living without a thyroid
Just the title of this mysterious board certified endocrinologist’s website was enough to make me dive in and read every blog post and listen to every podcast he has done. “HD” as he calls himself has some strong opinions about today’s thyroid treatment and the overall mythical nature of common ideas that circulate on the internet.
I have just discovered Dr. Toft and will continue to update this post as I learn more about him.
I first read about him on the Health Unlocked Thyroid UK group. Everyone in that group was up in arms because he has conflicting ideas in regards to TSH suppression. He feels that it is acceptable to have a below range (very suppressed) TSH on T4 mono therapy, but when on T4/T3 combo therapy it is important to stay within the accepted laboratory range. As you can imagine, his statements are causing a lot of opposing opinions.
Paul Robinson is a thyroid patient advocate (not a medical practitioner) and is the pioneer of the CT3M of dosing T3. Most of his information is for hypothyroid people with a thyroid and he writes more towards T3 mono dosing patients. He has published three books and has an informative blog. Darcey and I have both tried his CT3M. I think we both had favorable results but not enough for me to stick with setting an alarm for 4 am everyday. I do think it helped me tolerate T3 when I was having difficulty adding and increasing.
My medication saga is a long and winding road of curves, hills and numerous crashes. Some days when things are crappy I think that I will never get it right, other times I’m so full of hope and think that I have finally cracked the code and found my magic dose. It is definitely a path of emotional ups and downs.
Fatigue has played larger and lesser roles in the course of this hypothyroidism experience but I can always feel its breath on the back of my neck.
For extended periods of time it permeated every aspect of my life. Working through strategies to manage around it and have a life in spite of its grip, I found ways to cope.
Hi, it’s me the queen of tinnitus. This lovely ringing in my ears has been with me since my complete thyroidectomy 16 years ago. Sometimes it’s deafening, other times just a low hum but it’s always there. Ringing, whooshing, buzzing, full feeling, noise sensitivity and even hearing loss can all be caused by thyroid hormone imbalance. I think I have had them all at various times over the years. Let’s break this down as I try to understand where all the noise is coming from and maybe you can relate to some of my ear issues.