I was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer in 2010 and had a total thyroidectomy with radioactive iodine in 2011. The cancer is gone hopefully, but over time my remaining 2 parathyroids died from the treatment. I am feeling rather alone and have no one to compare symptoms with. When my PTH dropped to 3 in July 2013 the heavy duty symptoms set in. I have heart palpitations, wildly varying high and low blood pressure, something that feels like rheumatoid arthritis,carpal tunnell caused by swelling, depression, brain fog, rls,insomnia. While I had some of these before now it's way worse. I play a few stringed instruments and this has been much harder because of hand pain and numbness. I would love to be able to compare with someone but I don't have anybody.

Not really sure this will help but my mom's thyroid problems started about 50 years ago when my dad was in the Air Force...they knew very little about using the radioactive iodine and wound up burning her thyroid up....totally. She always knew when her thyroid was too high or too low because of the symptoms she would have....like you stated above. About 10 years ago her dr could not get it leveled out. She was sent to a specialist....can't remember what they are called at this moment.....and it took him a year and a half to get her straightened out. The really strange thing was for 40 years no one told her to take her meds in the morning and not to eat or drink anything for an hour. She's been good since then.

I'm sure there will be others behind me that can give you better info.

Debi from Georgia

Tied & Deb,

About 16 years ago was diagnosed with Graves Disease (Hyperthroidism) thru my primary doctor doing some general blood work and added throid test. After my PM received the result, she called me and suggested I see an Endocrinologist who, rather than killing off part of the throid gave me meds to take daily. He prescribed Tapazole for about a couple of years (my Endo has me get blood work tests for my throid every 4-5 months).

Eventually, went into remission which my Endo said was quite unusual. He still continued with blood work every 4-5 months. Eventually, went Hypothroid (low throid). I have been on Synthroid for the past 10 years or so. I still get my throid blood work done every 4-5 months. I first used the generic for Synthroid. Read something on the internet that mentioned a generic should not be used for Synthroid. Brand Only should be used...Synthroid.

After a few months on the generic, my blood work showed I needed my med increased. I asked my doctor to allow me to first try using Synthroid and not the generic to see if that made a difference. I went back for bloodwork after 3 months. With the Synthroid; my numbers were good and I did not need an increase. I am on the same dose for the past several years. I still to this day get my bloodwork the week before my appointment with my Endocrinologist ( every 4-5 months).

Also, Ithe Synthroid needs to be taken on an empty stomach first thing in the morning. The pharmacist usually has a little extra strip on the med bottle instructing the Synthroid to be take this way.

Tied....
.From your description it would appear you might have some form of Graves (hyperthroidism). I would strongly suggest you make an appointment with an Endocrinologist .



Gerry

Thanks for the input, but I was talking about the parathyroid, which is a different gland than the thyroid. Many people make this mistake,hearing thyroid but not para. That said,I found an endocrinologist through NORD who cured my hypoparathyroidism. All she did was to take me off of calcitriol and it sprung right back in a period of 3 to 4 months. None of the other doctors knew squat, so they consider this to be a medical miricle. I still have my other post cancer side effects but they cured this one, which is a disease which can be much more devastating than cancer.