Wondering if anyone knows anything about this

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Hi Everyone,

I was wondering if anyone can give me any feedback on this. I apologize for

this long post, but don't know how to give the background in a shorter way!

I have been lurking on the list, not posting mostly due to a lack of energy, but

have been learning a lot when able to read messages, and am impressed with

everyone's knowledge.

In July of last year, I became sick with terrible fatigue. I also had mild

joint swelling, constipation, postural hypotension, mild edema, general

congestion, feeling of being " unbalanced " or unsteady much of the time. Went to

general doctor -- had not been to the doctor for years prior to that. She

eventually did lab tests. I was not anemic, TSH was normal (actually in

low-to-middle range), folic acid and B12 normal, serum cortisol a little high,

white blood cell count a little low. Also had that lupus test -- I think it's

called " ANA with muscle reflex " or something like that, and the antibodies came

back positive, but muscle reflex negative, so she didn't think that meant

anything. The doctor chalked everything up to chronic depression/anxiety that

I've had for years, even though I told her that I have never experienced

ANYTHING like this. FINALLY, she ran a " free T3 " test and it was low.... I

believe it was 1.6 and the lowest normal value was about 2.3 or something like

that. I started on 25 mcg Cytomel. T3 was still low, so eventually got up to

50 mcg Cytomel now. My T4 was normal before I started taking Cytomel, but then

that dropped also (to 0.5), so I was started on 25 mcg Synthroid too. I have

been taking the 50 mcg Cytomel and the 25 mcg Synthroid for 7 weeks or more. I

still have terrible fatigue. A lot of the physical symptoms are better, but the

fatigue and brain fog are still very bad, so much so that I still cannot work

much and get scared when I have to run a lot of errands, because I'm so tired

and still have the difficulty thinking as clearly as I used to be able to. My

last test results on this combo of meds were:

Free T3: 1.9 (Normal Range 2.3 - 4.2)

Free T4: 0.7 (Normal Range 0.8 - 1.8)

TSH: 0.168 (Normal Range 0.35 - 5.50)

My TSH has dropped to 0.168 when taking the Cytomel and Synthroid together (it

was 0.5 when taking the Cytomel only and in " normal " range). So I started out

with normal T4 and normal TSH, with just a low T3, and now all 3 are low. The

T3 is almost just as low as it was on the 25 mcg Cytomel by itself. The T4 went

up a couple of points after adding the Synthroid. She is having me repeat the

TSH over and over, to rule out lab error. I don't have insurance, which is part

of the reason I haven't switched doctors yet, and I just found out today that I

have been accepted into a low-priced clinic, but I don't know if they will treat

this condition properly either.

My main question that I need feedback on is that now the doctor is saying that

if my TSH is still low, it must be pituitary and wants to order an MRI of the

brain and all that. I am suspicious of this, since my T4 and TSH only dropped

after starting all of the medicines. But she says if my T3 and T4 are low and

TSH is low at the same time (even though it wasn't before this), then it must be

pituitary. But I am unsure, since my TSH was never high to begin with. I was

wondering if anyone knows about this. She might stop prescribing the medicine

now and I am afraid of having to go off of it " cold turkey " and be worse than

before, since my body is putting out less of it's own hormones now.

Thank you SO MUCH if you got this far reading this and taking the time; I really

appreciate it. I am just not going to change anything for now and am going to

try the low-priced clinic this coming week and see what they say. Then, if that

doesn't work, I may have to try one of the " top thyroid docs " on a website, but

that is hard since I don't have insurance. I have enough medicine to last me a

couple of weeks or more.

Thanks again,