# Started thyroid meds 5 weeks ago, throat now feels weird



## anxietysoldier (Apr 2, 2014)

Nature throid

week 1 1 grain

week 2 1 1/2 grain

week 3 2 grains

week 4 2 1/2 grains

week 5 3 grains

My throat this morning feels enlarged, or swollen. Seems weird to swallow water, just a tightness to it.

I haven't been feeling any better with my medication, going on week 5 at 3 grains hasn't made any difference so far. Dont know if a should hold at 3 grains for a few weeks and then have my blood tested. I havent checked my blood since i started the meds, any ideas or thoughts on what is going on? Or a direction I should go in?


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## Lovlkn (Dec 20, 2009)

At first glance - 5 weeks of increasing doses might just be the issue.

If it were me - I would find a dose and stick to it for a few weeks then have labs drawn.


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## jenny v (May 6, 2012)

Agreed. That's a ton of dosage changes in a very short amount of time so your body never gets a chance to adjust to any one dose to see if it works. The typical course of action is usually to start with one dose, test your labs at 6-8 weeks, adjust as needed, and repeat. Why have you been increasing so much so quickly? Is this what your doctor said to do?


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## anxietysoldier (Apr 2, 2014)

My doctor said too, and the book stop the thyroid madness said to increase every two weeks, level out around 2 or 3 grains and wait for 4 to six weeks for your t4 to stabilize. Then do a blood test....then adjust on symptoms and blood levels


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## anxietysoldier (Apr 2, 2014)

Blood pressure good, body temp seems to be increasing 96.8 in the morning....98 to 98.6 by the afternoon, heart rate is good and stable....but depression anxiety has remained the same. Carpal tunnel in wrists seems to show up again , haven't seen it in years. Neck pain and body pains have increased, insomnia has stayed the same, can't get much rest. Tingling in hands and feet, really cold feet...never ever had cold feet until a few weeks ago...this is such a weird thing to experience...thanks for your help in understanding this disease...


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## bigfoot (May 13, 2011)

I agree with the other posters -- that seems like an awful lot of dose increases/changes over a short five weeks' time. Not saying it isn't correct or appropriate for you, just saying it's different from the norm around here. I've read through STTM and I've seen that passage about quickly increasing Armour/NT dosages to avoid any flare-ups of Hashi's antibodies. I'm actually surprised your doctor knew about this, too. To give a little perspective; it's taken me about a year and a half of slow dose increases and adjustments to hit the 1 1/2 grains of Nature-Throid. (Whether I'm still somewhat symptomatic because I didn't increase doses rapidly enough, who knows. I honestly think that depends on the person and what they can tolerate.)

As far as signs & symptoms, the throat tightness could be transient and part of your body working the kinks out, or it could be somehow tied into the dose increases, which potentially could have you over-medicated at the moment. Without doing labs it's nearly impossible to say. The anxiety / depression / mood stuff doesn't surprise me, and neither does the carpal tunnel, cold feet, body pains, and insomnia. All of this could be your system adjusting to a new "normal" and trying to rebalance itself. There are a lot of reverse-feedback loops with hormones, and I've had more than one doc tell me "you might feel worse before you feel better". Plus, with some of us, signs & symptoms will cross over or seem to mimic how we feel when under-medicated or over-medicated. And who knows how much these changes we make stir up antibodies and inflammation in the short-term.

Awesome to hear your BP, pulse, and so forth are doing okay. If you start seeing a racing pulse up over 100 bpm, it might be time to slow down a bit. Body temps will usually start lower in the morning, climb up higher to normal in the busy hours, and then in the evening back down a bit. Glad you are tracking that, too. Works best if you take a few readings of body temp between about 9am and 3pm, during the more active part of the day, then average them and plot them out.


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## anxietysoldier (Apr 2, 2014)

Bigfoot, really appreciate your thoughts.
I am going to the doctor tomorrow to have my blood drawn, and will find out my results on Friday. I will post them on here for you guys to see.
I am so glad that their are people like you big foot on hear, that takes the time to really answer some hard questions and being there for support is so nice. Thanks


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## Lovlkn (Dec 20, 2009)

> book stop the thyroid madness said to increase every two weeks, level out around 2 or 3 grains and wait for 4 to six weeks for your t4 to stabilize


Anxiety soldier,

Referring to your quote which is above. A dosage increase every 2 weeks is more the norm for Armour.

I am a firm believer that the "doctors orders" are not always best. I keep trying to convince my 91 year old mother of that. Her doctors keep narrowly avoiding killing her3 times in the last few years and she was only following her doctors orders.

Your labs will be useless - too many dose changes to get an accurate reading. The only reading I would pay attention to is one saying you're hyper - then decrease your meds and stick to the dose for a few weeks before retesting.

Anytime doses are changed frequently within weeks your body is going to go into a complete recalibration and throw out all sorts of new symptoms, not always ones we might expect.

