will it ever go away

[Chrissy8759]

I have been to this forum on several occasions.  I recently from my last visit to the doctor I found over 6 months ago thought I would continue to gain weight, loose my sanity, fall asleep in meetings and even in conversations, no energy, no nothing...the list can go on.  I went to the sight "Stop the Thyroid Madness" which some attendee's in this forum thought was I quote crazy or wrong, but in fact it helped me with asking about certain blood work.  I asked my doctor about the test for antibodies.  This had never been performed on me.  Everything was always and has always been :"well the bloodwork says this".  I found out my antibodies were way over the thousand which he explained represented this was not an inherited situation.  I have no been placed on Armor Thyroid 60 mgs x4 daily and .150 mcg of Synthroid.  I am feeling much better and starting to have more energy.  I must admit to those that dismiss the thought of Armour it does make a difference.  I regained alot of my strength and awareness.  I just want it to all go away.  I have read that some vitamins can reduce the amount of anitbodies your body produces...if so will this stop...go away.  I know I have a goiter ..that believe it or not after seeing an regular GP, ENT, ENdo and thoracic surgeon non of them I quote none ever explained how important this litttle gland is in your body and what it controls until I found this doctor from Emory who listens and basically not just goes by my bloodwork but how I feel too. I ask myself like I hope others do in this forum why has this disorder not been studied in depth.  He told me doctors were not trained in school on the depth of this disorder and look at the people in this country today who are suffering and there's still no answer.  I want to be me again that's all, and I don't want to continue taking medications to survive...I'm on Blood Pressure medication now also and it's a must.  I did not have this until this problem surfaced. So okay folks, here's the game but how do we play and win?????

[chigirl29]

Your doctor's strategy on having you on so much medication is probably that he or she wants to replace all your thryoid hormone level needs and have the immune system back off the thryoid gland because it is no longer needed to stimulate it for extra production.  He is probably also trying to keep the gland from growing larger.


It doesn't look like that is working out for you.  I hope you find something that does work.

[chigirl29]

You should be having regular antibody and thyroid level screens.  Vitamins help keep your body healthy--I have an autoimmune thryoid condition too.  The way to stop your immune system from attacking is to:  Have it destroyed with medicine, have it removed, or let it burn out on its own--I added immunosuppressants below.

Your levels are probably fluctuating still because of your immune system's attacks.  I did not take medication while my immune system was attacking my thyroid.  I put up with the symptoms of hyper and hypo until my gland failed and my immune system stopped attacking.

Until you stabilize your immune system--your levels will not regulate.

Also--you could ask your doctor about immune system suppressing drugs.  I didn't do it because I had small children and could not reduce infection risk.

I had a very strong surge while hyper and it burned out a few weeks later; I was very ill during this time.

Autoimmune disorders ARE often inherited.

Emory--I am from the south and lived 1.5 hours from Atlanta--is a good place to go.

I think you are on too much medication and you need to see a better doctor--maybe an Emory endocrinologist is best.

Your blood pressure situation could also have been thyroid induced because thyroid symptoms can take years to manifest.

A goiter doesn't grow overnight--usually.

Get more tests--decide how you want to handle the immune system problem--and take vitamins at least four hours after your thyroid medications. Vitamins will interfere with absorption of thyroid hormones if taken earlier than four hours apart--I take thyroid med on empty stomach before breakfast and my vitamins late at night--

[stella5349]

WOW I totally agree with the above. That seems like alot of thyroid med!! I have no thyroid and I recently made a change from Synth to Armour. I started 120 mg and was told it was no high. now at 60mg 1xday. When was your last test?

[ifupleze]

I would be very careful of being on so much armour and synthroid.  I believe you are headed to the hyper side doing all that much medication.  I have been on both and unless you have a problem converting the T4 to T3, there should be no problem with the synthroid.  Armour has all the T's and you can become over medicated like I did and go into hyper he//.  It is worse than hypo.  If I were you,  I would have my blood checked every 2-3 weeks while on both medications so you can avoid the terrible consequences of being over medicated.  It is the worst thing I have ever had to live with.  I finally had to quit the armour and go hypo again and go back to the real synthroid.  How long have you been on both and what was you last TSH reading?  I also have antibodies in the 1000;s but there is nothing you can do about it.  It is called Hashimoto's disease.  You can only treat the TSH until it is in the normal range  I have nothing against the armour except I am very sensitive to the meds and armour is not always consistent.  Once again, I would be very careful if I were you.  Good luck.