Thyroid Problems leading to weight loss

Posted by suzy37 @suzy37, Dec 14, 2018

I have been sick for several years without knowing what the cause was, lost abt. 50 lbs (weigh 69 lbs now) anxiety attacks and panic attacks too at times, bad stomach for yrs which stress aggravates , gas builds up in stomach and chest until I can barely get a breath. I am 81 yrs old and it seems like everything I do makes it worse. I started thyroid pills in August which they just changed the dosage on by half. I had started getting an irregular heart beat which potassium seemed to help,this may have been caused by the too high dosage I was taking.Also the thyroid pills take potassium out of your body so that didnt help. I would like to hear from others who might have similar problems and see how you are coping.

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lioness | @lioness | Jun 13, 2019

@contentandwell Thanks I heard of myfitnesspal I will check it out .

JK | @contentandwell | Jun 13, 2019

In reply to @lioness "@contentandwell Thanks I heard of myfitnesspal I will check it out ." + (show)

@lioness if you are just slightly overweight I wouldn’t worry. I have read that as you get older it’s ok to be a few pounds over because if you get sick it gives you reserves to help with your strength. Of course you should check on that.

I am still slightly in the overweight BMI range but my PCP thinks my weight is great.
JK

Jennifer, Volunteer Mentor | @jenniferhunter | Jun 14, 2019

In reply to @mcmurf2 "short back ground : been on synthroid or levothyroxin for over 15 years Was originally put..." + (show)

@mcmurf2

short back ground : been on synthroid or levothyroxin for over 15 years Was originally put on it by psychiatrist due to depression and low energy.
Fast forward to last summer. A year ago, I went to the Dr for my eye. It wasn't acting right,, seemed to be more closed. They said nothing was wrong. EVERY Dr appt I mentioned my eyes.. they were doing strange things. The answer was finally - to to the optometrist. SO, I went last week,, NOTHING wrong with my eyes. But, they are getting big. My friend said she doesn't like looking at them anymore. My eyes have always been the family joke - Terri and her squinty eyes. I ruin every photo!
About a month after that I was at my Dr's for shaking. Thyroid was off.. lowered dose, next visit,, thyroid was off... the other way.. BIG swing. she finally sent me to endocrinologist. she just kept lowering my dose as labs were off. Then, 1.5 weeks ago, I wake up with TERRIBLE shakes.. my BODY was shaking, not just my arms and legs. I was out of control. Very scary. Went to ER. At that time, we were not thinking thyroid as I JUST had a lab draw a week and a half before that and synthroid was lowered to 50 mg. Long story short... it was all Thyroid.. hyper.. all symptoms of hyper accelerated. Call to my endo. office in a bigger town said to stop taking my synthroid, labs were off.. ok,, wow. Stop!?? ok...

I have been really sick since then,, bad symptoms of hyper. And, I have been so stressed out, I blew my epidural I got last month... neck and shoulders back to pins and needles. Asked on another line,, and the answer back was :struma ovari - NEVER heard of this.
My Endo will not order any more labs, or tests until the synthroid is out of my body. ( I understand that). I am wondering IF I need to go to my primary and get my ovaries checked. 3 years ago they said I had fibroids... well,, wonder IF that was wrong... and it is this..?? also,, 2-3 years ago during a ultra sound for something else, they found a small nodule on my thyroid. Too small to worry about.. and I don't get another ultrasound for it till Aug.
And,, just to throw this out there: during physical therapy,in the last 2 weeks, when the therapist does ultrasound on the left side of my neck, I get a big reaction.. I cough, but the 'tickling' is not in my throat.. but on the side. Ultrasound does NOT do this on my right side.
Question is, do I go against my endo's 'orders' and get my ovaries checked by my primary?
Labs drawn are not complete thyroid labs,, just the basics.
Free T3 - 7.6 Free T4 - 2.1 TSH reflex to FT4 - 0

advice???? I am generally a patient person, but waiting 6 weeks is hard. today I finally had a good day - didn't feel 'sick', but still shook,, ( I'll take that)

I should also ad, that I have been thru an extreme amount of stress since Jan 9.

