Intolerance to meds?

[mranybody]

I have been taking Armour (60mg) for quite some time now and every time I try to increase the dose I feel terrible.
I seem to have enough energy on 60 mg but still have other issues such as dry skin (hands and arms) and weak and burning muscles to name a couple. I was on levethyroxine for about four-teen months and really felt it was making me sick, that’s when I asked my doctor to switch me to Armour. I was really excited to get on the Armour and truly felt it would make me feel better because I had read it just works better. I found out later it does work better, it works better on me in that it makes me feel even worse than the other meds.

The biggest reason I am asking now is that for the last couple of weeks my legs have been KILLING me.  My leg bones feel like they are on fire and the more I have to walk or move around the worse the pain. My leg muscles feel weak and kind of burn when I do something as simple as get up and walk to the other room. If I have to hold a tool or do some work with my hands the base of my thumbs and fingers start to ache and I can barely use them. The muscles in my lower back stiffen up and start to hurt at the first hint of any lifting or stress. I have been is so much pain for the last few weeks that this can not be good and it seems to be getting worse rather than better.  

The more thyroid medication I take the worse I feel and if I don’t take ANY thyroid medication I feel GOOD for a little while but that catches up with me and I start to feel bad again so I just take the minimum I can tolerate, but that doesn’t seem to be enough.  
Can someone offer some insight? Am I allergic to the meds? Does any of this sound like extreme lack of thyroid meds? What gives, I don’t think I can live another twenty years feeling this bad.

[mranybody]

Thanks for your replies I ment to put alergic in quotes because I don't really think I am "alergic" it just seem to fit.

My endo said take Armour at 240mg once a day but I started at 120mg twice a day and that really made me feel BAD so I cut back to 60mg twice a day and still felt TERRIBLE now I am down to 60mg a day and for a few weeks I felt pretty good but now I feel just as bad as ever and my leg bones are filled with pain.

I felt pretty good on "levo" for about a year but it seemed to quit working for me and I haven't been able to get things right for almost a year now.
I really do feel terrible and if I have some terminal illness I wish I could just find out what it is and get on with it 'cause I can not live another 25 years like this.

Sorry for the bummer but I am getting to my wits end with all this.

I had a fight with my family practice doc over an Armour request so he "cancelled" me as a patient and the endo seems to think that brand name synthetics are the answer and neither of them seemed to know anything about adrenals.

One good thing though I did find a new family practice doc that seems to listen and I will ask if I can get the adrenals tested SOON.

I would also like to add that I blame ALL this on being poisoned by Crestor almost three years ago. I was FINE until I was given a bag full of Crestor samples by my friend and FORMER family doc. This was even before the last doc.

[stella5349]

I would jump right into the adrenal testing along with getting a full panel of blood work on the Vit's and Minerals.

You sound like your have effected your adrenals and they are fatigued to some degree. You may want to approach your doctor on getting tested.

Armour will work against the T3 in it if the body is experiencing adrenal fatigue - It is like a catch 22 when this is going on. The more meds you increase the worse you will feel because the meds are actually counter-acting against the thyroid due to the distress of adrenals.

If you have been on the script for sometime and are not symptom free - then other tests need to be ran.

Cynnie brings up a good point. How are you taking the meds? Are you splitting them?

You can try magnesium citrate to see if that relieves the joint pain - but you will have to look deeper into Vit C - zinc and Vit B supplements too.

This is where some "through" testing may be of help for you.

[Cynnieb4]

No it doesn't sound like allergy to meds, first I would start by taking some magnesium. Helps most of us with stiff joints, cramping etc. Then I would find a good vitamin supplement and take those. I too feel down a lot. I am back to synthroid now. Also are you splitting your doses??? You really should if you are taking that t3, helps with the energy level. I would try adding vitamnins and see if that helps. If not then I would have the adrenals checked out.