Last March I had blood drawn to check my thyroid levels. I had been diagnosed as hypo about 6 years ago and every few months the doctor would gradually increase my dosage to where it was up to 150mcg. Got a call back from the nurse telling me to take an additional half pill on Tuesday's and Thursday's. Shortly after that call I had to go out of town on business for two weeks and while away received a call that my mom was sick. Ultimately as some know,she passed away in April. Needless to say, the stress caused a massive flare of not only MC but my Chrons. For the past couple of months I have not only had the associated symptoms of this flare but also some other weird things going on. I couldn't think straight. I have been having irregular heartbeats, hot flashes. I even had coworkers (including my boss) ask me if everything was ok. Flash forward to last Wednesday, I got a call from the nurse. The first thing she asked me was how I feel. My response was "like s&$t". Of course she said I can't write that so I told here to use the word poop instead. As it turns out, my reading was .01. She asked me how much levothyroxine I was taking and when I told her she said that I was supposed to cut back to only a half pill on tues and thurs. I swear as god is my witness, I always repeat what I'm told by her to make sure I fully understand changes to my meds. So basically, I've been overdosing on thyroid meds for the last three months. My question is are there any long term effects I should watch out for? I have now been instructed to take a half a pill 3x/week but decided to skip the last couple of days. I took my first half this morning and will do the same on tues and thurs. I really do like my PCP but am not thrilled with his nurse as this isn't the first time she has screwed up his orders.
Thanks for letting me rant.
Lindy Lou
Thyroid OD
Moderators: Rosie, Stanz, Jean, CAMary, moremuscle, JFR, Dee, xet, Peggy, Matthew, Gabes-Apg, grannyh, Gloria, Mars, starfire, Polly, Joefnh
Hi Linda,
That's a very unpleasant situation, but the good news is that most people in such a situation return to normal, once the body reaches homeostasis again, with the correct dose. We have one member who once took a dose that was 10,000 times the correct dose. Yes, you read that right -- 10,000 times the proper dose. Of course one dose was all it took to knock her for a loop. When she contacted her doctor she learned that about a half dozen or so patients were in the same boat. It seems that the company manufacturing the pills had mistakenly labeled one of the batches, and the shipment that the pharmacy had received was supposed to be used for further processing (obviously) rather than to be used for retail sales for treatment of hypothyroidism. The member of this board who was involved with that seems to have pretty much recovered, except for minor issues. Several of the other patients were not so lucky, and they have major cardiovascular problems and other issues.
Of course, that was a massive dose, so it's a miracle that anyone would recover from that level of dosing. Your dose was only slightly out of line, so you should be fine after a couple of weeks or so. As long as your heart rate and BP are returning to normal, you're probably home free. A lot of hormone levels can also be affected and this can cause or exacerbate an MC reaction, but those levels should also return to normal within a few weeks. I agree with you -- anything that nurse told me, I would double check and triple check before applying.
Note that one of our member polls shows that anyone who has MC is approximately 7 times as likely to have thyroid problems as someone in the general population -- that gives you an idea of the powerful association between IBDs and thyroid issues. I'm sure most docs are probably clueless about this connection.
Correcting that dosage problem should help to reduce your MC symptoms, since one of the symptoms of thyroid supplement overdose is D. Thanks for the update, and good luck with getting everything back under control.
Tex
That's a very unpleasant situation, but the good news is that most people in such a situation return to normal, once the body reaches homeostasis again, with the correct dose. We have one member who once took a dose that was 10,000 times the correct dose. Yes, you read that right -- 10,000 times the proper dose. Of course one dose was all it took to knock her for a loop. When she contacted her doctor she learned that about a half dozen or so patients were in the same boat. It seems that the company manufacturing the pills had mistakenly labeled one of the batches, and the shipment that the pharmacy had received was supposed to be used for further processing (obviously) rather than to be used for retail sales for treatment of hypothyroidism. The member of this board who was involved with that seems to have pretty much recovered, except for minor issues. Several of the other patients were not so lucky, and they have major cardiovascular problems and other issues.
Of course, that was a massive dose, so it's a miracle that anyone would recover from that level of dosing. Your dose was only slightly out of line, so you should be fine after a couple of weeks or so. As long as your heart rate and BP are returning to normal, you're probably home free. A lot of hormone levels can also be affected and this can cause or exacerbate an MC reaction, but those levels should also return to normal within a few weeks. I agree with you -- anything that nurse told me, I would double check and triple check before applying.
Note that one of our member polls shows that anyone who has MC is approximately 7 times as likely to have thyroid problems as someone in the general population -- that gives you an idea of the powerful association between IBDs and thyroid issues. I'm sure most docs are probably clueless about this connection.
Correcting that dosage problem should help to reduce your MC symptoms, since one of the symptoms of thyroid supplement overdose is D. Thanks for the update, and good luck with getting everything back under control.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.