet and to the point helps)
2002 -  IED  - Intermittent Explosive Disorder (Graves' Range)
2007 -  A/ITP (suspect)

[lhowell]

I didn't have a chance to read all of the comments, but I just want to say that .125 dosage is too high (just as GravesLady said).  My TSH was 6.43 when I was first dx'ed and I started out at .50 and moved to .75 6 weeks later.  I think I'm now at the correct dosage.

And it does take time to get used to the medicine...I'm sure you feel bad at .125, no doubt.  But yeah, too much too soon.

[sblumen]

For what it is worth, I can relate.  I had similiar symptoms when starting levoxyl...and it was even worse when I switched to Armour.  At the time, my doctor told me it couldn't be the medicine because my TSH was so good... but in seeing all the comments I think the doctor started me out at too high a dose.... especially considering that my highest TSH was 4.5... which isn't that high.  Since the doctor told me it wasn't the medicine, I stayed at the too high dose for several months before reducing it... which over time has relieved most of the side affects.  

The aide affects I feel I had that were related to the Levoxyl and Armour were nervousness, sweating, high body temperature (99-100), heat intolerance, frequent adrenaline rushes in my chest for no reason apparent reason.

The other thing that confused my doctors is I was also havign trouble with premenopause.  Many of the symptoms overlap... but estrogen only helped a little while reducing the meds made it almost stop (except for the one last thing which is this awful insomnia).

I think I just need to start all over in a couple of months.  I am seeing a doctor at the Mayo clinic next week.  I hope he knows what to do.  

[luv2dance]

I just read all your posts and it definitely sounds like symptoms of adrenal fatigue which almost always goes hand-in-hand with Hypothyroidism. After being on Levothyroxine and then switched over to Synthroid both within a 13 month period, my doc changed me to Armour thyroid. Within 2 days I was feeling better than i did when i was on the synthetics (in the long-run they eventually made me ill with antibodies 773)However within a few weeks I had heart palpitations, sweating, dizziness, a lot of the symptoms you described. I learned that I had possible adrenal fatigue because I had taken a few of the home tests and it proved it (BP and pupils)I went to my doc (not an endo but my regular PCP) and asked him if i can try Hydrocortisone, a pill (also called Cortef)and he agreed. Well at the advice of some good friends on the internet I started off the Cortef slowly till i built up to 20mg a day. I was also advised to stop the Armour for the first few days of starting the Cortef in order for the excess Armour in my blood to be used up. I went off Armour for 4 days. When I resumed I noticed my symptoms were starting to diminish and in less than a month I felt noticeably better (no more sweating, heart palps gone, anxiety gone)I was also advised to slowly wean off the Cortef when i reach my optimal dose of Armour...i will be there this week.

I know a lot of people do well on the synthetics (my sisters-in-law are 2 of them and they're doing just fine) but they weren't right for me. Armour changed my life for the better. Please look into having your adrenals checked. Hope I helped you

[sblumen]

I am very interested to hear how you do over time.  I felt so much better when I switched to Armour... except that I had the adrenaline rushes, sweating etc... on the whole I felt alot better.  At the time I did a cortisol test but it was normal.  Laast week I stopped all my thyroid meds.  I also did another cortisol (saliva)test.  I am interested to see what it says.  

If i don't do well off the thyroid meds, maybe the cortisol will help me.  I did think it was interesting that my TSH etc were all in the normal range but I was having all these hyper symptoms.  I was told I was over medicated... and I did ask about other things like cortisol but of course conventional doctors don't believe in that.

best of luck!  I hope things work ou now that you have had the cortisol supplemented.

[jerseygirl44]

I have been treated for Hypothyroidism for a number of years. I currently take 125 MCG of Levoxyl. I have been feeling exhausted lately, so I went and had my levels tested again. The nurse practioner who ordered the tests said that my levels are low, so she was going to lower my medication. That does not make sense to me. In the past, when I was told my thyroid was sluggish and my levels were a little low, they increased the dosage.  She said that it works the opposite - if the levels are low, that means the brain is trying to get the thyroid to produce less hormone to make up for it because the thyroid is working too hard. I thought that if the levels were low, the thyroid was not making enough hormone, so we supplement it with synthetic hormone. Does this make sense to anyone? I searched for information online about adjusting Levoxyl dosages, but could find nothing helpful. Thank you!