Newbie, advice PLEASE. Val I talked to you by phone about 10 days ago.

[Guest guest]

Sorry this is long, but I promise I kept it shorter than I originally planned.

I don't know how much info is helpful so I wanted to tell some of my story.

I have tried HC and thyroid replacement in the last few years for severe fatigue

and cognitive dysfunction, but never together. Indeed, I probably made my

adrenal situation worse taking T3 without adrenal support. Other symptoms have

been poor memory, paresthesias, muscle twitching, tinnitis, burning skin,

flushing, heart pounding, cold intolerance yet sweating for no reason,

unrefreshing sleep, etc. I have never had the pain, sore throats and swollen

nodes associated with CFS/FM, however, I am wondering if all these symptoms

sound familiar? My illness started after years of extreme stress and a wallop

by a sackie virus that seemed to finish me off.

I have had thyroid antibodies tested 3 times and always negative. I was

diagnosed adrenal exhaustion a little over a year ago and started on medrol 6mg

daily. My salivary testing at that time was pretty much a flat line: 4, 2,2,2.

I also started armour 30 am and pm, and was started on testosterone for low

levels. For the first time in 3 years I began functioning somewhat, able to

work some but within limits. I regained physical strength but still struggled

with mental energy and brain fog. I went seeking help with a doc that finally

tested my RT3. It was 408 at the time with a FT3 of 3.17, but while my doc

acknowledged it was a problem he offered no solution for correcting it. He did

salivary testing (I was still on the Medrol) and it had a normal curve, 20, 8,

11, 4. We have been adjusting my meds over the last 6 months, various Armour

dosages and ultimately changing to cortef, 7.5/5/5/2.5.

In November I was on 45/30 of compounded dessicated thyroid and was functioning

reasonably well but still plagued by brain fog. Some days worse than others

(actually some hours worse than others) but never totally clear in the head like

I was living in this world. It seemed like my fog was actually worse with each

dose of dessicated thyroid, and I think it helped to actually divide it to

30/15/15/15 and take it 4 times a day. We decided to try changing one of my

15mg of Armour to 2.5mcg of SR T3. I tried it for about 4 days and just went so

deep into the fog that I had to stop it to continue working. I stayed on the

decreased dose of 15/15/15/15 of dessicated thyroid since then and was

functioning pretty well with less fog but never clear...until about 10 days ago

I really went down, tired, no motivation, depression. Then familiar symptoms of

being hot then cold returned, some heart pounding, and waking at 3 am in a

sweat. That was when I found this website and am begging for help. I was doing

ok but wanted to be better. Now I feel like I'm going backwards.

I had my labs repeated last week and got them today. My TSH is going up, 4.0,

and FT3 was 3.2, RT3 239 (It has progressively decreased since I switched Medrol

to Cortef), FT4 1.2 and ferritin 44 (range 22-322). So I am guessing that my

recent worsening are due to that I am more hypothyroid. Is my awakening in the

night in a sweat an adrenal response to that? Over the last week I have been

tracking my temps. Every weekday I have been 98.6 or 98.7 on average, but the

weekends are lower, 98.3-98.4. I don't know if it has to do with sleeping later

or my different activity during the weekends, but found it strange that my avg

temp was low this weekend and then back at work today right back up at 98.6. I

had also tried adding in another 2.5mcg dose of SRT3 this weekend so maybe that

could be related?

I will continue to track temps and have started iron. I tried just the over

the counter 65 mg elemental iron but it really tears up my stomach. My doc

recommended " Energizing Iron " for best absorption. Does anyone have good or bad

experience with it? It has much lower amounts of elemental iron but is touted

as " heme iron " and 33% more absorbable with no gastric side effects. I am also

wondering if I should try taking a 2.5mg dose of SRT3 at bedtime to see if it

will help keep me from waking up at 3 in a sweat. Any thoughts there? I tried

taking 2.5 mg of cortef at bedtime and that didnt help. Once I get my ferritin

up will see what the RT3 does, or should I change the thyroid now? Trying to

decide whether to go back to another 15 of dessicated thyroid or try 2.5 mcg SR

T3 for the time being. Thank you for any help and advice. I am forever

indebted. I am mostly curious as to which symptoms I can expect to improve by

trying this protocol. Does the brain fog go away????