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levothyroxine absorption and hard water?

I was recently diagnosed with a "uninodular goiter"and hypothyroidism, and my doctor prescribed 25mcg of levothyroxine.

My journey in monitoring my thyroid began when, at 16 i complained to my doctors physicians assistant that I was sweating uncontrollably for no reason. She treated me for hypothyroidism with synthroid. After a month on the drug, I quit taking it.

I've been off it until 2 weeks ago. the first full day on the meds, I felt less tired and nagging, excruciating shoulder pain I had been experiencing was simply gone. It stayed that way until yesterday... I have been feeling like I did pre-medication. Exhausted, achy, and just unwell.

I had been taking the meds with bottled water until yesterday. I took it with radio water yesterday and today...our water is very hard with calcium and iron. I'm wondering if this might be causing my body to not absorb the medication (since it says not you take with calcium or iron supplements)? I would think it wouldn't be enough of either to makr a difference, but maybe it does? Anybody else have this experience?
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Avatar universal
Okay, I don't feel quite so dense any more!  LOL

If you go to your profile page, you can set preferences for notifications.  If they're all set right, it's probably that there were a few days a while back (December?) that MH was having problems with notifications, and we weren't getting them.

As I said, why chance it...bottled water is a pretty cheap fix (and it's good for you, too!).  But, you know, I might seriously consider having my well tested.  We have very hard well water, too, but I take my meds with it every day with no ill effects.  I think we paid about $80 a few years ago to have our water tested for the top 30 contaminants (which included the naturaly occuring ones).
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Avatar universal
Also... I should elaborate on the hard water situation.

I quit taking my medicine with our "tap" water (which is well water). That day, I was back to feeling the "relief" of the symptoms that I had.

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Avatar universal
Or actually... re-reading, I think I may have meant "well water". What the heck? I wrote this in December, and never received email notification that I had a response, and I just found it today. I'm sorry for the hugely delayed response on my part.
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Avatar universal
Oops... sorry. Not dense, haha. Radio water = hard water. I'm not sure how my autocorrect got "radio" out of "hard". I always forget to correct the autocorrect mistakes :P
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Avatar universal
If I were you, I'd call my doctor and ask to have labs run and to see him.  It's quite possible that whatever the cause of your thyroid probelms, you keep losing thyroid functon, and meds will have to be increased to compensate for that.  I don't really think it's a placebo effect...much more likely that your thyroid continues to fail.  See your doctor...

Am I really dense today?  I'm still not getting it...what was "radio water" supposed to be?
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Oh, and sorry about "radio water", haha. I didn't even realize the typo! My first post was from my phone, which has this not-so-smart smart phone technology that autocorrects.
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Avatar universal
I was tested for autoimmune thyroiditis, and while I don't know the exact "levels", the doctors have said it came back okay.

I had broken out in hives over the summer, combined with a sensation of "swelling" in my throat, and that is what precluded the diagnosis of hypothyroidism. After a trip to ER (said I was having an acute allergic reaction, IV'd me, hives were back within 4 hours of leaving), followed up with primary (still with excrutiatingly itchy hives) and he sent me to an allergist. Allergist thought of autoimmune thyroiditis immediately. Testing showed I was hypo, but did not have auto-thyroiditis. Sent me to my endo, who checked my previously discovered nodules. They had grown. So, that, combined with the increased TSH (4 years ago it was 3.4, this time it was 5.3) made him prescribe levothyroxine.  

I was able to figure out that our crazy hard water (well water) did seem to have an effect on the alleviation of symptoms.

Now that I've been on the med for about 2 1/4 months, I feel like the alleviation of symptoms has kind of decreased. It was great at first, and then kind of fluctuated, and then this week it seems like I'm tired, achy, more headachy again. Is this normal?

My endo scheduled our follow up for a YEAR from the date I was there. I'm not sure if he is counting on my primary care physician following up? Should I call and inquire? This is all so new to me. I really appreciated the alleviation of symptoms that I didn't even realize were thyroid related (tiredness, achyness, etc), and I want that relief back! I feel kind of like perhaps the first two months was a placebo effect? But that doesn't really make sense because I never even associated my thyroid levels with the symptoms I had relieved...  
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Avatar universal
I have no idea what "radio water" is, but am assuming from context that you mean tap water.  The amount of calcium and iron in the water shouldn't be enough to inhibit absoption.  Tap water is usually fine.  However, if you're concerned, why not go back to bottled water and put your mind at ease?

In the process of starting meds, there are often ups and downs in symptoms.  It takes a full 4-6 weeks for a dose to reach its potential in your blood.  Then, you usually have to retest, re-evaluate symptoms and adjust dosage from there.  

25 mcg is a fairly low dose.  However, it's best to start out low and increase slowly as tolerated to avoid swinging over to hyper.  

Do you know if you have Hashi's?  Hashi's is an autoimmune disease and the most prevalent cause of hypo in the developed world.  Antibodies attack your thyroid, and you keep losing thyroid function.  This can take years or even decades, or it can go like gangbusters.  Perhaps what you are seeing is a further degeneration of your thyroid function?

When are you scheduled for retesting?  If you want to know if you have Hashi's, ask your doctor to test TPOab and TGab.  If either is elevated, autoimmune disaese is indicated.
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