I recently had bloods that weren't bad but showed hyperthyroid and as i feel worse since that blood test so i feel tsh which was 0.06 8 days ago has gone lower and i am drinking coconut water nd trying to add more potassium as ive seen my potassium drops quickly even eating potassium rich foods and i have swelling in my hands mostly especially my fingers its driving me nuts i am 23 im too young to deal with this
Thank you everyone! I am going to have my potassium checked. I thought I was going nuts and that I was the only one who suffered from swelling while I was hyper.
Yes it is!!!..Parsley mixed with your salads or just eat it raw..if you can stand it raw...Oranges and grapefruits too are diuretics..
I know it feels awful..feels like your ankles are restricted from movement.
The dr. prescribed Lasix 40 mg. a day which is a diuretic. It helps most days but by the end of the day I'm swollen again. So I start out swollen and end up swollen. lol
I had my heart checked while experiencing a panic attack. I get those frequently. I honest to God thought I was having a heart attack and no one could tell me different but my heart checked out okay. And like i said my BP is great.
Is lemon water a diuretic??
I know about the shoes!! MY ankles and feet can be swollen for a couple days and then it just goes away.
Have you been to the dr. lately and ask her for a diurectic.. There are many home remedies for water retention....Parsley...lemon
Make sure this is not something with the heart.
talk soon
mirabella
Mirabella - No I don't take any BP or heart meds. I have pretty low BP - runs typically about 95/65 to 105/70 - depends on my anxiety at the time I guess. I have no idea. The dr. did prescribe potassium because of the lasix (water pills) for the reasons that AR-10 stated. She also said depletion of potassium would have a negative effect on my kidneys.
Graveswoman - I can only say "THANK YOU". I thought I was losing my mind. My feet have grown almost a whole size since all of this. At first I was blaming the people who make shoes - haha - but then I tried on shoes I have had for a long time and they are too small. Not just too tight but actually too small.
AR-10 - THanks for researching that. Now that I am no longer hypo and am supposedly hyper - TSH 0.01 - it could explain it. I am still gaining weight so that would explain that. I guess I don't understand why/how I could be deficient though while taking a prescription potassium supplement. Last time it was checked - June I think - it was okay but I wasn't on the water pills then. I do have a lot of feet and toe cramping which is probably related to the deficiency.
I'm so tired of trying to understand and I feel like this has consumed me. I don't want a pity party but sometimes I just feel like stopping all the meds and seeing what happens. I only really started feeling bad in March after surgery. Before that I was fibrant and full of energy and fun. AR-10 is it possible to just stop it all and be okay?
Wow !! Thanks.. Makes sense.. I believe my potassium was fine, but I thought my Dr. was checking my tsh all along too and she wasnt.
My next Dr. appt is in March 2009...six month checkup after starting methimazole. I hope he will check it then. ( ENDO)
Thanks AR-10 for taking the time to research for me!!
"Potassium depletion not only causes irregular heart rate, but it seems to cause water to enter the cells and stay there, causing the body to swell up with edema. This is the reason why many hypers (and hypos) gain weight--it's all water retention. If you are swelling up, then you are probably potassium deficient, so take more potassium than magnesium. If you are losing weight, then probably magnesium is more deficient than potassium, so take more magnesium than potassium."
OK, now, I want to post a disclaimer.
I copied and pasted this from a site that I think was written by a nutbar, who posts a disclaimer that he is not a doctor, just a guy who has read a lot.
I have no idea if he knows what he's talking about or not. He has some very odd ideas. I would not take his advice seriously.
But it is what I had been trying to remember from earlier.
I found this on a better site, but it doesn't say it is related to hyperthyroidism in any way.
"Sodium
An essential mineral that our bodies regulate and conserve. Excess sodium retention increases the fluid volume (edema) and low sodium leads to less fluid and relative dehydration. The adult body averages a total content of over 100 grams of sodium, of which a surprising one-third is in bone. A small amount of sodium does get into cell interiors, but this represents only about ten percent of the body content. The remaining 57 percent or so of the body sodium content is in the fluid immediately surrounding the cells, where it is the major cation (positive ion). The role of sodium in the extracellular fluid is maintaining osmotic equilibrium (the proper difference in ions dissolved in the fluids inside and outside the cell) and extracellular fluid volume. Sodium is also involved in nerve impulse transmission, muscle tone and nutrient transport. All of these functions are interrelated with potassium."
Now, that's two different thoughts, and sodium levels may not be related to hyperthyroidism anyway.
Low potassium is related to hyperthyroidism though. It might be worth the trouble to have your potassium checked.
I was searching Google this morning about hyperthyroidism and low potassium.
I went through about twenty links, and somewhere along the way I read a bit about how hyperthyroidism leads to water retention. I can't remember if it related to potassium levels or calcium levels or just what.
It had something to do with individual cells holding more water. I'll poke around and see if I can find it.
Awww I know how it feels..maybe this will go away eventually.
my feet have actually gotten bigger, yes we all know the bloat. i am a graves patient, but just got thrown in to hypo hell from my PTU, and i can say that either hyper or hypo I am a beach ball. my feel are like walking on wet sponges. gush, gush gush
Yeah they do me too!! Now do you have to take heart medication also? I take atenolol because of palpitations with hyper...and the water pill keeps my blood pressure down.
Hypo and Hyper must have some of the same symptoms.
I was tested for RA and it was negative so it is my thyroid. It drives me crazy because my shoes hurt my feet and sometimes I can't even wear my wedding ring. I keep thinking eventually it will go away. I just want to get off the water pills and potassium - they make me sick to my stomach.
Thanks for the advice!!
I feel like a Camel storing up for a special occasion. Sometimes I never have swelling..just seems too come all at once..then its hard to get rid of..
Today I was out painting in the sun and I got really sick. I am feeling better now that I am inside and cool...I sort of forget because I am feeling better that the heat makes me feel crazy.
I am a 25 year old male and I have this. It isnt a female specific issue and I am Hyperactive Thyroid.
Ask to be checked out for Rheumatoid Arthritis, it can sometimes be related to thyroid disease. I take it the swelling is worse in the early mornings and late at night? Best thing you can do is keep your fingers and joints moving even if it hurts, keep the mobility going. Try and see if the doctor can try and give you some pain meds and meds to take the swelling down.
Also if you think its thyroid related (which i think mine is) make sure you are very forward with your doctor about it. It seems doctors beat around the bush alot with Thyroid related symptoms
I was suffering from this for quite a while. I am hypo. They were trying to figure out if I had some type of arthritis (they never try to put anything back to my thyroid). Anyway, I had surgery to remove ovarian cysts in June and shortly thereafter I started trying to lose weight and I stopped my too frequent red wine drinking and lo and behold my swelling and pain has gone down. All my shoes are too big for me and I had to have my rings resized. My thyroid results were all over the place and perhaps things are under control now. Very strange.
Thanks for replying..My hands are awful in the morning..by late afternoon they go down a little. I didnt know if it was do to lack of periods and hyper...Must be just a women thing...drives me nuts
Hi Mira
I have hashi's. At first I was on the hypo side of it and now they tell me I am critically low hyper with a tsh of 0.01. When I was hypo I was swollen - feet, hands, ankles, just generally bloated everywhere. So, when they did blood work again and said now I am hyper I tried to stop taking the water pills because I hate taking the potassium too but I still swell so here I sit still taking the lasix and potassium. It seems like it doesn't matter - hypo/hyper - I'm still swollen. I don't understand it. I can't hardly get my rings on in the morning (sometimes I can't at all). Some rings and shoes don't even fit now.
They have no explanation. Sorry I can't give you one either but if you find out let me know.