How Do You All Feel During Supression Therapy?

I just found this board. It looks like great support.  I am in my third month of TSH suppression after thyroidectomy and RAI, and am having a hard time. I am so irritable and moody.  How did/does anyone else feel during this period and do you have any tips to get through it.  I have 9 months left!  ARRGGHH!

What is supression therapy?  I've never heard that before.

I've never heard of TSH suppression either.  Hypo in prep for RAI but not suppression.  No one has ever mentioned that and I've never been through it.  What is the purpose your doctor has told you?

 

On 6/15/2008 goin-strong wrote:

I just found this board. It looks like great support.  I am in my third month of TSH suppression after thyroidectomy and RAI, and am having a hard time. I am so irritable and moody.  How did/does anyone else feel during this period and do you have any tips to get through it.  I have 9 months left!  ARRGGHH!

Please fill us in on what this is about.   What are the details of your situation?

 

 

On 6/16/2008 ShelbySCS wrote:

What is supression therapy?  I've never heard that before.

I had papillary cancer in both sides of my thyroid, no spread, no lymph involvement, body scan all clear.  My endo has all of his patients on higher than normal doses of thryoid hormones for one year following RAI.  This is to suppress TSH, which stimulates cancer cell growth.  It seems to be a standard treatment, based on the web and other research I have done.  The goal is to keep the TSH level at 0.1 or less.  Lower if there are tumors still there. 

I am in the same place as you (pap thyca), had TT on May 21, except I have not had the RAI and WBS done yet. They will be done in July. What confuses me about your post is that it was my understanding that we would need to keep the TSH levels supressed to 0.1 or less for ther rest of our lives (not just one year) to discourage the recurrence of the cancer. An higher than normal dose of  the hormones for a year does not make sense to me, when a normal, balanced dose will (hopefully) keep you feeling good and also keep the TSH supressed.

I just had my follow up with my endo after wbs.  He used the same terminology; tsh supression.   I had not used that terminology before.  I don't think he's doing it on a temporary basis.  My tsh was .36.  He said he wants to keep it lower.  So he raised my synthroid from 125 t0 137.  Right now I feel good; voice alittle weak and my taste buds are only about 85% back.  But other than that I feel well.  We'll see what happens when my tsh goes lower and I'm on higher synthroid for awhile.

 

On 6/15/2008 goin-strong wrote:

I just found this board. It looks like great support.  I am in my third month of TSH suppression after thyroidectomy and RAI, and am having a hard time. I am so irritable and moody.  How did/does anyone else feel during this period and do you have any tips to get through it.  I have 9 months left!  ARRGGHH!

I am also on suppressive therapy, and my endo said it should be for the rest of my life too. To keep any undetectable cells from growing. I have such a high intolerance to heat it is unbelievable. It makes me miserable even if the temp isn't that high. But when it is, my god, it is hell. I sweat from my head and other wierd parts of my body. I never had any problem like this previous to suppressive therapy. Dry itchy skin, so bad on my legs it is awful. Also depression so bad, I had to go and get on Cymbalta to bring me back to earth and be normal again. Hope you don't have the same side effects.

Crabby Nancy