Tag Archives: Armour Thyroid

Finding Normal

26 Dec

I have been waiting for three years to write this blog. As we close the year, I am celebrating FINALLY achieving the New Year’s Resolution that I have had since 2009. I have achieved normal.

After my thyroidectomy, I tried everything to relieve my hypothyroid symptoms. Based on all my research, I believed natural thyroid hormone replacement would be the answer I was looking for. For a majority of people, Armour Thyroid or NatureThroid is all it takes to resolve the symptoms of weight gain, dry hair that falls out, exhaustion, depression…(the list goes on). I had the opposite experience. Coming off of my stable dose of Synthroid put me in an uncontrollable tailspin. A year later, once I finally gave up control and went back on 125 mcg Synthroid + 5 mcg Cytomel (as my endocrinologist prescribed), I stopped the tailspin. But could I ever recover the “normal” that I lost so long ago?

Over the course of my journey, I have tried many weight loss strategies, including strict calorie counting, vigorous exercise, the elimination of wheat and the elimination of dairy. Absolutely nothing worked. Imagine my devastation as I found myself 20 pounds heavier from all of my medication changes. Even after stabilizing on Synthroid/Cytomel, starving and working out like a crazy person, the best I could do was a 3 pound weight loss over 8 weeks. I believed I was doomed to live a life avoiding pictures and mirrors. I would never feel comfortable again. I would not be able to shop in my favorite clothing stores, and I would never be excited for a dressed-up event ever again. I started every morning on the scale, filled with shame and dread. I went to see my holistic doctor one last time in desperation.

She prescribed the HCG diet. It’s controversial, it’s really hard, and it probably isn’t a good idea for someone who wasn’t already committed to doing whatever it takes. But it literally changed my life in just one month.

  • Phase 1 (2 days): Daily HCG injections and eating a “loading” amount of high calories and fat
  • Phase 2 (23-30 days): Daily HCG injections and eating only 500 calories a day…no sugar, no starch, no dairy, NO DIET SODA
  • Phase 3 (21 days): No HCG injections, 1500 calories a day, no sugar, no starch
  • Phase 4 (life): Slowly add back starch and sugar

I lost 9 pounds my first week. I am currently in Phase 3, and I am down 18 pounds and 14 inches. It was pretty hard, especially during the holiday season. But the quick results made it much easier to adhere to to the strict diet. The HCG reduces hunger and weakness, but I did have to temporarily postpone my workouts. I did a few TurboKick sessions that made me feel like I was going to pass out. That was really the only “con.” Critics say that anyone would lose weight by eating 500 calories a day. However, I was literally burning more calories than I was consuming during my low-iodine diet, and I didn’t have any noticeable weight loss at all. As for regaining my lost weight, I am confident that I will maintain, because I was already in the habit of watching my calories and exercising.

Before: My heaviest weight ever, exhausted and riddled with hypothyroid symptoms. After: Lower than my pre-surgery weight, happy and healthy!

Before: My heaviest weight ever, exhausted and riddled with hypothyroid symptoms. After: Lower than my pre-surgery weight, healthy and happy!

Because my thyroid medication is now stable, I feel very normal. My hair and skin look better than ever. I sleep great and I have plenty of energy to get through the day. Before my thyroid cancer diagnosis, I would not be happy with my size 8 pants. I would still be beating myself up and trying to fit into my wedding dress from 2002. Not this time. Today, I celebrate my healthy BMI, my comfortable jeans and my favorite Coldplay T-shirt. This Christmas, I posed for as many pictures with my family as my children would tolerate. I found normal. And I am never going back.

Christmas 2012 - enjoying my normal hair, my comfortable clothes and my wonderful family

Christmas 2012 – enjoying my normal hair, my comfortable clothes and my wonderful family

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Surrender

19 Oct

It’s been two whole months since I’ve blogged. During those two months, I have been on a self-imposed hormonal roller coaster.

Remember how I said I couldn’t give up on losing weight and achieving “normal?” Since my thyroidectomy 14 months ago, I have tried the following thyroid replacement medication combinations:

  • 125 mcg Synthroid alone
  •  90 mg Armour Thyroid
  • 112 mcg Synthroid alone
  • 112 mcg Synthroid + 5 mcg Cytomel
  • 125 mcg Synthoird + 5 mcg Cytomel
  • 125 mcg Synthroid + GTA Forte supplements
  •  125 mcg Synthroid + 10 mcg Cytomel
  • 65 mcg Nature-Throid alone
  • 97.5 mg Nature-Throid alone
  • 65 mg Nature-Throid + 25 mcg Synthroid