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@mcmurf2 Having an over active thyroid ( or overdose on thyroid meds) will cause nervousness and anxiety, so remember that as it is affecting your self evaluation right now. Fibroids happen in the uterus, not the ovaries, so listen to your doctor on that. He's right that you need to wait for further blood tests because they can't assess proper function while the thyroid hormones are too high and they shouldn't guess about this. You will get through this. If you get to where the thyroid hormone levels are too low, you'll get tired and your body will tell you. I have Hashimoto's and my thyroid function fluctuates which then can make my hormone levels either too high or too low so I pay attention to how I feel and if I loose energy late in the day. I check in with my doctor when I think the dose should be changed and they have me try a slightly different dose and see if I feel better. I take desiccated pig thyroid (Nature Throid) and the dosing is different that with Synthroid because it has all the components the thyroid needs. With Synthroid, your body has to convert it to make some of the components. Perhaps that might be an option to try once you get the Synthroid out of your body. Your thyroid might be making hormones on it's own in addition to the Synthroid, and you really need to get back to square one to start over and figure this out. It might be worth asking if your body converts Synthroid correctly. Here is some literature that describes the staring you've mentioned with your eyes and that this is related to an overactive thyroid. The doctor who manages my thyroid is a functional medicine specialist, not an endocrinologist. He has said that the "normal" definition is based on an average of thyroid functions in humans including those who are not very well, so he doens't use that to determine what my optimal levels should be.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1780617/?page=1

lioness | @lioness | Jun 14, 2019

In reply to @contentandwell "@lioness if you are just slightly overweight I wouldn’t worry. I have read that as you..." + (show)

@contentandwell My Dr. wants me to lose weight because of my cholesterol she thinks this will help . My BMI is above normal so I did at one time go on the Atkins diet that worked well my son gave me a website which I followed pretty much then when I reached mhy goal I forgot about it . I feel good where I'm at as I eat right except for sweets and exercise but Oh well I,ll try again ??? . Have a good day

Jennifer, Volunteer Mentor | @jenniferhunter | Jun 14, 2019

In reply to @mcmurf2 "so,, with my recent hyper stuff going on,, I lost 30 lbs last fall and starting..." + (show)

@mcmurf2 You're right, an over active thyroid causes weight loss, and losing 30 pounds is a lot to loose so fast. If it's under active, you can gain weight. My doctor describes this as having gas in your tank. If you don't have much, you can't go very fast, but if you have a lot, you'll go too fast. It's controlling your metabolism and that affects everything in your body.

JK | @contentandwell | Jun 14, 2019

In reply to @lioness "@contentandwell My Dr. wants me to lose weight because of my cholesterol she thinks this will..." + (show)

@lioness In that case I highly recommend myfitnesspal. If you are honest with it then it really does help. It can seem cumbersome at first but once you have used it for a while it's much easier. If you don't eat enough it actually tells you that too and will not calculate end-of-day statistics. Generally, at the end of the day, it will tell you what your weight would be at the end of five weeks if you continued with the same number of calories. You get extra calories if you put exercise in too.
It worked for me. Now if I could just get more serious about it again and lose a few pounds I would be happy.
JK

lioness | @lioness | Jun 14, 2019

In reply to @contentandwell "@lioness In that case I highly recommend myfitnesspal. If you are honest with it then it..." + (show)

@contentandwell Thanks I will look into it going to babysit now but will keep this post for .com

lioness | @lioness | Jun 14, 2019

In reply to @contentandwell "@lioness In that case I highly recommend myfitnesspal. If you are honest with it then it..." + (show)

@contentandwell I was looking at a magazine and this article looks interesting its called Zuccarin diet all it is ,is mulberry leave This women in Fla. regulated her blood sugar with it and a side effect was she lost weight. I'm going to look at the website . Zuccarin.com according to this you can find it a drugstores,Walmart Amazon so am going to check it out . Ive heard of mulberry tea but don't know if this is the same . Its a Swedish supplement . a tablet and suppose to block carbohydrates from being digested into simple sugar

JK | @contentandwell | Jun 15, 2019

In reply to @lioness "@contentandwell I was looking at a magazine and this article looks interesting its called Zuccarin diet..." + (show)

@lioness I just did a very cursory googling of that diet and it is not very well rated overall from what I could see. I did not read any of the articles in depth. You know the old saying, "if something seems to be too good to be true, it probably isn't true".

Also, being on immunosuppressants there are many herbal type things I cannot take. There's a new sleep aid out that has two forms of melatonin and some herbals in it that sounds good so I checked with my transplant team and was told that due to the herbals I could not use it. I can take melatonin.
If you do try zuccarin I will be interested in hearing if it does help you at all.
JK

lioness | @lioness | Jun 15, 2019

In reply to @contentandwell "@lioness I just did a very cursory googling of that diet and it is not very..." + (show)

@contentandwell I haven't checked it out yet but if I do decide to try it I,ok let you know Here's my latest I painted have to my grandson for his grad.Rom 5th grade