I stopped taking the synthroid, contrary to dr.satan's demands. The next day I thought I was doing okay so I went up to visit my mother who lives two hours away. While there, drinking a cup of coffee and drinking water, (how wonderful it was to drink water again) I began to get drunk. I started laughing at everything my mother said and wasn't walking so well. I couldn't speak clearly and was sort of slurred. I drove myselfto the ER. By the time I got there I was shaking badly, my speech was so slurred I couldn't speak clearly and I was cognitvely messed up. I was also hyperventilating The got me right to the back. I told the dr about all the endocrine abnormalities and suggested he might want to look at hypovolemic nyponatremia. He was the nicest of ER docs and told me I was having a panic attack. I explained to him that I wasn't normally one to have panic attacks and he said that everyone says that. He told me that I needed to be sedated. I tried to ask him about the slurred speech and cognitive impairment being signs of a panic attack and he said neurology is that way. Yeah... After the benedryl incident sedation did not seem like a good idea.
So at this point I got mad and told him I would take my panic attack home with me. I tried to stomp off in a stubborn little girl fashion but I couldn't make me feet work the right way and think it was more stumbling and dragging than stomping. I got to the ER door and couldn't get it to open. I slammed my body into it three times and it wouldn't move. I finally realized there was print under the handle which said I had to press a button. I stumbled around the wall and found the button and found my father-in-law waiting on the other side of the door. He helped me out to the car and stoped at a store and got me gatorade. I sat in thier living room punch drunk for about three hours sipping at gatorade. Finally whatever was going on passed. That night I tried to sleep but I started to get so cold and my respiration slowed down. My heart was beating so slowly and I felt so calm and groggy, yet clear. I started shaking and felt incredibly relaxed and lathargic. I couldn't find to energy to move. This was new. The coldness and lethargy struck a signal with the hypothyroidism so I took the tinest nibble off of one of the 50 ug synthroids. Within five minutes I felt a little better and I could breathe a bit faster. My heart rate also seemed to have picked up a bit. I tried to tell this to my GP who insisted it was a plecebo effect. But you can't trick a biochemist like that. Later on I learned about the deiodinases which convert the T4 to T3. It turns out in hypothyroidism the expression levels are upregulated. In my case perhaps very upregulated. T4 has an immediate effect within five to ten minutes when I take it.
I had one more ER visit the next night due to the uncontrolled shaking and drop in body temp. Again they told me to take the synthroid. I called my GP that day and she told me to call the endo. I explained the endos behavior and she asked me to come in the next day. When she saw me she was horrified. I was still shaking and very, very weak. I couldn't follow her finger with my eyes at all and couldn't walk very steadily. She did an ECG, sent me in for an MRI, and told me NOT to take the synthroid. Most importantly she gave me a hug. I explained I had made an appt with another endo for the next week and she said that that endo office had a much better dr in it who was trained as a general internist.
That thursday was my last visit with Dr.satan who told me my ACTH test looked great and that I should take the synthroid. She also insisted that I needed to see a nuerologist friend of hers as the numbness in my extremiites was a nerve problem. It seems pretty obvious to me it was a lack of peripheral circulation but whatever. By this time I was back to normal and had actually went running the day before. It seemed rather obvious to me that the synthroid was not the right choice until whatever else was going on was resolved. I take the synthroid-I think I am going to die. hmmm..... It isn't a tough choice for me. I felt okay so I said to hell with her and just waited for the next endo visit with the new guy.