Do you know when I felt my best? I felt the most “normal” on the very first dose of medication – 125 mcg Synthroid. I have spent the last 14 months in a complete state of panic, distrusting my doctors, self-medicating, and fending off impending weight gain. And as a side effect of all of my medication changes, I created the very thing I feared – weight gain. My latest conquest was switching to Nature-Throid. It took me MONTHS to find a doctor who would prescribe it. I worked so hard to stabilize my vitamin and iron levels first and I did everything by the book. And similar to my experience with Armour Thyroid, my body completely crashed, I started having extreme hypothyroid symptoms and I gained five pounds. Interestingly, my TSH stayed low at 0.43, but my FT4 was only 0.6. (Side note: this completely proves that you can be hypothyroid with a low TSH!) I tried upping my dose of Nature-Throid only to be greeted with extreme sweating and anxiety, and three more pounds. Then I tried combining a smaller dose of Synthroid with a smaller dose of Nature-Throid…all to no avail. Two weeks ago, in a fit of tears, I switched back to my old regimen: 125 mcg Synthroid + 5 mcg Cytomel. I am watching my calories very closely and burning at least 2000 calories a week through exercise, and so far, I have managed to lose five of the extra eight pounds I gained. I am beginning to feel better and most of my other symptoms are fading away. I also started taking Raspberry Keytones supplements, and I have no idea whether or not they are helping, or whether it’s the thyroid medication.

What I do know is that I have officially surrendered control. I am not a doctor and maybe I really don’t know what’s best when it comes to my thyroid replacement medication. As per usual, I took “being informed” into the extreme of being counter-productive. What if I had never messed with my medication at all? I may have been able to maintain my weight after surgery. The extra Cytomel would have resolved my lack of energy, and I could have been “normal” by now. Instead I endured 14 months of fighting, second-guessing, feeling good, feeling bad, losing sleep and gaining weight. So if this experience was supposed to teach me something, I suppose it did. My UofM Endocrinologist really is a good doctor. The first time I saw her, she told me the first year would be hard, that I might gain weight, but after a year, things would level out. At the time, I refused to accept that in my brain. My body, however, did exactly as she said it would. Before I switched to Nature-Throid, I was genuinely feeling good. Perhaps I was just about to turn a corner before I stepped in with my control issues and screwed it all up.

Can we pretend the last two months never happened? I promise I will behave this time.

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Pig Thyroid and The New Normal

5 Nov
 

I am coming up on my 3 month surgery anniversary. Every time I start to complain, I force myself to count my blessings. I have a fabulous family. I have an awesome new job. I had cancer surgery this year, and I am functioning at 90%.

Am I awful for reaching for that last 10%? I fully acknowledge that I am blessed and I don’t have it as bad as I could…but I just can’t forget about my life before my thyroid cancer. “New normal” isn’t acceptable to me! What do I have to do to get to “old normal?”

For those of you who didn’t catch my update on Facebook, I had a follow-up with Dr. E, my U of M endocrinologist, had some bloodwork done, and got some news.

    1. My Tg level (cancer tumor marker) is UNDETECTABLE. Not even there.
    2. I will still need a whole-body scan (WBS), but I can put it off until Thyrogen injections are available. The Thyrogen will allow me to “fake” hormone depletion instead of actually going off of medication for 6 weeks. That would be a nightmare! Unfortunately, there’s a medication shortage, so I am on a waiting list. The undetectable Tg gives us all peace of mind that I have plenty of time to wait.
    3. My labs show crazy hyperthyroidism. Normal TSH is 0.3-3. When you have thyroid cancer, they want you to be a little on the hyper side…like 0.1-0.3. My TSH was less than 0.01.
    4. You would think that with numbers like that, I’d be losing weight like crazy, having heart palpitations and sweating to death. Nope. Just the opposite. I’ve put on another 5 pounds (grand total = 7) and I feel like I am walking through water all day. I self-medicated with my old supplements for a pick-me-up. I know, I know…it’s so bad. But I start every day on the scale, and I freak out when that number starts to creep. The supplements probably skewed my TSH results, and they didn’t help my symptoms much, so I put them away for good.
 
  1. Dr. E suggested I switch from 125 mcg Synthroid to 90 mg Armour Thyroid to see if I feel any better. Armour is dessicated pig thyroid. Yuck! But everything I have read suggests that many patients do better on Armour because it contains T1, T2, T3, T4 and calcitonin. Synthroid is only synthetic T4. T4 is the active thyroid hormone, and it supposedly converts to T3 in your body. But it seems logical to me that without a thyroid, I need to replace the whole spectrum of hormones. Armour Thyroid is very controversial, especially for thyroid cancer patients, because it is “natural” and less “stable” than Synthroid. I was surprised that an endocrinologist from a teaching institution would recommend it, but based on my personal research, I think it’s the best option. Who knows? Maybe a pig’s thyroid is just what my body was missing…?

 
 
I am on Day 6 on Armour, and so far, no difference. Every morning I wake up hoping for old normal. Andy reminds me that I have never in my life greeted my alarm clock with a smile, but it’d be nice not to feel like I drank two bottles of wine the night before. I’ll keep you posted.

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