Recently diagnosed with severe hypothyroidism

[chasesmommy2016]

I am 26 year old female with a family history of hypothyroidism. I was diagnosed in August with severe hypothyroidism, and was told that my thyroid is essentially not functioning. My endo believes that I have developed hypothyroidism about 3 years ago. She put me on levothyroxine 100mcg.

Since I have been on this medication, I have noticed a very sharp increase with my symptoms. It has made me think about symptoms that I have experienced over the last 13 years, ones that I ignored because I was told it was due to depression, anxiety, need to increase exercise, need to get more rest, etc.  I believe that all of these symptoms are connected. So I am reaching out to see if anyone else has these issues that have been connected to their thyroid. I am getting tested for the anti bodies for Hashimoto's disease. Once I get those results I do plan on having my endo test my T3 and Reverse T3.

Symptoms

Depression
Anxiety
Sensitive to cold and heat
Feeling like all the warmth has drained from my body and taking a long time to warm up
Getting overheated and taking a long time to cool off
Dizziness
Extreme fatigue
Hard time falling asleep
Extremely difficult to wake up
Severe mood swings
Joints ache
Feet ache to the point it is painful to walk
Back pain
Yo-yo weight
Hair falling out
Dry brittle nails
Dry skin
Weakness in hands that comes and goes
Inability to focus or focus too much
Enlarged thyroid
Painful to swallow
Sore throat
Heart palpitations
Painful to breathe (if I breathe in too deep like to take a normal breath, it is like there is a knife in the center of my chest stabbing me)
3 miscarriages (my fourth pregnancy did result in a live birth in March 2016)
Foggy brain
Difficulty processing thoughts
Difficulty in remembering things




Current diagnosis: Severe hypothyroidism

Lab results as of 8/10/2016
TSH

Value
>100

Range

.34-5.6

Units

m[iU]/mL

Thyroxine Free

Value
.17

Range
.58-1.64

Units
ng/dL

[gimel]

With all those symptoms you obviously want to get your thyroid hormone levels optimized as soon as possible.   Since you started on the 100 mcg of T4 med in August, it will be at over 90% of its full effect in 4 weeks, so a re-test in that time could have shown the need for an increase in your meds sooner.  

When you go back for re-test, it is very important that you are tested for both Free T4 and Free T3.  Insist on both and even go so far as to quiz the lab person to make sure they know you are to be tested for both Free T4 and Free T3.  Otherwise you sometimes don't end up with what you need.  

Since hypothyroid patients are so often deficient in Vitamin D, B12 and ferritin, I also highly recommend getting those done as well and then supplementing as needed to optimize.  D should be at least 50, B12 in the upper end of its range, and ferritin should be at least 70.

A good thyroid doctor will treat a hypothyroid patient clinically by testing and adjusting Free T4 and Free T3 as needed to relieve symptoms without being influenced by resultant TSH levels.  Symptom relief should be all important, not just test results.  So I recommend that you ask your doctor if he is willing to treat clinically as described.  If not then you will ultimately need to find a good thyroid doctor that will do so.  

You can get some good info that will best prepare you for your doctor appointments by reading at least the first two pages of the following link, and further if you want to review the discussion and the scientific evidence supporting the suggestions on page 2.  


http://www.thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/TUK_PDFs/diagnosis_and_treatment_of_hypothyroidism_issue_1.pdf