Hypothyroidism

[Ruthie]

My levothyroxine arrived and I took my first dose this morning.

This fatigue is utterly debilitating. I felt OK yesterday, went on the turbo for 15 minutes, made two batches of cupcakes for the neighbours, made a batch of vegetable soup, walks to church to open up for a service.

As a result I am still in my pyjamas at dinner time, unable to summon up the energy to heat up yesterday’s soup. There is nothing to give !

Hoping this stuff works quickly.

My diagnosis was based on a near-doubling of TSH, between fainting on May 11th, and fainting again on June  9th.  Taking the level from ‘borderline’ to ‘yep, treat this woman’. T4 levels normal throughout.

[hellymedic]

As I understand it, thyroxine is a fairly small molecule, is easily absorbed and acts pretty quickly.
Suggest you keep an eye on your heart rate.

Hope you're feeling better soon!

[Gattopardo]

On the plus side free prescriptions.

Takes a while to dial in the dose to get it right, then regular monitoring.  Get better soon.

Quick question, for those taking levo.. is it the same dose every day or say 100 one day and the 25 the next.

[DuncanM]

Quick question, for those taking levo.. is it the same dose every day or say 100 one day and the 25 the next.

I'm on 125 micrograms every day. If you need a dose in between the 25ug pills, you might take 75ug one day and 100ug the next. I can't think of a purpose in varying your dosage like you suggest, because I think it lives in your system for a while.

[Kim]

The half-life's about a week IIRC.

[hellymedic]

I am neither a thyroid patient nor an endocrinologist.
I would suggest the daily dose should be as consistent as possible despite tablet sizes constraining this.
75 one day, 100 the next would make sense. 25/100 would not, IMHO.

[Ham]

Hope you're feeling better now, Miss Ham was diagnosed with the same at around 14-15, the comment of the specialist who advised: "You DO realise you're going to get a normal teenager now, don't you?"

[Ruthie]

No. Not really. But thanks for asking.

[mcshroom]

I have nothing useful to add, but I hope you feel better soon Ruthie

[morbihan]

On the plus side free prescriptions.

Takes a while to dial in the dose to get it right, then regular monitoring.  Get better soon.

Quick question, for those taking levo.. is it the same dose every day or say 100 one day and the 25 the next.

175 every day. Had pills in annoying blister packs in portions of the the dose thereof. I try to get the single dose 175's in a bottle.
Have forgotten to take on the odd occasion and just left it until next day.

[Beardy]

175 a day here, so three tabs which is a bit irritating when each is in a different pack, but that is a first world problem really.

Ruthie, I remember my doctor telling me ‘basically, your get up and go has got up and gone’, so don’t beat yourself up about it and be kind to yourself. I know that as a nurse you might find this difficult 

My understanding of the hypo (or hyper)thiroydsim is that the thyroxine isn’t the immediate drug, but a catalyst for other stuff and as such takes a couple of weeks to start it’s fixing. This is also why getting the dose right can take a while because measuring the amount of thyroxin in your system isn’t the issue, but it’s how your body reacts to the thyroxin that’s there. That’s why they measure T4 et all because it is these hormones that indicate how well your body is using the thyroxin.

[Gattopardo]

I'm on 125 micrograms every day. If you need a dose in between the 25ug pills, you might take 75ug one day and 100ug the next. I can't think of a purpose in varying your dosage like you suggest, because I think it lives in your system for a while.

Not me, it is the gf. 

But seems the pharmacist called today and looks like it should 100 and 125 but blood test seem come back fine.


Also what beardy said.  Stay safe Ruthie.