Freezing!!

sometimes_blondie

:grumble: Most days I feel pretty good. Doc is still adjusting my meds, and sometimes symptoms bother me. Yesterday and the day before, I was tired beyond belief! Today I am freezing my butt off! My hands and feet are particularly cold. I took my temp and it was 96 degrees. Right now, as I'm typing I have a little heater blowing full bast on my feet!

divacat80

I'm feeling unusually cold this year as well. It's the first year I'm glad the weather is milder than usual! (I LOVE cold weather)
I hope your symptoms get relieved when they find out the right dose for you!

lin7604

i'm at my max dose and my dr won't treat symptoms. I am FREEZING all the time! i always have to wear a sweater all day, even at work and at night i am in fleece pj's and socks...and STILL cold!

morgynsmama

My hands are always ice cold. Its not fun to be freezing all the time. Maybe it will burn more calories...lol

lin7604

oh we could only wish,lol

torrini

My hands used to freeze all the time before I got meds. Now it's a little better, they've only really felt frozen once this Autumn but nothing still seems so stop me from freezing all over when I go out, especially if I'm not wearing any wool.

lmelangley

I've made fingerless mittens for work - fingers are so cold I can't type without them. I've also learned to love thin wool socks.

And, LOVE my electric blanket!

kristimcb2605

I know when my thryoid is in one of it's "moods" and I will be cold. Some days I am roasting. At first, my dr actually thought I might be going through menopause, but then I realized it is more to do with my thryoid's reaction to what I eat. The problem with our thyroids is that they control soooo much of our metabolism. When you track your food, keep an eye on the cold days and look at your food intake. For me, cold days are soup days full of veggies and warm days are full of fruit.

So don't feel bad. It will take a little time to get your body and meds in flow. Also, I live for my sweaters. My husband thought I was using them to "cover up" since I still have my baby tummy and my babies are 9 and 7. Actually, it is to keep me warm because I wake up cold. AND, I have a space heater under my desk at all times because my feet get cold.

Good luck!! I wonder if the insurance would cover an electric fireplace for my "medical condition." LOL

Kristi

notabrat1

I also am freezing with up to 4 layers on:noway: . I find that I go through cycles of being ok and freezing my butt off!! Doctors seem not to care about that or any of my other thyroid symptoms:huh: . Endocrinologist only looks at lab work and won't talk about symptoms:grumble: . My heart rate is also really low at the present time. Not to mention that I have stopped the drain in the tub up 3 times this month with my hair!!:explode:

Silly old Doctors!!!!!!:indifferent:

I invested in an electric blanket!!!:laugh:

islandmonkey

What is your doctor testing to manage your meds? Just TSH? What are they saying is the normal range?

Most people supplementing find their TSH needs to be below 2.0 (or even much, much lower) for their blood levels of free T3 and free T4 to be in sufficient range.

Is your doctor testing your free T3 and free T4 and dosing you based on that? If not, I'd push for those tests. They shouldn't be dosing you just on TSH.

Many/most doctors will just say your labs are "normal" (within normal range) and won't discuss where you should be at to be "optimal". Always ask for a copy of your lab work.

kristimcb2605

I don't think Doctors can actually explain the thyroid. It is just one of these mysteries of our bodies. Once they get it figured out, the thyroid goes the opposite direction. I just have found after 20 years, I live with it and roll with the ups and downs!

Also, I very much agree that you have to PUSH for your results. Doctors, regardless of speciality, see so many patients that if something on your report doesn't slap them in the face, they do not react. Get in your doctor's face, get your results, get a new doctor, get other opinions, research and understand your thyroid and ASK your doctor how much schooling they have had on thryroids - - specifically thryoids. If you know more than they do, you need a different doctor!!

Kristi

sometimes_blondie

What is your doctor testing to manage your meds? Just TSH? What are they saying is the normal range?

Most people supplementing find their TSH needs to be below 2.0 (or even much, much lower) for their blood levels of free T3 and free T4 to be in sufficient range.

Is your doctor testing your free T3 and free T4 and dosing you based on that? If not, I'd push for those tests. They shouldn't be dosing you just on TSH.

Many/most doctors will just say your labs are "normal" (within normal range) and won't discuss where you should be at to be "optimal". Always ask for a copy of your lab work.

I'm going to ask for the free T3 test to be taken with my next labs. I'm on 75 mcg of Levothyroxin right now, and they are trying to find the right dose for me. Most of the time I feel great. But I still get a short fuse, my weight barely budges despite my best efforts, I get achiness from time to time, and my energy although has been great during the day, crashes by 5 pm. My free T4 levels were fine the first test, I forgot what they were the second test. My TSH was 8.3 and went down to 5 on my second test.

bartonbogs

Thank you for posting this. I had never considered what I eat as causing the cold days. I just chalked it up to a slow thyroid that day. I'll watch from now on to see if there's a correlation for me too.

islandmonkey

I don't think Doctors can actually explain the thyroid. It is just one of these mysteries of our bodies.

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree on this. While it's true that the full impact isn't known, there is a LOT of exact information about thyroid function out there, including how to appropriately manage thyroid issues.

However, I do firmly believe that most doctors, even endos, are very uninformed when it comes to proper thyroid management.

islandmonkey

I'm going to ask for the free T3 test to be taken with my next labs. I'm on 75 mcg of Levothyroxin right now, and they are trying to find the right dose for me. Most of the time I feel great. But I still get a short fuse, my weight barely budges despite my best efforts, I get achiness from time to time, and my energy although has been great during the day, crashes by 5 pm. My free T4 levels were fine the first test, I forgot what they were the second test. My TSH was 8.3 and went down to 5 on my second test.

Wow, I would be INSANELY hypo with a TSH of 5...that's crazy high. Mine is down to 2.3 and I'm VERY symptomatic, and my free T3's are both below the bottom range. (I'm ramping up meds slowly after a thyroidectomy)

Once you're supplementing TSH doesn't mean much, and needs to be much lower than the "normal range" (and to be clear, 5 is WELL outside the acceptable normal range of .3-3.0). Your TSH is driven by blood levels of T3 and T4, so once those are artificially kept up with meds (kept at constant levels, vs. the natural ebb and flow that *should* happen) your TSH gets quite suppressed.

I'd be very curious to see where your free T3 is at - optimal would be in the top 1/3 of the range your lab uses (with some debating whether that top range is even high enough).