Help me to read my thyroid panel results

[Emily443]

Can you help me to my thyroid panel test results? Here you go:
T3 Total -103,
T3 uptake -27,
T4 (total) -6.0 .
Throglobulin antibodies : 66 ( which was above 3500 5 years back, above 2500 2 years back, around 900 8 months back , came down to 66 yay:))
How am I doing? I thought my doctor would check my free t3 and t4, unfortunately he didn't. But he asked me to reduce the dose of Armour thyroid to half. I would really apprecite your answers.- Thank you!

[goolarra]

I think 90 is a more reasonable dose; you could even try 105.

It is hard to find a good thyroid doctor.  Look at the advances that have been made in diabetes testing and treatment while virtually nothing has changed for thyroid in 50 years.

My endo and I both think my thyroid is dead; and that was pretty much confirmed by my last ultrasound since my thyroid is now atrophied.  I take 88 mcg of T4.  120 mg of Armour is roughly equivalent to 146 mcg of T4, so it's possible that's a full replacement dose for you.

[Emily443]

Oh, well even if it's completely gone, I made it so far. Think about all those small kids having type 1 diabetes when they are just few months old, again all those kids with cancer, the hard time struggling to live. Our neighbour's daughter, such cute girl, she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes last year, I had seen the pain the whole family had to go through.  

[goolarra]

Thyroid meds don't lower antibodies.  Most likely what's happening is that your thyroid is functionally dead, so the antibodies are going into remission.  You had a very high antibody count five years ago.  The antibodies have done their job and destroyed your thyroid.  

If you're just feeling a little hyper, you might want to reduce your meds a little, but I think cutting them in half is too drastic.

You still haven't given me the reference ranges for any of your tests, but TT3 and TT4 in your original post both look on the low (hypo) side to me.  Is your doctor wanting to lower your meds based on symptoms?  What is his rationale for such a huge reduction?  

[Emily443]

Thanks for your input! Even I don't think its a good idea to reduce that big dose to half . But my TSH level is way low at 0.04. May I'll go ahead and take 90 mg for sometime until I see the new doctor.

[Emily443]

I know thyroid medicines won't bring the antibodies down, especially the Armour thyroid, the antibodies will go up while you are on it and I have experienced it. I was on good diet and supplements on longer period of time, so I would like to think positively until I hear it from the doctor. I strongly belive I would have ended up with much higher dose of medicine if my thyroid is completely dead:)

[goolarra]

I really do need to know the reference ranges for your TT3, TT4 and FT4.  I have to be able to see where in the ranges you fall.  Reference ranges are on your lab report and are often in parentheses.  FT4 range, for example, should be something like (0.8-1.8).  

Cutting your meds in half is pretty drastic.  

Heart palps can be from both over- or under-medication.

[Emily443]

Thanks for getting back to me.Thats what I thought too. Suddenly dropping from 120mg to 60mg, I don't how its gonna work. But you can see my thyroglobulin antibodies also came down drastically from 3500  to 66 which  I had been on 2 grains last 3 years. My TPO antibodies are in the range and thyroglobulin is only 66, I'm almost there to reverse the disease. I was feeling little hyper lately.

[Emily443]

Its so sad that its very hard to find a good doctor who knows everything about thyroid.

[goolarra]

Please post the reference ranges on your TT3 and TT4.  FT3 and FT4 are better tests.

How much Armour are you taking?

Do you have any hyper symptoms?

[Emily443]

goolarra
My free t4 is 1.6, my doctor didn't have me check my Free T3. I know thats important, but he looks like he forgot to check that. I was on 2 grains of Armour. He wanted me to reduce it to 1 grain.

[Emily443]

Forgot to mention, I had heart palpitations on and off ( few times last week, not this week), Trembling hands ( Not often - I had it couple of times last week), heavy periods and muscle pain.