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Wednesday, February 08, 2012

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Welcome to The Q&A with Elaine Moore. Registered members are invited to ask any question of Elaine Moore on autoimmune diseases, Graves' disease, other thyroid diseases and subconditions, laboratory work, traditional and complementary medicine, triggers and environmental influences, thyroid and immune disorders in pets and animals, and other relevant areas of inquiry.

Each thread represents one question with one answer and will only appear at the time it is answered. Once answered, further replies cannot be made to the same thread since each thread represents only one question. A new thread will need to be started for additional questions.

Questions are answered solely by Elaine Moore, a medical writer and clinical laboratory scientist, MT, CLS, with more than 30 years of experience in immunology. Moore has also authored and edited over a dozen books in the area of health sciences and is an editor for McFarland Publisher's Health Topics Series.

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I'm new here-with new labs

7/22/2010 1:05 PM

mistya

Joined: 7/22/2010

Posts: 5

I'm new here-with new labs

Good Afternoon,

I'm new here and was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism back in 2003 but was recently told last year I now have Grave's Disease. I have been taking ATD's off and on for the last 6 years but more steady without stopping the last 4 years. I haven't been feeling well lately, more so lately than over the last year.

I guess I'm confused because when I look at my new labs they aren't to far off from the previous 2 labs but I'm just feeling so awful currently. I'm currently taking 50mg PTU daily and had thought I would start splitting my doses. However, my endo called yesterday and based on my new labs she would like me to increase my meds by 150mg. She wants me to take 200mg daily now, of course split in 2 doses. I feel this is extremely high dose change for not such a high level change. Any information that can be offered would be very appreciated. I've just been dealing with this for so many years that I can't figure out what my right way to dose is to get me better or why my levels continue to go up and down all the time without me ever being able to gain remission.

My most recent labs as of July 20th

TSH - 0.014 (range 0.300-5.000)

Free T3 - 4.1 (range 2.4-4.5)

Free T4 - 1.45 (range 0.80-1.80)

This was while taking 50mg PTU once daily and I've felt awful. Increased anxiety, 11 lbs weight loss, left hand numbness, fatigue, depression. The reason I'm confused is there labs are not far off my my previous 2 labs yet I'm feeling so extremely ill. I started to not feel well in June but when I had my last labs in May I was feeling ok.

May 10th labs

TSH - 0.028

T3 - 4.7

T4 - 1.28

This was also while taking 50mg PTU once daily

January 12th labs

TSH - 0.063

T3 - 2.7

T4 - 0.91

This was while taken 50mg PTU twice daily and I was feeling ok, pretty good at this time. Ive never felt great but this was an ok feeling during this time

Thanks again for any support and advice that can be offered. God Bless.

7/26/2010 1:49 AM

Elaine

Joined: 8/1/2008

Posts: 3174

Re: I'm new here-with new labs

Hi Mistya,

I see no reason for increasing your PTU dose. Most doctors today are switching patients from PTU to methimazole since there's fewer side effects. And based on your labs, you don't need a dose increase. In fact, with your symptoms, some doctors would decrease your dose. A dose of 50 mg PTU is equivalent to a 5 mg dose of methimazole. Ideally, you'd be on the lowest dose of ATD needed to keep FT4 at least at mid-range and preferably closer to the higher end of the range regardless of your TSH result. A low TSH is a reflection of your antibodies and doesn't mean that you're still hyperthyroid. best, elaine

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