Those of us on Armour- #2

[laura1967]

Here is #2 thread that goes along with our first one which was taking too long to load due to it being so long!!
For anyone new, there is a lot of posts to read in the first thread and then please post on this one. Lets keep it going full of great information and support!!

[Terri627]

I am not splitting doses, actually I had not even heard about that until I joined this forum.
As for my levels, I am listing results starting from Feb 2008:

        2/21/08   4/8/08   8/11/08   8/27/08   10/22/08

tsh      1.00        1.51      0.08        0.01          0.02

free t4  0.70       0.69     0.78         0.90          0.94

t3         215          91      280           138          190

I am confused as to the difference between t3 and free t3. Any help is really
appreciated! Thank you so much for all of your experience and knowledge!

[laura1967]

What were your most recent lab results for your thyroid labs? How long ago were they done? It sounds like you may be on too little medicine yet, which can happen a lot on armour. The drs don't always realized that being in the "normal" range does not mean normal. I will explain when I see your labs.
Usually optimum levels for a patient on armour is: TSH supressed to look like you are hyper, Free T4 mid normal range, Free T3 mid high normal to higher.
Sooooo usually people that don't feel good on Armour, are either not getting enough meds, or your body is resisting it.
Hope this helps and yes as Stella said, you should be dividing your dosage into at least 2 times.

[stella5349]

Terri

are you splitting you dose?

[Terri627]

Hi, I have been on Armour for a little over 2 years. The best thing by far for me was that I lost all of the weight I had previously put on after my tt 5 years ago. That said, I still have all of the other symptoms of hypothyroid. It's so hard to get up in the morning, work all day, drive home and not fall asleep right away. I have absolutely no energy for the weekends. I with that Armour had been the miracle I wanted, but aside from the weight loss, I feel no different than I did on levothroid. Of course, I am afraid to change to anything else because I don't want to gain the weight back. It's the only thing that makes me feel good about myself. My whole family is thin, but I'm the only one without a thyroid. In fact, I'm the only one who has had thyroid issues, except for my 92 year old grandfather and he's on a very low dose of levothroid after being diagnosed maybe a year and a half ago as hypo. Anyway, I will be seeing my endo in a little over a week, and she is very easy to talk to and open minded. But over the last year, my levels have been all over the place. And that is a problem with Armour, because being a natural hormone, the tablets are not exactly the same each time. So, I'm glad to have found this thread, I look forward to being part of the support group. Thank you so much for being here!

[laura1967]

Where were your levels at exactly? TSH-Free T4-FreeT3?

[Kimemitch]

I am so glad you feel better and actually I am really struggling on Armour since starting in late January. Of course, I have been struggling for the last 10 years!! I had to lower from the 120mg, due to heart palpitations and now really feel hypo again! Yuk

Anyway, I had papillary cancer and TT back in 94. I had a scan 1 year after my first one  which I was told was routine. I had several scans after that which used thyrogen(sp)? (where they no longer had to take my thyroid meds from to get tsh up). My memory is so bad, but it might have gone to scans every 2 years after that. I had one about 3 years ago and was told that I could go 5 years after that one.  Hope that calms you a bit!