Doctor Visit

[Guest guest]

I went to see Dr. DeVries today in light of

my recent cloudy headedness. I mentioned taking the supplement with Kelp and

he agreed it probably interacted with my thyroid/synthroid and caused some of

my symptoms. He expected it would stay in my system a week or so and should

resolve. He also suggested it could be allergies. He tested my reflexes and

even I could tell the positive difference in my Achilles’ tendon reflex.

He also commented that my hands were warm, which reminded me that they were

cold last time. So, good news is that the higher dose of synthriod is helping!

We agreed to keep doing what we’re doing expecting to stop at about 100

or 112 mcg.

I also filled him in a little bit on my old

lab reports and my observation that with synthroid 100 mcg my FT4 was high

normal and FT3 low normal and vice versa with Armour. This prompted him to again

explain why he is not a fan of Armour. This time I must have heard him

differently because he explained that in addition to the T4 and T3 it also has

the precursors (which must be T1 & T2) and that the reason for the

inconsistency is that there is no guarantee how much T1 and T2 vs T3 is in each

pill. I realize this is still not a popular comment or opinion for folks who take

and do great on Armour. I’m not trying to say anything about the

medicine. I just wanted to clarify that my interpretation of hearing him say

it had iodine and not thyroid hormone was incorrect. He was telling me it had

iodine and the precursors to T3/T4, which affect how it works. I owe him an

apology for publicly misquoting his explanation. (It must have been my hypothyroid

brain that heard him wrong.)

He is of the opinion that I will likely do

great once I get enough T4 and that my body will make the T3 at the cellular

level as needed. However, he did say that when he has people who still don’t

feel right on the appropriate dose of T4 he will add Cytomel, but it often

needs to be taken 3 times a day. I know that is what some of you have said you

do. So, I am encouraged to see how I do with the synthroid and if I still feel

mentally dull or slightly depressed, etc., I will ask him to prescribe the

Cytomel.

He was not concerned about checking Ferritin

or B12. He insisted that if my CBC was normal (it was), Ferritin is not an

issue. Since I’ve been told differently here, I would love a reference

for an article or at least a better understanding of why that might not be

true.

Grace