Re: My past 2 labs & what is going on + a ? or two

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

Glad to hear you're responding well to the meds. If you have already cut to

5mg, then I think that's OK; I probably would have done 7.5mg for a few

days before reducing down to 5, but see how you do. I would suggest that

you get labs in about 3-4 weeks at the latest to see how you're doing on

this dose.

I would definitely insist upon TSI testing before stopping meds. Just

because you are " in range, " that is <125%, does not mean that you are

negative for antibodies once you have GD. You need to be at <2% in order to

be considered truly negative, or absent for antibodies. That is the goal.

Some say that <20% may be sufficient. You would be on a very low dose at

that point, so it would be a matter of deciding whether or not to taper off

the 1/4 pill a day. :-)

At 01:16 PM 9/14/2003, you wrote:

>Hi All,

>

>Sorry I haven't been around much lately......I'm still having to work out

>all our computer problems and that is sucking up much of my time.

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

From my experience with the same dilemma, I found that dropping to 7.5 was

ok for a few weeks, but didn't seem to be enough, so I got impatient and did

the drop to 5 mg. sooner than I had meant to--and it was fine. In fact, once

I started dropping, I moved quite quickly down to my current dose level of

2.5 mg. a day or a bit less (depending on how I'm feeling, I either take a

slightly larger, or slightly smaller chunk of pill each AM and PM--they are

very, very hard to cut evenly. I figure I waste about 1/4 of each pill

trying and getting dust)

Your labs certainly place you at what I'd find quite unbearably hypo, and

your symptoms are consistent with that state too. Count your blessings, you

have a doc who doesn't rely on TSH, eh? For me, the yada yada included 10

lbs. of unwanted weight in just a few weeks, a great motivator to drop dose!

Good luck with it, I think you'll know pretty quickly if the 5 mg. drop was

OK for you or too much at once. With your labs and symptoms, I am betting

it'll be just fine. Just keep splitting the dose, that (for me) was the most

important part of the puzzle--and the one I resisted for the longest time.

Terry

>

> Reply-To: graves_support

> Date: Sun, 14 Sep 2003 10:16:30 -0700 (PDT)

> To: graves_support

> Subject: My past 2 labs & what is going on + a ? or two

>

> It seems my numbers have been shifting downward quite a bit it looks like.

> Which I hope is a good sign. :-) I haven't been feeling the spiffiest....very

> tired at times, eyes really dry and crumbly feeling, more hair coming out,

> yada, yada, yada. So I wondered if my numbers were getting just a wee bit too

> near the hypo range for me? I think my endo thought so too, as he said he

> wanted me to cut my dosage of Tap down from 10mg a day to 5. Which I now have,

> and hopefully that will put on the breaks a bit as far as my lab numbers to

> keep my in a happy place. And improve the general kinda " blahs " I've had.

>

> My only real question right now is this - Is it too much of a drop to go from

> 10 to 5mg all at once? Should I try 7.5 for a couple of weeks, or am I just

> being a big worry wart? The endo didn't seem to think it was too much....but

> from what I've read on the boards I know it's better to ease into any changes

> in dosage. Let me know what you all think.

>