I had a total thyroidectomy in June, 2003 with a Stage 1 papillary cancer. I had an initial treatment with radioactive iodiine and yearly scans since, with nary a sign of a thyroid cell anywhere. My doc has kept me on 175 mcg (I weigh 165 lbs., 57 y.o.) of Unithroid and has kept my TSH <.05 throughout. My 1/29/08 Free T4 was 2.1.
My lab numbers (TSH, free T4) have been rock solid. Over the past year I have noticed very uncharacteristic signs of anxiety and insomnia. I keep mentioning this to my endo but he ignores it. I know he wants to keep my risk of CA recurrence as low as possible, but last fall he declared me "clean" after my third negative scan. My physical examination for hyperthyroid is negative except for a leg tremor. Can anxiety/insomnia be an accurate indication of hyperthyroidism without other physical signs?
I do not want to deal with this anxiety forever, and I do respect my doctor very much and would like to remain his patient. At this point I'd like to ask him to let my TSH get up to .1 and thereby reduce my Unithroid. OR, I'd like to switch to Armour Thyroid and see how I do on that--but I'd have to change endocrinologists to do so.
I've read that symptoms of anxiety and excessive tension can be alleviated with Armour. I'll be seeing my doc in two weeks and I want to talk to him then. Do you have a suggestion as to which option is preferable: Raising my TSH level (dropping my Unithroid dose) or switching to Armour?
Thanks in advance!