Muscle, tendon and joint pain from thyroid, whats your experience?

[LazyMoose]

Not a question. Share your experiences for others. You might learn something.  Many thyroid 'newbies' are unaware (docs too) of how thyroid hormones effect body tissue. Some get this as a severe symptom, some almost never. Back, feet, legs, shoulder, wrists (carpel tunnel) , all.  A reminder that symptoms vary with autoimmune.

I have self learned a lot on this subject - I had too. And learned acupressure muscle release (trigger point therapy is another name) from books and PT's, that has saved me thousands of dollars, and relived pain, (this is different from acupuncture). I since learned I needed T3, as many do with continuing pain on a T4 only med. Still have some, its a long healing process (years).

I recently spoke to very experienced physical therapist / massage therapist on this subject as she has experience working with Fibro patients and noted some mentioned they had 'wacked' thyroids. She was interested in how thyroid hormones work, symptoms , and, well, now she knows some of what I know, which is better than not knowing.

Many do not realize that what they think is joint pain may not be caused from within the  joint, unless there is physical joint damage or Rheumatoid.  Referred pain simply means pain felt in a different area from its true origin. Knee, ankle and shoulder pain is usually from tight muscles (nearby or far) pulling on a joint, so that's where you feel it. Loosening the muscle (if it wont stretch) via acupressure or trigger point release can relieve joint and muscle pain.

What brings this up was a recent experience of "burning feet" (new to me and very wierd) from FT4 under the range (totally off) which resulted in a 58 tsh. Another member mentioned burning feet to me with low thyroid levels. At tsh of 24 now, my feet feel better.

So this thread is about others thyoid body pain experience and relieving it, if they have anything to share for others to learn. If you had or still have thyroid body pain, you know how miserable it can be. (Dont get alarmed of my tsh, that is being worked on slowly - another subject altogether).

[mikeg00031]

Nerve pain and numbness in feet, toes, calves, forearms, hands-- even elbows and occasionally shoulders an hips. sometimes a zap n the face or scalp. TSH was in the normal renage but free t3 was1.5 (range 1.81-4.06) and free t4 was .97 (1.8-1.97). so obviusly low t3 and t4 n the low of the range- doc put me on synthroid 75mcg/day and compunded t3 (22mcg twice per day). re-eval in 3 weeks. How long, once leveles are properly adjusted, does it take for the nerve pain and muscle pain to abate? Weeks? Months ?

[Lisa_Fedele]

For people reading your post.
Alert: Low thyroid can not only cause miscarriage it can also cause permanent mental disability in the child. My thyroid dose was increased from 1.5 to 2.5 when I was pregnant with twins. The dose should have been increased with my other pregnancies.

When I was originally diagnosed with Hypothyroidism my TSH levels were so high the lab stopped counting. I was told I had been hypo for so long! I had had symptoms for a long time but no doctor ever caught it. Even on thyroid replacement my TSH has fluctuated--my range has been .1 as in point 1 to 30. So my symptoms continue.

My worst symptom is the tendon and muscle and joint pain. Almost debilitating but I learn to push through.

[Lisa_Fedele]

For people reading your post.
Alert: Low thyroid can not only cause miscarriage it can also cause permanent mental disability in the child. My thyroid dose was increased from 1.5 to 2.5 when I was pregnant with twins. The dose should have been increased with my other pregnancies.

When I was originally diagnosed with Hypothyroidism my TSH levels were so high the lab stopped counting. I was told I had been hypo for so long! I had had symptoms for a long time but no doctor ever caught it. Even on thyroid replacement my TSH has fluctuated--my range has been .1 as in point 1 to 30. So my symptoms continue.

My worst symptom is the tendon and muscle and joint pain. Almost debilitating but I learn to push through.

