Can I be experiencing symptoms despite medication and normal bloodworks?

Anna.  This is a very treatable disease if you become proactive in your care.  If you are having palpitations, you either need to take beta blockers at least at the time you have symptoms (you could take a very low dose) or you need to be on one of the antithyroid medications.  If you cannot get those prescriptions right away, taking the carnitine will help and you can get that at your health food store.  Read up all you can on your disease to understand it and all the lab tests and what they mean.  There are a lot of posts from hyperthyroid patients who did that and they succeed the best in managing this disease.  If you totally depend on a doctor and just do what he or she says without learning about your disease, and taking action on your own behalf, you will suffer.  If you don't you will succeed.

Yes, I know you are right. It's just overwhelming and takes a bit of courage for me, as I get quite fearful when I read about disease. I got a bit discouraged reading last night as some of the requirements mentioned in relation seemed so extensive and difficult to manouver- no gluten, no saturated fats, stay away from kelp and other seaweeds etc etc- I ended up feeling totally paranoid about anything I ate, feeling that maybe this cup of tea or this piece of meat or this slice of cheese is going to set it off.

But yes, I will research and I will take control, I have done so with all other challenges in my life, I'm very pro empowerment and keeping an open, but sceptic mind. 

Does anyone have any links to any guidelines or such that touch on the use of betablkkers on a regular/daily basis? So I can print it and bring it when I see the doctor, because I don't think it is protocol in my country, here betablokkers seem only to be used during the first few weeks of initiated treatment and only when needed, not daily.

The ones I take now are called Metoprololsuccinat/Metoprololtartrat 50 mg, I don't know if they affect my bloodpressure, but they do lower my heartrate so my heart doen's race and pound so hard causing that anxious feeling.

NB, the L-carnatine, is it better in one form than another? I can see it comes both as tablets and in liquid form. Are there any other values or components, ingredients etc I should be aware of when buying?

Hi Anna,

I have tried them both and what happened for me was the regular L-carnitine raised my TSH slightly but the Acetyl-L-Carnitine combined with a low dose of Methimazole raised it very rapidly and lowered my antibodies but every patient is different.  There is a patient on this Board who has Hashimoto's and the regular L-carnitine works better for her for her disease.  When combined with the methimazole, the Acetyl requires a very low dose, like 500 mg.  I took both in capsule form which I prefer.  I also took the regular L-Carnitine in liquid form but as I said the regular did not do much as far as my lab work but both make hyperthyroid patients feel better.  When not combined with Methimazole, it takes a larger dose to have an effect, the regular L-carnitine 3,000 to 4,000 mg and the Acetyl-L-Carnitine up to 2,200 mg.  Everybody is different so my way of doing this was to start with 500 mg and see how I feel and see how my body is affected and raise it from there, using both how I feel and how my labs are doing.  About the Carnitine, your doctor won't know about it and won't recommend it and the patients who have tried it have done this on their own.  Hope this helps.  Feel free to email me directly by clicking on the envelope under my name.

I think what really confuses me, is that all my labs are normal now that I am on Thiamzol medication- mt tsh and t3 and t4 are all in normal range. But I am still feeling synmptoms early mornings and somedays I feel them all days, somedays just a little, some days so much that I am completely confused and distracted by it, feeling very anxious. 

And I don't unerstand how that can be, how I can be feeling symptoms when my labs are normal.

It is as if it got worse after they lowered my dose and then raised it again- I went from 20 mg for twoo weeks, then 15 mg for 1 week and then they lowered me further to 10 mg and after a week on that I got a lot of symptoms again, so I was raised back to 15, but it is as if it has never gotten quite good again after that, although I have now been on 15 mg for about 6 weeks. Before they lowered and then raised me, I seemed to be ok on 15 mg, but now it is very so-so, good days and bad days, and 99% bad mornings.

Perhaps it's the time you take your medications?  Otherwise, I have seen Hashimoto patients who were thought to be Graves patients but were not be very very sensitive to the Methimazole and find it hard to manage because even a low dosage will send their lab values to hypo real quickly.  There's a patient on this Board that happened to and she found when she took regular L-Carnitine that she did not need the Methimazole.  She took this on her own, did not require her doc's permission to do so.

 

But isn't Hasimoto hypo? Mine is hyper, they just don't know which type yet.

Thank you Emma.

Hashimoto's can be either hyper or hypo.  There is another lady on this Board who was thought to have Graves but didn't have the antibodies for Graves.  She had a very good Endo who told her her Hashi's hadn't burned itself out yet.  She would go hypo very quickly on even a low dose of Methimazole.  She found healing in using L-Carnitine because it controlled her symptoms without rapidly falling to hypo.  She has given me permission to share her story.  Would you like me to email you privately and send you her story?

Ah ok, didn't know it could be either. But since I haven't gone hypo despite 3 months on Methimazole (called Thiamazol in my country), I'm thinking mine cannot be hashi?

Don't know.  You would have to ask your doc that question. 

Thank you