high heart rate, dizziness, nervousness, after eating

[DD2992]

I am a 26 year old healthy female. In 2004, I had 90% of my thyroid removed, leaving only 10% left. I take Synthroid everyday. I have a wonderful Endocrinologist and my thryroid has been level for over a year now.

The only medications I am currently taking are my Synthroid (Brand Name) 100 mcgs and my birth control, zovia.

About three years ago (2007) I began to experience high heart rate,shortness of breath dizziness, nervousness, after eating. (sometimes chest pain and heart palpitations) .This mainly occurs after eating lunch. Usually is not as bad for dinner. I have tried to change my diets, but nothing seems to work. I am a healthy eater for the most part and run 2-3 miles everyday.

I also began to feel horrible after a night of drinking. I used to never experience this. I would wake up with a pounding heart rate and chest pain and shortness of breath. Also experience heart palpitations that scare me to death.I have extreme anxiety the day after drinking and never felt like this before.

I am not stressed or believe this is anxiety related. I do believe I have a little anxiety, but I believe something else is causing all these problems with me.

There are some days better than others, but I cannot remember when I said "I feel great today"

I went to a new doctor last week and he had me get blood drawn and is having me get the following tests done: Upper GI series
and Right upper quadrant ultrasound. I have my follow up doctors appointment next week and I am axious to see what the results are.

I am an extremely happy person, but when I feel these things happen to me I become depressed and hopeless. I really need help.

[magpieannie]

Always request a copy of your labs. In the U.S. they must give you one by law if you ask. Most endo.s are very "normal range driven" instead of "optimal range seeking". These ranges are very broad and it's not okay to be just "anywhere" in normal range. Finding your specific levels where you feel best is what the doc. should be doing and tracking the AVAILABLE thyroid hormone (Freet3 and Freet4) is very important. Many endo.s give only a t4 med so they only track this and the TSH. Not good ! The t4 is a storage (Pro)hormone that must convert to the biologically active T3. Just assuming that this is happening adequately and not checking for sure is irresponsible and a receipe for disaster in my opinion. Many people find that having a t3 level and t4 level around mid range or even slightly higher with the t3 with a TSH around 1 or even lower helps them the most with the elimination of hypo. symptoms. If you get a copy of your labs and post them with the reference ranges we will be glad to comment. Don't forget to push for the Free (not total) t3 and t4.

[DD2992]

Thank you so much for your reply Magpieannie. I have a new endochronologist who I really like. I never asked to see my blood lab results, as he told me everything was "level"  This definately tells me I need to ask the results and ask for the breakdown on how my free3 and free4 levels are. Something is wrong and I do feel it may be my thyroid after learning this. I just thought that since he said my thyroid was level and ok, I thought everything was fine with my medication, etc.

Thank you so much. If my test results do not show anything wrong tomorrow, I will definately be writing my Endochronologist.

Thanks again. This is so appreciated! :)

[magpieannie]

My daughter  (almost 10) was born without a thyroid gland. She too was always on Synthroid. She too began experiencing heart palpatations after years of doing okay on it.  (PVC's dx by peditric cardiologist) I felt it was related to her medication or her thyroid hormone levels. Her pediatric endo. disagreed of course and would not check her freet3 level. Got another doc to and it was very low, yet her freet4 level was very high.This pointed to a conversion issue. So I switched her to a new doc. who treats with the addition of t3 when needed. She needed it, and has been on desiccated meds for 1 1/2 years now which has t4, t3, t2, t1 , selinium and calcitonan (more like human thyroid hormone but at different amounts). This has been the answer for my daughter. No more heart issues, and most of her  hypo. issues that she hed on Synthroid only are a thing of the past. T3 can also be added to synthetic t4 treatment in the form of Cytomel. It is advisable to try this method first if blood work shows a low freet3 level, as desiccated hormone has many issues right now (supply, formulation changes, etc...) Remember that t4 is a storage hormone that must convert within your body to t3. T3 is the biologically active hormone that makes EVERYTHING work-(cellular level). If this is low, then hypo issues will persist. My daughter's PVC's were directly related to low available t3 and too high t4.