Well, just got back from my doctor - we had quite the yelling match!! But finally we came to an agreement: he would treat me from test results, and I would take as much Synthroid as it takes to get rid of my symptoms and would get as low on the "scale" as it takes to get rid of those same symptoms

TSH was 6.20. I had no idea that this was high until I saw the scale. I mean really! He had told me it was a little off!!! With a scale from 0.35 to 5.00 I think 6.20 is a bit more than a little off. Free T3 was 3.9 and Free T4 was 14.

I told him I thought my symptoms might go away if TSH was down around 1 or 2 or even 3!!!!! But he said he was NOT interested in symptoms - that they might be from something else!!! So I said - ok, give me something to make my hair grow back. Give me something to stop me from being cold all the time. Give me something to make my ankles go down. Give me something to make me lose weight. Give me something to make my voice go back to normal. And he had the good grace to say he couldn't.

I told him I was going to double my Synthroid and have blood tests frequently because I had NO changes in anything so far. He actually said there could have been a mistake in the first test.

He was NOT even willing to admit that I might have horrible symptoms at 6.20 where another person might have to go up to 10 before they would feel these same symptoms. I also said if HIS WIFE was losing her hair like I was, he'd be feeding her thyroid with a SPOON!!!!! He didn't get mad but he just did not understand where I was coming from.

But in the end we kind of agreed that we would look at the problem from our different perspectives and work towards one goal. He said he would treat me to whatever number on the scale I wanted!!!! That doesn't sound very good to me but I'll know that number when my symptoms are gone!!!!

What a mess!!!

Well, it sounds like you got what you were after. I approached it with my doctor that I wanted to optimize my thyroid levels and that I felt pretty sluggish on the high end of TSH. He was quite reasonable about it. Although I eventually gave up on synthroid altogether and use Armour now. For that I had to switch docs and use an ND.

So, many labs have changed their TSH scale so that 3 or even 2.75 (I think) is the high end. But yes, you can feel really bad at 6... TSH doesn't necessarily reflect how you feel.

You really do need to give it a good 4 weeks for T4 to make a difference. It builds up in the blood slowly. If you overshoot it, believe me, hyperthyroid is just as NASTY, if not worse, and it'll take a long time to lose the symptoms because T4 has a long half life. So try to be at least a little patient.

Thank you, NancyLC for your comment. I'm amazed that some labs have lowered their TSH to such low numbers!!

I have been on Synthroid for almost a month at 0.25mg with NO difference and doc agreed that I could go to 0.50 mg and then re-test to see what happens....so we'll see.

As for patience, well it's the hair thing!! This has freaked me out so much....and of course that's what will take the longest to fix....I know that...but but but but...