New to this forum...

[toots_jwu]

Hi guys, I am new on this forum but I have been on the thyroid forum considering I recently started on ERFA thyroid.  I have had temperature and fatigue symptoms for the last 5 years and I am finally starting to see some hope after years of being told that I simply needed rest and that I just a person who was intolerant of cold temperature.  Fast forward a few years later,  a doctor doing a physical noticed that my thyroid was a little enlarged and sent me for an ultrasound and it came back with no nodules but it was enlarged a bit.  Again I was told not to worry about it.  So i dropped that doctor and found another doctor who worked with alternative medicine.  I took the saliva, urine tests and he proceeded with treatment.  Here are the results from the tests:

6:00-8:00 AM           10  Depressed          13-24nM
11:00-Noon               15  Elevated              5-10 nM
4:00-5:00 PM            13 Elevated               3-8 nM
10:00-Midnight          8 Elevated                 1-4 nM

Cortisol Burden          46                               23-42

DHEA
Pooled value              17             Elevated DHEA             Adults: 3-10ng/ml

Insulin                          
Fasting                       <3                                           Normal:  3-12 ulU/mL
Non-fasting                <3              Depressed          Optimal: 5-20 ulU/mL

17-OH progesterone    130 pg/ml


He proceeded to treat me with Adapt in the morning which included Biotin, Pantothenic acid, zinc,copper, B6,Ashwagandha, Hersperidin Methly Chalcone.  And I would take Seriphos which had Phosphorylated serine/ethnolamine.  I was also low in iodine so I was put on Iodoral.  A year past and this helped to an extent but my fatigue was still around and I was experience cold and hot symptoms.  I get so cold I feel like I'm freezing from the inside out but if I put on too much clothes I will get so hot and sweat and feel like my head will explode.  The heat gets worse when I stress or get anxious but the cold was unbearable.  I live 24/7 by my heater/fan and I'm embarrassed to look for a job cause I will have it running all the time.  I couldn;t take it anymore and asked the doctor to put me on a low dose of ERFA thyroid to see if it would help with my temperature.  I was on 15mg for about a week and now im on 30mg and waiting till its time to move up again.  I will have to say that it made a little difference with my cold temp but now my hots are hotter and I sweat more.  I also sweat every night in my sleep and I find this abnormal for me.  I've got a little more energy but it is very short lived and I don't feel 100% on the thyroid meds(maybe I have to give it a lot of time ).  I still have insomnia at night and sleep well into the afternoon.  I stopped working out because after I would be very weak and very cold and just exhausted to the point where I want to sleep, I mean working out is suppose to energize you, right?  My weight was pretty much stable until I started ERFA thyroid and now the numbers are climbing.  I'm just so confused and not sure whether thyroid medication is the right thing for me.  Do I have adrenal insufficiency or addisons??

PS.  I am also taking 20mg of Celexa for panic attacks for the last 10 years.

[rumpled]

Yuck!
I hope you start to feel better soon.

[toots_jwu]

ok just a short update.  I was up to 45 mg and just couldn't handle the sweating.   I was trying on clothes in a changing room and didn't realize how much I was sweating till I took off my shirt and it was heavy from sweat and when I put it back on..it was cold!!! EWwwww...I told my doc and he thinks I am on too much thyroid meds so I'm back down to 15mg and wants me to add Iodoral to it.  I did question him about my adrenals but he wanted me to stay on the Adapt and Seriphos for now.  He also wants me to stay on the 15mg for about 4-6 weeks until I go for the Free T, ANA tests again.

[rumpled]

It may or may not. Pituitary MRIs are a slightly different technique in that it is with and without contrast but the contrast has to be given while you are in the machine and the techs have to be skilled enough to take images to show the uptake of the contrast in the pituitary and that will show small lesions. It is called dynamic.

Adrenal scans are iffy - mine all showed normal and mine were enlarged. They still show normal and they are gone.

[toots_jwu]

Thanks rumpled...well I'm not taking any steroids and have no idea about tumors.  I have been getting this whooshing noise in my ear and saw an ENT.  He is sending me for an MRI of the head..will this catch any problems of my pituitary gland even though the MRI was for a different reason???  I have never had an ultrasound or scan for my adrenals but only had one for my thyroid which showed the enlargement.  Should I ask my doctor to have my adrenals scanned?

[rumpled]

Cushing's, if it is that, is resolved by finding the source of the cortisol and removing it.  So if it is a tumor, remove it. If it is too many steroids, wean down.

[toots_jwu]

No I just went by what the doctor said and I believe that he was trying to heal it as naturally as possible but I just don't think it's enough.  So what kind of treatment is there for something like this??

[rumpled]

Elevated cortisol, panic attacks, sweating, insomnia, no energy... I am not a doctor, but I would suspect Cushing's syndrome. High cortisol can also suppress the thyroid.

Have you thought about that? It needs to be treated medically - there is no OTC supplements that suppresses cortisol.