Is it bad to stay on low dose for too long?

[Rachel2033]

I was treated for hypothyroidism in 7/2013, the doctor started me on 30mg of Armour then about 2 weeks later upped it to 60mg. In 12/2013 I had labs drawn and my doctor freaked asking if I had hyper symptoms I said no to each one. He put me on Levo and a T3 med which gave me bad heart palpitations so he told me to get off on all thyroid meds that I wasn't hypothyroid. I asked him about my low heart rate (50) he said that was fine that he had the same heart rate. I asked about my swollen tongue, he said he didn't know what that was about but he'd run tests to find out after the meds were out of my system. I had horrible heart palpitations when I stopped the meds that I went back on the 30mg of Armour and have been on it since then.
   My husband was laid off 12/31/2013, he got a job in CO (we were living in TX) so we had to relocate, 3/2014. I have an appt set for June 6th.
   I read on STTM that staying on a low dose will make you even more hypothyroid than when you weren't on meds, I don't feel that at all. I was getting heart palpitations more than once a day and now it's possibly once or twice a week.
If I go off of the Armour how long before it's totally out of my system and what effects will I experience when coming off?
Thank you in advance. :)

[Rachel2033]

Ugh, that's not good. Do you feel it in your neck, like something's there? Food feels like it doesn't fully go down? And has the size decreased at all?
I notice I yawn a lot and sometimes feel like I'm not getting enough air. I worry that it's going to continue growing. :(

[Red_Star]

TSH can be suppressed with thyroid medication without causing hyperthyroid symptoms. You have to look at the overall results along with symptoms. My tongue is still enlarged two years after I started medication. It looks like the myxedema will take years to reverse (if it ever does!).

[Rachel2033]

Wow, Red Star! I had no clue about that. Very interesting. Thank you for sharing. I'll have to remember that in case I end up on Levothyroxine. :)

[Rachel2033]

I had gone to see a doctor last week and she flipped over my last TSH saying I was hyperthyroid. I asked her why my Total T3 was below range and she said she didn't have a clue because my TSH was so high. But then I noticed the lab sheet she gave be had the Total T3 circled. I read that Total T3 was no longer used. So what does the Total T3 test tell you?
  
I'm not going back to this doctor cause all she saw was the TSH so anything I said went out the window. I told her (after she was insisting my body had too much thyroid because of the med) that I had very bad heart palpitations prior to being treated and the Armour calmed them down, her response was, "that's odd I never heard of that before." I asked her about my swollen tongue and she responded with, "yeah, I saw that but that doesn't always mean it's the thyroid could be any number of things." She did ask later if I'd ever had an antibody test done (I haven't), she said she'd order it to make sure my body wasn't attacking my thyroid. Problem is the lab work doesn't specify what test it is, it just says "thyroid antibodies" and a code.
The doctor I am going to in June specializes in Functional medicine.

[Red_Star]

I copy and pasted an old answer of mine. :)

Thyroid Manager - Adult Hypothyroidism...

"9.8.1 PHARMACOLOGY OF THYROID HORMONE REPLACEMENT PREPARATIONS

Levothyroxine.

"Serum T4 concentrations peak 2 to 4 hours after an oral dose and remain above normal for approximately 6 hours in patients receiving daily replacement therapy 5,6 . The gradual conversion of T4 into T3 in various tissues increases serum T3 concentrations so slowly after thyroxine absorption that with daily levothyroxine administration, no significant changes in circulating free T3 are detectable."

***

"Before the first dose of T3, serum T3 levels were 153 +/- 43 mg/100 ml; after T3 the levels increased promptly reaching after 4 h a peak of 264 +/- 90 ng/100 ml. Afterwards T3 levels showed a similar peak after each dose: 262 +/- 77 and 266 +/- 78 ng/100 ml, slightly decreasing in the intervals between the doses: 227 +/- 63 and 255 +/- 69 ng/100 ml. After the last peak T3 levels showed a slow decline during the night."

- Twenty-four hour variations of triiodothyronine (T3) levels in patients who had thyroid ablation for thyroid cancer, receiving T3 as suppressive treatment. J Endocrinol Invest. 1980 Oct-Dec;3(4):353-6.

[Rachel2033]

Ok now I know why it didn't come up, thank you.
Oh okay, I read somewhere that a resting heart rate under 80 bpm was considered hypothyroid. Mine used to be 80 bpm a year ago. I was an MA so I frequently liked checking my pulse and blood pressure (when my husband could help me) just for fun. :)
   Yes, my resting morning basal temp is 65-66 in the morning.
The second labs were done 12/2013
So T4 can also be read falsely high? I didn't know that. My husband used to be on Levothyroxine, the doctor never told him to not take his med prior to doing his labs.