The Long Story: My doctor spent 95% of my appointment explaining to me how she can't do anything about my current (under medicated) dosage of the Tirosint (synthetic) medication that I was on due to my heart palpitations. She also told me that while my thyroid IS under active (duh), it's on the low end of being under active so I "won't feel any symptoms and I won't feel tired." I almost flipped out. How can she possibly say that I won't feel any symptoms? I gained nearly 10 lbs since I last saw her in November. In September my TSH was 13. In November it was 9. As of two weeks ago she said it's 6.8. That's still under active enough to warrant treatment. From there she went on to tell me that I need to get a 2d Echo test on my heart, as well as a 24 hour monitor put on me to see if they can catch the palpitations. She'll decide then whether or not to put me on a low dose Beta Blocker. I was getting so upset as she's telling me this because my cardiologist JUST released me in September. I've been seeing him annually for nearly 10 years (I have genetic high cholesterol -- it's in my bloodline and I've been medicated for it since I was diagnosed with ITP in 2005) and nothing ever showed up on any of the heart monitoring tests they did at every. single. appointment. I know that the palpitations are from the Tirosint. But anyway, I need to do those two heart tests, in addition to a blood test for anemia (I told her I was diagnosed anemic in 2005 and I take iron every day since then) and my next TSH/free T4/CBC/Lipid profile. She asked me all these questions about my cholesterol like she had no idea I had a problem with it (with medication I don't anymore, but since I'm on the medication, she said I need bloodwork every 6 months) and that made me even more upset. So finally, I asked her "I've asked you about the natural thyroid before, but do you think it would make a difference if I switched to it?" and she paused for a couple beats before she said "...I don't know. Have you only been on Tirosint?" and I said yes. She then asked if I wanted to switch to another synthetic and I said no, I've heard good things about Armour, I'd like to try that. To which she said that she would call my pharmacy to see if they have it. She's still convinced that it's hard to get. She also said if they can't get it, she will switch me to Synthroid. I was worried that she'd switch me to Synthroid anyway, but as I was driving home, the nurse called and said that the doctor called in Armour for me and that's when I started crying, lol.
I got an email from my pharmacy last night and went straight over to pick it up. As I'm walking up to the counter, the tech was like "Ashton, right?" and Erik said to me "Oooh, frequent flyer they know you by name." So I was able to start it this morning. I'm currently on 0.5 grain, which I'm assuming is the equivalent to the 50mcg of Tirosint I was on. I'll see how this goes. I'm feeling really optimistic about this and I really hope I start to notice some changes.
