Posted by BarbaraCat on January 16, 2003, at 20:00:17
In reply to Re: Noa, Ritch: Low Thyroid and lithium, posted by Noa on January 16, 2003, at 16:03:10
Noa,
I'm a frequent flyer at Mary Shomon's thyroid site, it's wonderful. God, I'd love to find an endo like yours. He doesn't happen to be in the Portland, OR area? To answer your questions about Armour, the scoop for a while was that the levels were inconsistent, but that isn't true any longer. The lab constantly monitors quality and consistency so that no longer is a valid consideration, even though the Synthroid folks would like to keep that rumor alive. What is a problem is that the ratio of T3 is too high to T4 and so can cause hyper symptoms - my free T3 was much higher than T4. Wasn't doing my anxiety level any good, along with the fact that I'm also vegetarian (except for fish). So I gave into my doc's T4 protocol. I've never responded well to my previous T4 only regimens and did much better with the combo, so cytomel seems like the ticket.I've definitely noticed my depression coming back in spades. I've been under pretty constant intense stress and thought it was due to that, but started feeling chilled all the time and symptoms of fibromyalgia aches returning. No wonder, since my TSH was 7 when I tested 8 weeks ago and 15 six weeks later! I'd like to get between 1.0 and 2.0, but my doc thinks 4-5 is OK. What can I say, a nice guy, but real party-line. What's puzzling to me is that I've been taking lithium for a year now and only recently has my thyroid done this. I was only taking 600mg a day, so other factors (such as my out of sight stress level) might be contributing.
Sigh, I really need to find a good endo who is cognizant of nutrition and affective disorders. I don't think my HMO is the place I can expect such a jewel like you found. I'll most likely go to Mary's site and spring for a visit out of pocket as a consult for my primary care doc. - Barbara
poster:BarbaraCat
thread:135769
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030113/msgs/136167.html