Thats good news Nancy. I'm glad you're noticing improvement..hope it stays that way. Right now I'm not quite at 2.5 grains....unfortunately I only have RX for 1.5 grains so it is hard to slowly increase..if I start taking two pills it might be too much.

Get a pill cutter. I just whack my pills in two (or quarters if needed). It's 45mg for half of a 1.5 grain. I have that dose too.
Actually, after cutting it in half with the splitter I can just break it into half to get 22.5mg.

TOM can definitely knock the wind out of your sails. If it's TOM, wait it out (sucks, I know) and see if you go back to feeling better after TOM. With doses less than about 3 grains, your body tends to lower its own production once it senses the new stuff coming in. This is often why you feel hypo again. The protocol for Armour is to increase by half a grain every two weeks until you get to 3 grains, then wait 4-6 weeks ans see how you feel.

After TOM, if you still feel hypo, call your doc, explain about symptoms coming back and temps going down and ask permission to increase your dose. If the doc says no, you will have to evaluate how to proceed from there. Just so you know, T3 enters the system quickly, so you can use the T3 in Armour right away. T4, however, builds slowly over the course of 4-6 weeks, so usually the longer you're on Armour, the better you feel as long as you're int he neighborhood of the right dose to begin with.

I'm currently on 3 grains and I'm feeling like this is pretty close to my optimal dose. My doc gave me an extra script to go to 4 if I think I need it, and he says he'll work with me if I need more than that, too. Right now I feel even and good day to day, but I'll still grab a short nap inthe after noon sometimes. I'm about to go back to working out, so we'll see how that affects me now.

Cheers,

Friday

Thanks Friday,
I'm starting to think that even though I had RAI there must be some living thyroid tissue left. Why else would I usually feel worse when I increase meds? It makes sense that I FELT better while on only .25 levothroid with a high TSH because my own thyroid was still producing something. As I increased doses my thyroid is putting out less and less and I don't think I was converting which is why my T3 was dropping even though my T4 was rising. This is probably why I've been miserable for so long with a normal TSH. I think my TSH will have to be suppressed to feel great again and now that I'm on Armour the lack of T3 wont be a problem so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

How is your trial on Armour doing? Do you still feel worse?
Have you tried going cold turkey and not taking any thyroid meds at all?
My facial puffiness feels like its getting worse and its building up in the skin. I am feeling really self contious and insecure about it, it really bothers me because now I feel ugly. I want to cry,,,
I dont think its ever going to go away, not when ive read all these depressing stories. anyway, I wanted to ask you if you ever get phlegm in your throat, I get phlegm in the back of my throat after I eat and drink and execsice its constant and I am constantly hacking it up. If I swallow it I feel the TMJ and my face gets puffy and hurts. All the mucus just keeps flowing and I feel that is the problem. Do you have this too? Also when I put on makeup my face hurts and feels puffy too, my skin is really sensitive, its almost like anything i put into my body aggrivates it, but espically makeup,, espically lipstick and stuff. I was on thyroid medication for a while and it actually made me feel hypo, i think my thyroid is f----ed up and the thyroid hormones when I took them caused symptoms,,,,I may end up having to get it removed and then just take pills if this keeps up, cause I dont want to get worse.
Does your face look fat to you? I hope that the Armour is working for you because you can only go up in the dose so far? Are you still having pain?
you can email me at cyscaling~yahoo.com so we can talk further, since we are the only one with these problems, maybe there is a connection and we can figure it out together, its discouraging that your doctors arent able to help you. Have you considered consulting a dermotologist? Ive read about injections they can give to breakdown the mucus in the skin that has built up, but im not sure.

Hi Sunshne,

Are you feeling better on the Armour now? If you're not feeling good, make sure to call the doc. She is very good about returning phone calls and giving advice on the phone. She's done this twice for me now. My next appt with her is in 2 weeks. I'm feeling so much better, but I think I'm ready for a bump up too.

Hope you're doing well!

