Help! Shortness of breath from meds?!

[Victoria10]

Hi. I am hypothyroid and am 23. I have been on levoxyl for years with not much improvement but lately have had a very big relapse. So I went to a different doctor, that believes in T3/T4 treatment who put me on Armour, but I had this terrible shortness of breath feeling and racing heart, so I decided my adrenals weren't working right. So then he put me on compounded sustained release T3 and cortef twice daily. No T4 at all. I have been that on 3 weeks with no improvement. So I went to an endocrinologist and he disagrees totall with T3 treatment, says it doesn't work. yadda yadda. i've heard that before, but anyways he told me to quit the cortef, take half my does of T3 and take 100 mcg of levoxyl today. So I halved my T3 to just 7.5 mcg and took half of my leftover 75 mcg levoxyl bc I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to have any side effects. WELL I did, the minute after i swallowed my T3 and levoxyl I got this terrible heartburnish feeling between my breasts, like someone is sitting on my chest. It is extremely uncomfortable and I feel like I can't take a deep breath. I took my meds at 7:30 a.m. and its 6:45 and i still feel the sensation. Heartburn meds haven't seemed to help. It reminds me of how I felt when on Armour but without the heart palps.

Has anyone ever experienced this? I am at a loss of what to do next. I don't know what medicine to take tomorrow...

PLEASE HELP!

Also, I read on one of Dr. Lindner's abstracts that:• 33% of T4 that enters the circulation, and 25% of swallowed T4 is eventually converted into active T3.  T3 is nearly completely absorbed when swallowed.  Therefore swallowed T3 is 4 times more effective at raising serum T3 levels than T4.  1gr. Armour (9mcg T3 and 39mcg T4) equals about (36+39) or 75mcg T4 orally, and 100mcg T4=25mcg T3.

So if I took 7.5 mcg of T3 and 37.5 mcg T4, was it almost like taking 1 gram of Armour? If so, then no wonder I feel this way bc I could barely take a half grain of Armour.

[Smilerdeb]

I drink coffee and Coke Zero and it has no effect on my levels whatsover but everyone is different.

[MDeb50]

I had the same symtoms you did and ended up in the ER.  I didn't know if I was having a heart attack or what.  My Dr. took me off of the T3 T4 (don't know what percentage of each) and now that I'm feeling better I am on the drug every other day.
Does anyone know how caffiene affects the thyroid or how it interacts with T3 T4?
I had quite a bit of caffeine that day but my lab tests indicated that my thyroid levels were off.

[magpieannie]

It was probably the Armour brand. My daughter is 9 and was born without a thyroid gland. She always took Synthroid (Synthetic t4). Always had hypo health issues with it, worst of which was premature ventricle contractions (PVC's) as she was not converting enough of the t4 into t3 within her body (conversion issue). Her freet3 was very low, however her freet4 was high, so simply adding more t4 was not the answer. She needed that t3 raised. we choose to go with Armour, which worked great for first 4 months. No more PVC's and many other hypo. symptoms improved. Blood work was perfect with a higher t3 level. Free t3 and free t4 were more balanced in the upper middle range and TSH was below 1. Then we refilled and got hold of the "new reformulated Armour brand! Joint pain and fatigue within a week with blood work changes! T4 had dropped drastically and t3 substantually! All on same dose just new script. The fillers and binders were changed in the Armour and many people were having issues on it. I'd go back to the original (t3/t4) doctor (not the endo. ) and give Nature-Throid a try! It is a desiccated porcine hormone (has not been changed) which has t3 and t4. It has worked very well for my daughter. You have really been switched around alot on meds. You have to give your body time to adjust! It has taken several months on the Naturethroid for her body/hormone levels to stablise! She is really doing well now!