Hang in there - it gets better once you can stabilize.


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## bigfoot (May 13, 2011)

anxietysoldier said:


> Bigfoot, really appreciate your thoughts.
> I am going to the doctor tomorrow to have my blood drawn, and will find out my results on Friday. I will post them on here for you guys to see.
> I am so glad that their are people like you big foot on hear, that takes the time to really answer some hard questions and being there for support is so nice. Thanks


Thanks -- and hey, that's what we are here for.  Hard to believe it's already been a few years on this end -- just reading through the posts and asking some questions of the knowledgable folks here taught me more in a few hours than many (upon many) doctor's appointments. Humbly just trying to pay it forward; I'm sure it won't be long and you'll be slinging out support and advice to the new crop of members. Always something new to learn, too!

I have faith that things will get better for you; it's the in-between time of waiting and trying to be patient that can be frustrating. Best advice is to stay on top of your care (you're light years ahead there anyway), and in the meantime spend some quality time with family or friends, and do some stuff that you enjoy to take your mind off things.


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## ssMarilyn (Nov 15, 2013)

anxietysoldier said:


> Nature throid
> 
> week 1 1 grain
> 
> ...


*Is your MD the one that is increasing your dosage so quickly? I've researched this subject alot online and read books by thyroid experts and it's pretty much agreed to go 4 weeks at one dosage, do the blood tests and then increase the dosage accordingly. You're moving up really fast..maybe too fast.*


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## anxietysoldier (Apr 2, 2014)

Thanks for the replays, my doctor said it didn't matter if I took my meds the morning of the appointment. Is this true? Or do you wait until after they draw the blood to take the pills?

I called him yesterday told him of my symptoms, he said to stay at the 3 grains I am on for a few weeks...don't increase or decrease...since I am not having high blood pressure, or high heart rate. Anxiety yes,but I have had high anxiety and depression for the last couple of months. My body temp in the last week or so has increased from around 96 to 97.8. My afternoon temp has gone from in the 97s to 98.2 to 98.6. Don't know if these are good signs that my dose is leveling out, but the major depression and anxiety is horrible to deal with. Haven't been to work in a week or so.


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## madthyroid78 (Jan 28, 2014)

this is all so confusing! I too hear....your going up TOO slowly or You need to go up slowly. im on Armour aswell


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## jenny v (May 6, 2012)

The every 2-3 weeks titration that Stop the Thyroid Madness recommends is one of the few things I don't agree with (I find most of their advice great, but not this). I guess I just don't understand how your body can handle dose increases that fast and find a stabilizing point. I switched to Armour in November and I've increased my doses every 6-8 weeks after doing labs each time--yes, it sucked big time in the beginning when I was pretty hypo, but I've never gone hyper and I'm getting close to finding the dosage my body needs. It took years for my body to get to this point, I don't expect things to be a quick fix, no matter how much I wish it was, lol!


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## lainey (Aug 26, 2010)

WAY too much medication WAY too fast, for numbers that were originally not that far off. Unless of course, you are a huge man to begin with.

STTM is not exactly the voice of authority, IMHO, they have their own axe to grind.

For one, your body temp is not an indicator of thyroid status. You really don't need to take your temp so much, unless you think you are ill.

Titration for most meds should be as Jenny described, low and slow with appropriate labs to monitor. Transitioning to hyper, surprise! often yields for many people symptoms that they mis-interpret as hypo (depression and anxiety), leading them to demand more medication, leading them to post clinically hyper labs.

What has the, I'm guessing, natural medicine doctor, done with the rest of those labs? Vitamin D is low, Testosterone is high&#8230;.no regular doctor runs the heavy metals&#8230;..


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## anxietysoldier (Apr 2, 2014)

but my blood pressure, heart rate and body temps are fine.



lainey said:


> WAY too much medication WAY too fast, for numbers that were originally not that far off. Unless of course, you are a huge man to begin with.
> 
> STTM is not exactly the voice of authority, IMHO, they have their own axe to grind.
> 
> ...


Well he is a function medicine doctor,

I was wondering if my blood pressure, heart rate, are fine.... with no hot flashes,am I still hypo? I dont have any signs of hyper, just anxiety which I have always had. I dont know if my symptoms are just because of the dose changes. I think I will stay at 3 grains for awhile, maybe like 4 - 6 weeks and see what my lab results come back as...thanks


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## lainey (Aug 26, 2010)

depression and anxiety is horrible to deal with. Haven't been to work in a week or so.

From the looks of things, you have been taking Armour for almost 6 weeks and it's not too soon for labs.

Especially, as noted, if your psychiatric symptoms are such that you are not functioning in the world. Low thyroid does not generally produce symptoms that are that severe. You need medical attention. Sooner than 4-6 weeks from now.


