I am anxious to figure out how long this will take to kick in.  With a TSH of 94, it will probably take awhile for my new t4 to convert to enough t3 to do its job.  The first sign I will know it is working, is if my pain in my hip and in my wrist goes away!  I wanted to list other symptoms I had, but didn’t realize it was related to hypothyroid.

• Unable to lose weight (10 lbs I’ve been trying to lose for several years and gained another 5 lbs I want to lose from the last few weeks)
• Spike in total cholesterol (by 100 points)
• Pain in wrist and hips
• heavier than normal periods.
• forgetful (and I’ll add my friends said I seemed really slow and “out of it” at our late night meetings)
• COLD! although its 94 degrees and summer.
• Easily distracted! I can’t do one task for more than a few minutes before I think I have something else to do.

I don’t know that I’ll ever know what the cause of my hypothyroid is, but here are some things I could possibly suspect.

• Diet Coke! The Potassium benzoate has been shown to destroy thyroid!!
• the auto-immune disease Hashimoto’s disease. Very possible considering its the most common cause of hypothyroid, and I have another auto-immune problem, ulcerative colitis.
• I took Ephedra about 10 years ago.  That could very well have something to do with it.
• Years of eating low calories.  I was never extreme though, and NEVER have been anorexic… but I usually consume between 1200-2000 calories per day.  Seems normal, but maybe that was low??

Now I need to figure out what to do to make this levothyroxin work to its potential.  I know I needed T4 (mine was 0.4), so its a good prescription for me. But I want to capitalize on the absorption of it.  It says not to take it within four hours of taking antacids, vitamins, iron, soy, calcium, or fiber!  What am I supposed to have for breakfast???