# Newbie needs advice, tired of suffering



## Danniswirl (Feb 23, 2013)

Hello all. I'm new to the board but not new to hash. I'm so tired of feeling depressed, achy all over, anxiety in crowds, no motivation, nausea, and extreme fatigue. I have Pcos, hashi, hypertension, insulin resistance, and celiac disease. I am on armour thyroid. Two (2) 30 mg pills in the Am and one (1) 30 mg in the late afternoon. I still have all these symptoms. Am I under medicated? My poor children are suffering. Why am I so moody and depressed? My blood work I had done on 2/18 is as followed:

Sodium 137 (range 135-146)
Potassium 4.3 (range 3.5-5.3)
Chloride 103 (range 98-110)
TSH 1.57
Free T4 1.7 (range 0.8-1.8)
Free T3 2.8 (range 2.3-4.2)
Total T3 102(range 76-181)

Any help reading this blood work would be greatly appreciated. I go see my endo in a week!


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## Lovlkn (Dec 20, 2009)

I'm amazed your FT-4 is so high and your FT-3 so low for being on a heavy T-3 medication such as Armour. I don;t have any Armour experience but and sure someone will chine in soon.

Have you ever had your Ferritin, B-12 or Vitamin D tested? All of those can cause fatigue and often deficient with thyroid patients.


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## Andros (Aug 26, 2009)

Danniswirl said:


> Hello all. I'm new to the board but not new to hash. I'm so tired of feeling depressed, achy all over, anxiety in crowds, no motivation, nausea, and extreme fatigue. I have Pcos, hashi, hypertension, insulin resistance, and celiac disease. I am on armour thyroid. Two (2) 30 mg pills in the Am and one (1) 30 mg in the late afternoon. I still have all these symptoms. Am I under medicated? My poor children are suffering. Why am I so moody and depressed? My blood work I had done on 2/18 is as followed:
> 
> Sodium 137 (range 135-146)
> Potassium 4.3 (range 3.5-5.3)
> ...


You would benefit from a bump up in your Armour. You are a busy mom and you are burning it up to where there is no source left to call upon which would be your active hormone of FT3.

Did you take your Armour prior to your lab test? FT4 is at the top of the range and that leaves one to wonder why the FT3 is so low. Your TSH is also high by "some" standards.

Are you on the name brand Armour from Forest Pharmaceuticals? Do you take your Armour in a timely manner? Are you taking anything that would cause your Armour to not work well such as calcium, soy, iron, green tea, L-carnitine etc..

Your labs are a bit strange.

I am on 3 1/2 grains and I am a 70 year old very physically active woman.

Hopefully your doctor is amenable. If not, go doctor shopping.

Please read.

Dr. Mercola (FREES)
http://www.mercola.com/article/hypothyroid/diagnosis_comp.htm

Free T3 and Free T4 are the only accurate measurement of the actual active thyroid hormone levels in the body. This is the hormone that is actually free and exerting effect on the cells. These are the thyroid hormones that count.

FREE T3 explained by Woliner
http://thyroid.about.com/cs/testsforthyroid/a/freet3.htm


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## Danniswirl (Feb 23, 2013)

Thank you for your replies. I am 40 years old. I didn't take my armour the day I did bloodwork. My vit d is a bit low (24). I take 2000 mg daily. When you say my bloodwork is strange. Do you mean like cancer? I'm scared now. Let me clarify my T4 results.

It reads:
T4(thyroxine) total 5.4 range(4.5-12.0)
Free T4 index (t7) 1.7 (range 1.4-3.8)
T4, free 1.1 (range 0.8-1.8)

Thank yo so much. Am I ever going to feel normal!


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## Danniswirl (Feb 23, 2013)

Oh and I am on the thyroid 0.5GR NP (30 mg) from Walgreens. The armour thyroid stopped working for me when they changed the formulation. I retained fluid and gained weight. I hope my doctor increases my meds because I can't take this. I'm tired of arguing with him!


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## Danniswirl (Feb 23, 2013)

I take my thyroid med under my tongue.


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## Andros (Aug 26, 2009)

Danniswirl said:


> Thank you for your replies. I am 40 years old. I didn't take my armour the day I did bloodwork. My vit d is a bit low (24). I take 2000 mg daily. When you say my bloodwork is strange. Do you mean like cancer? I'm scared now. Let me clarify my T4 results.
> 
> It reads:
> T4(thyroxine) total 5.4 range(4.5-12.0)
> ...


No, no..................not like cancer!!! My goodness! If you did not take your Armour before your blood work, that accounts for the lower FT3 for FT3 peaks in about 4 hours.

Therefore, I am of the opinion that you would benefit greatly if your doc raised your Armour by 1/4 grain, go for labs again in 8 weeks and maybe another bump up by 1/4 grain depending on how you feel and how the labs look.

I might add that you must be very consistent w/what you are doing. I lab at the same time each time and because the "new" Armour absorbs so fast, I now do not take mine before labs as I take mine @ 5:30 AM and lab @ 9:30 AM and that put me right in the "peak" window which was not a good thing. Plus, I discuss all this stuff w/my doc and she agrees as long as I do the same thing every time and I do.

The most important thing right now is for your doctor to run that FREE T3 test to make "sure" that you require an increase and that you are not over medicated. I don't think you are over medicated because of where your TSH is at. If you were, it would be much lower I am thinking.


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## Danniswirl (Feb 23, 2013)

Thank you so much. I have info for my doctor I printed out. He better listen because my quality of life depends on it. I just didn't know whether I was still symptomatic because I was under medicated or over medicated. Thank you so much because I was starting to feel hopeless. Oh, and my free T3 as of 2/18/13 was 2.8 (range 2.3-4.2).

Thanks again. I have not been taking me meds everyday at the same time, especially my evening dosage. I will definitely take your advice.


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