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## anxietysoldier (Apr 2, 2014)

Well i have been dealing with this for many years, just diagnosed a month ago, i was told it anxiety for years and my thyroid was fine, now when i look back years ago on the labs my tsh was just below a 5. I was diagnosed with Hashimoto disease, I think I was hyper for years because I would go through spells in bed at night with heart palpitations and high heart rate.... some times 110 laying in bed. So I have spent the last few years trying to learn to breath, to calm myself down... to relax... changed my life, diet, attitude. Nothing seemed to work, I was at my wits end. Then I found a functional medicine doctor and he said I was very hypo. My old doctor tried Zoloft, ativan...so in the last month I have came off the ativan, got on the nature thyroid. The only meds I am on now is for my thyroid, hoping and waiting that I will get some relief soon. Oh also I am full of heavy metals, don't know what that did to me


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## earlyapex (Feb 17, 2014)

Yeah as many have said, you titrated rather fast. I am going up at 1/4gr every 2 weeks. I notice around 7-10 days my hypo symptoms seem to return, so I just tough it out for a little bit until I reach 2 weeks. FYI, not everyone needs 2 or 3 grains of armour. You may be hypo, or you may have overshot your optimal dosage. I do notice my thyroid will swell when its time for an increase and also after I increase. It's just the feedback loop and the body trying to balance things out.


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## anxietysoldier (Apr 2, 2014)

I am getting mixed feelings about stop the thyroid madness approach to dosing. She says to start off at a grain, add a 1/2 grain every two week at around 2-3 grains level off and wait 4-6 weeks for the t4 to level off and test your blood levels. Do people just not do this approach, and is that book any good? It seems like I find a lot of people contradicting the books approach....any thoughts ?


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## ssMarilyn (Nov 15, 2013)

*I don't know if I can post a link here or not, but this goes to a page that explains why you don't rush the increases. It made so much sense to me! *
http://www.thyrophoenix.com/adjusting_doses.htm


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## earlyapex (Feb 17, 2014)

anxietysoldier said:


> I am getting mixed feelings about stop the thyroid madness approach to dosing. She says to start off at a grain, add a 1/2 grain every two week at around 2-3 grains level off and wait 4-6 weeks for the t4 to level off and test your blood levels. Do people just not do this approach, and is that book any good? It seems like I find a lot of people contradicting the books approach....any thoughts ?


OP went up 1/2gr every week, which imo is too fast. I still think the STTM increase rate is too aggressive. Armour says 1/4gr every 2-3 weeks which makes more sense when you take into account the half lives of the hormones. After 2 weeks you will have 75% of the T4 built up, after 3 weeks you are at 87.5%. I've been steadily increasing at about 1/4gr. every too weeks. Some members here will say my rate is too fast. But it's slow enough imo that if I do go hyper, I can easily back down a 1/4gr and be fine, since I/ve allowed most of the T4 to build with each increase.

The fool proof way to do it is wait 4-8 weeks after each increase, but for some of us, it's not worth the agony that comes with holding that long at a low dose.


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## lainey (Aug 26, 2010)

anxietysoldier said:


> I am getting mixed feelings about stop the thyroid madness approach to dosing. She says to start off at a grain, add a 1/2 grain every two week at around 2-3 grains level off and wait 4-6 weeks for the t4 to level off and test your blood levels. Do people just not do this approach, and is that book any good? It seems like I find a lot of people contradicting the books approach....any thoughts ?


 T4 only medications, which take time to build up in your system, can often be started at the full replacement dose (in the face of high TSH, for example, of clinical hypothyroidism). Have done many dose adjustments on T4 medications myself, I will point out that is not to say that you won't have transition symptoms, and you will. These are regardless of what medication you are using. Patients don't expect these, get impatient with them, and get trapped in many dose adjustments which perpetuate the problem.

The idea behind the step up in a short time is really to get acclimated to the T3 in Armour. Armour has T3 in a higher ratio than found in the body. To take several grains of Armour at the outset, with the associated T3, would be difficult for most people to handle.

I disagree strongly with the idea that you should just "titrate up and level off at 2-3 grains". Responses to thyroid medications are individualized, and blood levels should be measured at each dose increment. Not everyone needs that much medication. The focus of STTM and the like is to titrate up until you "feel better"--ie, ignore the labs. Well yes, due to the larger ratio of T3, people on dessicated thyroid often do post distorted labs--suppressed TSH and free T4, higher T3 usually to the near clinically hyper range. You and your doctor are supposed to "ignore" this as long as you feel well. However, if you have a reason to find yourself in the hands of a regular medical doctor, you will get quite an earful.


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## anxietysoldier (Apr 2, 2014)

Thanks for the help, after I read sttm I wish I had ask the forums opinion before I raised my meds. Don't know if I should hold this dose now and wait to see if I go hyper....??
Blood pressure 120 over 77, heartrate 84, moving and active 100 beats


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## lainey (Aug 26, 2010)

I think you should have some lab work done. That will shed some light on the decision.


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