# Opinions needed....



## llhg71 (Apr 6, 2011)

Last Wednesday, I took my first dose of synthroid after thyroid cancer treatment. I was told to take 50 mcg. Short version is that I ended up in the emergency room that night with burning chest pain, elevated BP of 150/100 to 170/120 and rapid heart beat. According to the ER doc, my heart is fine. The only lab result I remember is that my TSH was 105. So the next day, I was seen by my endo. He said to reduce the synthroid to 25mcg. I have done that but I am still having the same issues, but not as severe. I am at the end of my rope. I had to have the thyroid removed due to cancer and now I am having trouble taking medication that I have to have.


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## Andros (Aug 26, 2009)

llhg71 said:


> Last Wednesday, I took my first dose of synthroid after thyroid cancer treatment. I was told to take 50 mcg. Short version is that I ended up in the emergency room that night with burning chest pain, elevated BP of 150/100 to 170/120 and rapid heart beat. According to the ER doc, my heart is fine. The only lab result I remember is that my TSH was 105. So the next day, I was seen by my endo. He said to reduce the synthroid to 25mcg. I have done that but I am still having the same issues, but not as severe. I am at the end of my rope. I had to have the thyroid removed due to cancer and now I am having trouble taking medication that I have to have.:mad:


Are you 100% sure the the pharmacy filled your Rx with the right pharmaceutical? I ask because I once just had gotten a refill of my Synthroid, came home and went to take it as I had completely run out and to my horror upon closer scrutiny, it did not look like my Synthroid. Come to find out it was some elderly man's heart medication.

And are you on name brand or generic?


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## bigfoot (May 13, 2011)

Yikes! Something else I've seen mentioned in the dosing for levothyroxine drugs is they like to start them low 'n' slow for folks who have been hypothyroid for a long time. If I remember correctly, they say to start around 25 mcg and increase the dose slowly, no more than 25 mcg additional at a time. I have found this to be the case as well; a 12.5 mcg or 25 mcg increase is tolerated okay, but any more than that and forget it.

Glad to hear your heart is okay -- that is always a scary situation. Thankfully your endo reduced your dosage to 25 mcg of Synthroid to start with. Hopefully you don't wind up with someone else's meds as Andros mentioned!

Something else to consider is that your TSH is 105. That is way, way up there. (When I was close to a TSH of 7 I felt awful.) I recently read something here that mentions it isn't where your TSH and thyroid levels are per se, but how quickly they drop/increase that can give you problems. YMMV

Hope that 25 mcg sits better with you and you get some well-deserved rest!

hugs3


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## joplin1975 (Jul 21, 2011)

bigfoot said:


> Yikes! Something else I've seen mentioned in the dosing for levothyroxine drugs is they like to start them low 'n' slow for folks who have been hypothyroid for a long time. If I remember correctly, they say to start around 25 mcg and increase the dose slowly, no more than 25 mcg additional at a time. I have found this to be the case as well; a 12.5 mcg or 25 mcg increase is tolerated okay, but any more than that and forget it.
> 
> Glad to hear your heart is okay -- that is always a scary situation. Thankfully your endo reduced your dosage to 25 mcg of Synthroid to start with. Hopefully you don't wind up with someone else's meds as Andros mentioned!
> 
> ...


This is pretty much how my endo operates, especially since I had some issue pre-surgery adjusting to synthroid (although it was nothing, nothing like you describe). I hope you are doing ok now?


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## llhg71 (Apr 6, 2011)

The medication I used was actually brand name synthroid provided to me by the endo. I haven't taken any synthroid today. My bp and pain seems to be subsiding. I also know that my TSH has been coming down because my brain seems to be working better. It seems that I am in a catch 22.


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## joplin1975 (Jul 21, 2011)

My endo said that the "TSH hangover" (going from very, very hypo to "just" solidly hypo) can be a terrible experince for some people. Sounds like you might fall into that cateogry. Mine was not pleasant, but it, again, was not nearly as severe.

You are going to need to keep that TSH suppressed if you had cancer. Call your doctor, but I would be inclined to try it again and hope day two is better. It certainly would stand to reason that it should be, but I'm a fundraiser, not a medical professional.


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## Octavia (Aug 1, 2011)

This is interesting to me. My TSH was also 105 after my surgery, prior to starting on Levothyroxine. A week or two after I started on the replacement hormone, I had a follow-up with my ENT/surgeon. The nurse took my blood pressure before taking me to the exam room, and it was quite high...high enough that she took it FOUR TIMES just to be sure it wasn't her. Up to that point, my BP was always about 90 over 60...pretty low. That day, it was WAY high. I suspected it had something to do with the fact that I was a bit peeved because I had been in the waiting room for 90 minutes, but I also thought it probably had something to do with the hormone.

I haven't had my blood pressure tested since then (that was probably 4 months ago), but I'm seeing my primary care physician tomorrow, and I'm quite curious about what it's going to be. I'll try to remember to post it here.


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