# Questions about different thyroid meds



## dolphinlover54 (Sep 13, 2010)

Earlier this year I was diagnosed with parathyroid adenoma. That was removed in April. Along with that my thyroid is underactive. Doctor has put me on levothyroxine starting at 25mcgs and now up to 100 mcg. Blood tests still come back as underactive. Every time they increase the dosage I have gained weight. Have now gained 15 lbs since start of year. Has anyone had this kind of reaction and would a different type of medicine fix this problem? Have been overweight all my life but I had lost 70 lbs prior to the thyroid diagnosis and meds. Am very frustrated and feel like I'm retaining a lot of water. Dr won't put me on anything to reduce the water until my thyroid levels get better. Any advise would be appreciated. Thanks.....Brenda


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## Lovlkn (Dec 20, 2009)

My belief is when you are hypo you will retain more water.

Ask your doctor to run a FT-4 and a FT-3 test to see exactly where you are.

Are you asking your replacement hormones at least 1 hour before food and 4 hours away from calcium or iron?

Have you had any antibodies tests run?

If you post lab tests with ranges we can give more opinions as far as what is going on with you.


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## dolphinlover54 (Sep 13, 2010)

I take my levothyroxine as soon as I wake up in the morning. I don't eat or drink anything after taking it for about an hour and a half. My last blood work showed my TSH was 6.930. I have only been having blood work every 2 months but I'm not sure what all was tested. This was the only thyroid related item on my last blood work. When I had my parathyroid removed the surgeon looked at my scans and said I had hashimoto's but the thyroid medicine is all that they have been giving me. Also, my calcium levels are now low. I find I'm having some muscle spasms from it. I'm not being given anything except to eat dairy and sit in the sun for about 10 minutes each day. That's not always easy to do but when you work all day and it's so humid here that it's hard to deal with the heat and humidity for any amount of time right now. That should get better in the next couple of weeks though.


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## lavender (Jul 13, 2010)

I have been dealing with low calcium levels since my total thyroidectomy. Docs call it "parathyroid stunning," and one of my parathyroids was identified in the pathology report. 
My doc has me taking calcium supplements with vitamin D as well as prescription vitamin D. I am not sure how severe yours is, but I would check in with your doc about taking supplements if you are having muscle spasms. 
I have found that the first sign of may calcium dropping is a strange, dizzy headache. It's hard to explain, different from any other headache I've had before. Also, my hands cramp up, but for some reason I do't seem to notice this unless I really think about it. If I skip doses of calcium, I start to have heart palpitations like I did when I was hyperthyroid. 
weird. I'm having trouble finding info about it, but here are a couple of sites:
http://www.clevelandclinicmeded.com/medicalpubs/diseasemanagement/endocrinology/hypocalcemia/
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/241893-overview


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