[Dee1956]

I began having plantar fascittis (PF) two and a half years ago.  
I have a heel/bone spur as well.
The PF just came back the beginning of this month.  As it continued to get worse I began to get a burning feeling in both of my feet.  While looking for help for that I came across this information.  Very helpful.
Looking back over the last two years. I have had two cases of frozen shoulder one year apart, I have had elbow pain diagnosed as golfers elbow, don't golf :)
and this PF twice as well as a problem with my knee.
Looking back I realize that I noticed my skin on my arms sagging for the last few years.  No matter what I did it did not improve.  It looked pretty scary.  I see that can be a side effect of the thyroid not working well.
I only knew hypothyroid could cause weight gain, hair loss.
I was not aware that it could destroy my fingernails, cause confusion, I have had a lot of confusion combined with irritability which I have been blaming on something else.  I also had to have back surgery Christmas 2013...which I thought had given me PTSD.
I am going to have to work to wrap my brain around this new information.
Thank you all for posting. As my niece says "Sharing is Caring"
Maybe I am not an old woman at 58, maybe this is  my thyroid :)
Dee

[dgmootry]

Well I started out with hyper thyroid, not graves, I had carpol tunnel in both wrists, but felt great for 28 years, then things went haywire, went thru thyroid storm due to eating an over abundance of seaweewraps big mistake, went thru RAI and went hypo even bigger mistake, lets see severe carpol tunnel wrists crack so loud I think the bones will break, water retention shoulder will crack and almost go out of joint, they pop out but pop back in, I'll sit in bed and my feet will sometimes get very warm, and some nights I'll sit in bet  and I'll get this ansy feeling in my legs so I'm constantly moving them very disturbing, I'm on Armour thyroid so my t4 is very low .8 my tsh is extremely low due to the high t3 my t3 I still have room to wiggle but my doctor said she doesn't want to raise due to the tsh i asked to get some t4 but she doesn't want to mess with it, wants me to see my endo doc but I said no, because she'll lower my meds due to the tsh, i was lucky to get this doctor to raise them as much as I have, my endo wanted me to stay where I was 3 increases back, that was even worse then it is now,  I was so constipated, my digestion was horrible my sleep was horrible, and my skin was so dry my feet had these red lines drawn on them, plus my legs felt like I had weights connected to them, plus my thinking was terrible brain fog, I would start a sentence but would forget a word and get confused or forgot what i was even saying. I tell you the list goes on and one, right now I have cracking wrists, once in awhild cracking shoulders and warm feet sometimes and some water retention, and some restless leg problems, but its so much better then it was before my meds had been increased 3 x's ago, hypo thyroid can be so debilitating, and life consumming, its taken me 3 or 4 years to get where I am today, what i don't understand is how some people can get leveled so fast no problem it baffles me, I asked my endo doctor if other people had the problems I was and she said no, I don't dknow if I believe her crazy

[BJD123]

I started having SEVERE gluteal pain and thigh joint going down the side of my leg. Pain passed right above my knee and right above my ankle. Also goes down the side of my calf. My feet hurt/ache at night and when my husband rubs them they are ok and my body feels a little better. All this is on the right side except for the feet (it is both). I have had Xrays and MRI's and now the ortho surgeon wants a CAT scan. The person who read the MRI said I had a fractured hip. The ortho surgeon can't see it. He thinks I have "multiple Issues" and that is why I cannot get a diagnosis from anyone. I had my Thyroid Levels checked yesterday and the dr.'s nurse told me today that I had some very low levels. I am on Armour 60 mg.and Synthroid, only 25mcg. I was fine on Armour but low in my T4, thus the Synthroid.
All this happened after about a month and 1/2 on Synthroid. The first doc (an osteopath Sports Injury Dr.) I went to picked up on this immediately and said to have my levels checked right away but it was his MRI/Xray group that called and said I had a fractured hip. As a result, we thought that was the PAIN PROBLEM so I didn't go have levels tested.

It has now been 3 months since this started. I go to my Thyroid Dr. Tuesday. I am so glad to have found this site. At least I went and got it tested and I know that my levels are off. I hope this is the cause of the pain.

We thought I was going to have a hip replacement, then the frustration of no one knowing what it is. Hope I can get some answers on this pain but at least I will be getting the levels straightened out (hopefully).
Thank you for posting!