Cindy, I only felt really great for 4 days. I've talked to Dr. Snyder once since my appt. and I'm now up to 3 grains of Armour. She thinks I may have Thyroid Hormone Resistance and may have to take larger than normal doses.
I'm not yet sure exactly whats up with my body but there is definate autoimmune stuff going on. Right now I'm experiencing alot of chemical and food sensitivites. This has been off and on since Graves diagnosis. Whenever I increase meds I seem to get autoimmune attacks on my body. I have malabsorbtion problems as well and even if I eat all day long I still lose weight and feel very weak. I'm still hoping that this is all due to low thyroid and will resolve rather than something else that hasnt been figured out yet. I'm glad you're still doin' good.

Cy, Its still a little early to tell if the Armour's going to help me. I've increased my dose every week for past 3 weeks but it will take awhile to build up. I would not be able to go cold turkey and stop taking meds since I've had RAI and am now Hypo. I'm sorry to hear that your face is getting worse...I'm sure it will get better once you figure out whats causing it. Another thing that can cause facial swelling is an allergic reaction. When my thyroid first went haywire my face and skin became extremely sensitive to lotions, make-up, detergents, soap..basically everything. I did see a dermatologist and was diagnosed with Rosacea...which I don't really have or if I did its gone now. (my face does not turn red). I bought new products that were more sensitive on the skin...after about a year I was able to go back to my old make-up but I still use detergents that are dye & perfume free. The better I feel the less these things bother me. If it makes you feel any better I felt very self conscious at the beginning of all this and was scared about what was happening to my skin and entire body. Now that I've gone through periods of improvement I know that these things are not permanent but the underlying cause does need to be determined. I do have some phlegm periodically but it's mild and not bothersome to me. I am still in pain, mostly burning sensations on my face and tongue..also my lymph nodes under my ears become hard and sore. My face is still puffy but does not look fat because of the fact that I only weigh 100 lbs. and I'm not absorbing nutrients. Don't worry you will get better...I've experienced what you describe exactly...it hurt to put make-up on and I would flinch if anyone attempted to touch my face because it hurt so much. I'm alot better as far as that goes. These are the things that I KNOW for sure aggravate me and cause symptoms: Aspartame, Flouride in toothpaste, Foods high in sugar, Cigarettes, Perfumes & possibly Wheat. It took me awhile to figure these out. Really just pay attention to how your body is reacting to things and dont expose yourself to things that cause symptoms. Things that you are reacting to are also supressing your immune system and further complicating the situation. What do your doctors say? Why did you stop taking thyroid meds? Have you had your TSH, FT4 & FT3 tested recently? If you are Hypo you should really be taking meds...if you were on too small of a dose that might be why you felt more hypo. I felt very Hypo while on .75 levothroid even though my docs said this was sufficient for me. It wasn't. Feel free to email me at SUNSHNE24~aol.com. It sounds like we are experiencing the same symptoms.

BTW, some of Snyder's patients are on 8-10 grains, so don't worry too much about the idea that you can only take so much Armour. For doses over 4-5 grains, I would definitely want medical supervision, but it's not like if you don't feel good on 2 or 3 grains that you're totally screwed.

Cheers,

Friday

Yeah..Dr. Snyder did tell me she had patients on high doses...she said she has one girl who is small like me and is taking 13 pills or something like that. I was very surprised because I had never heard of anyone taking more than 5 grains. I'm not sure if I should go any higher than 3 grains at this point without waiting for the blood levels to stabalize. I'm still cold and have no hyper symptoms but its only been about 10 days on 3 grains.

CindyG...does Dr. Snyder get messages or return calls any day or only on Tuesdays? I know she only takes appt. on Tuesdays but wasnt sure about phone calls.

Hi Sunshne,

Sorry, I was out of town for the weekend.

She returns calls generally the same day you leave a message. I've not kept track of the day, but both times I called her, she returned my call within a few hours.

Good luck with this. Sounds like you're still in a bit of the rough stuff.

OK, could someone explain to me what a "grain" of Armour is? How many mgs. is in 1 grain?

Thanks Cindy,
Yeah...I'm still going through it. Hopefully I'll find that right dose soon.
Wish, 1 grain of Armour is 60 mgs. What you are taking now is hardly anything. I think you said you are on 15 mgs...is that right? I cant remember if you were taking Armour or Synthroid. Armour is measured differently than synthroid and Armour contains both T3 & T4.