Dosage help

Hi there,

My doc finally gave me a choice of how I want to move forward given my
latest set of labs. She's humored me off and on for the past couple
of years. Although recently hasn't been too cooperative, so I'm
surprised by this latest turn of events.

Given my latest labs: 50mcg Levoxyl + 5 mcg cytomel (2.5 twice/day):

TSH 2.624 (.3 - 4.5)
Free T3 2.1 L (2.3 - 4.2)
Free T4 1 (.8 - 1.7)

I'm not sure if I'm working this out right or not:

Option #1: Stay on 50 mcg of Levoxyl and increase cytomel to 10 mcg.
Option #2: Increase Levoxyl to 66 mcg and cytomel to 6 mcg

All I know is that I'm feeling run down... extremely emotional (this
is the worst), sometimes I can't even hold a conversation because I
want to cry and I remember these feelings from when I was first
diagnosed.

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated!

By the way my labs before cytomel (88 mcg Levoxyl only)

TSH 1.821 (.3 - 4.5)
Free T3 2.3 (2.3 - 4.2)
Free T4 1.1 (.8 - 1.7)

Thank you!

Hi,

I'll take a stab at this:

Your body is supposed to convert T4 to T3. So the real question is, wil
it? If so, you need more T4. If not, you need more T3. (I see things i
black and white, by the way, it isn't always so, though.)

Your cytomel dose is fairly low. You could stand to go up a little bi
there and see what happens.

But your T4 dose is also low.

My suggestion:
Increase your T4 to .75 and instead of taking 1 cytomel a day, take tw
full pills.

See how you feel.

ar

"sb_belle" <sb_belle@hotmail.com> wrote in message
<1129578627.187682.43470@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups. com>

> Hi there,
>
>My doc finally gave me a choice of how I want to move forward given my
>latest set of labs. She's humored me off and on for the past couple
>of years. Although recently hasn't been too cooperative, so I'm
>surprised by this latest turn of events.
>
>Given my latest labs: 50mcg Levoxyl + 5 mcg cytomel (2.5 twice/day):
>
>TSH 2.624 (.3 - 4.5)
>Free T3 2.1 L (2.3 - 4.2)
>Free T4 1 (.8 - 1.7)
>
>I'm not sure if I'm working this out right or not:
>
>Option #1: Stay on 50 mcg of Levoxyl and increase cytomel to 10 mcg.
>Option #2: Increase Levoxyl to 66 mcg and cytomel to 6 mcg
>
>All I know is that I'm feeling run down... extremely emotional (this
>is the worst), sometimes I can't even hold a conversation because I
>want to cry and I remember these feelings from when I was first
>diagnosed.
>
>Any suggestions would be very much appreciated!
>
>By the way my labs before cytomel (88 mcg Levoxyl only)
>
>TSH 1.821 (.3 - 4.5)
>Free T3 2.3 (2.3 - 4.2)
>Free T4 1.1 (.8 - 1.7)
>
>Thank you!
>
>

--
Posted from the AST website
http://www.altsupportthyroid.org/index.php

>Option #1: Stay on 50 mcg of Levoxyl and increase cytomel to 10 mcg.
>Option #2: Increase Levoxyl to 66 mcg and cytomel to 6 mcg

Since both T3 and T4 are lowish, of these I'd choose option #2. But I think Arlyn's
suggestion in the other post is even better:
>Increase your T4 to .75 and instead of taking 1 cytomel a day, take two
>full pills.
Also take the two cytomel at two different times to spread out the effect.

HTH
Kevin

Thanks... I'll take your advice..

Also - not that it will matter anymore, but since 5 mcg (total) each
day was such a low dose. Did it really matter that I was splitting it?
I read a few different places that for daily doses of less than 10 mcg
it wasn't really necessary to split it. (just curious)

belle

Hi Belle,

I'm not a cytomel expert but I know that I took three 5mcg pills a day.
One in the morning, one in the afternoon and one before bedtime - I slep
much better taking it at night but many people can't sleep well if the
take their cytomel past 4pm.

I don't think it was necessary for you to split your pill.

ar


"sb_belle" <sb_belle@hotmail.com> wrote in message
<1129650546.658046.149190@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups .com>

> Thanks... I'll take your advice..
>
>Also - not that it will matter anymore, but since 5 mcg (total) each
>day was such a low dose. Did it really matter that I was splitting it?
> I read a few different places that for daily doses of less than 10 mcg
>it wasn't really necessary to split it. (just curious)
>
>belle
>
>

--
Posted from the AST website
http://www.altsupportthyroid.org/index.php

" I slept much better taking it at night but many people can't sleep
well
if they take their cytomel past 4pm. "

I recently experimented with timing of cytomel as a precaution. For 5
weeks I eliminated the third dose at bedtime. Then recently, I
returned to 3 pills of cytomel a day. It acted like a sleeping pill.
Without the extra late night cytomel, I slept very poorly. This trial
convinced me to always and forever take a third cytomel before bed.
I`m sure there are many people who are the reverse in response. But I
just wanted to point out how bedtime cytomel can be helpful for some.

I would move up to 66 mcg levoyxl, then retest. If the t3 does not come up
somewhat, then add the cytomel. If the t4 comes up to about midway in its
bandwidth without the t3 rising, then you'll need more cytomel. If it does
ok, then you might consider moving up to 75 mcg after that and dropping the
t3.

Michael


<sb_belle@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1129578627.187682.43470@g14g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
> Hi there,
>
> My doc finally gave me a choice of how I want to move forward given my
> latest set of labs. She's humored me off and on for the past couple
> of years. Although recently hasn't been too cooperative, so I'm
> surprised by this latest turn of events.
>
> Given my latest labs: 50mcg Levoxyl + 5 mcg cytomel (2.5 twice/day):
>
> TSH 2.624 (.3 - 4.5)
> Free T3 2.1 L (2.3 - 4.2)
> Free T4 1 (.8 - 1.7)
>
> I'm not sure if I'm working this out right or not:
>
> Option #1: Stay on 50 mcg of Levoxyl and increase cytomel to 10 mcg.
> Option #2: Increase Levoxyl to 66 mcg and cytomel to 6 mcg
>
> All I know is that I'm feeling run down... extremely emotional (this
> is the worst), sometimes I can't even hold a conversation because I
> want to cry and I remember these feelings from when I was first
> diagnosed.
>
> Any suggestions would be very much appreciated!
>
> By the way my labs before cytomel (88 mcg Levoxyl only)
>
> TSH 1.821 (.3 - 4.5)
> Free T3 2.3 (2.3 - 4.2)
> Free T4 1.1 (.8 - 1.7)
>
> Thank you!
>