Hyperthyroidism

If your TSH is high that would be HYPOthyroidism not HYPERthyroidism.  I have hypothyroidism.  If my TSH is high I am miserable.  Extremely cold-wearing a fleece bathrobe and can't get warm when it's 80 degrees outside kind of cold.  Aches and pains everywhere.  Depression.  Slow moving gut.  No appetite because digestion is not happening!  Sometimes it would be more than a week before I could drop so much as a pellet or too.  Headache that won't go away.  Extreme fatigue.  I used to set an alarm to take my kids to school, one to pick them up, one to get up and make dinner.

If you are hyper your TSH would be extremely low and you'd be wakeful and might have diarrhea and tremors in your hands and high pulse.

It's good to have Free T4, Free T3 and thyroid antibodies tested also  because TSH alone does not give a complete picture of what is going on.  Sometimes a person can have TSH that falls into the normal range but absolutely little or no biologically available thyroid hormone and they will be hypothyroid and have all the symptoms.  I had untreated hypothyroidism due to that for years.

The thyroid gland affects just about everything in your body.  Good testing is important.  A host of prescription meds can be prescribed to treat the side effects of hypothyroidism if it goes untreated vs one thyroid med if hypothyroidism is managed properly.  It is very difficult to find doctors that will address thyroid disease properly.

Stop the Thyroid Madness website is a good place to go for thyroid information.

Sorry if this turned into a novel sized rant but this is a sore subject with me.  I was getting sicker and sicker year after year because all they would test was TSH and when my available hormones were finally tested they were really low.  I was barely dragging myself around and my body temp was just a hair above hypothermia all the time.  When I finally got on thyroid meds I became a new woman.

Well but I am not super up on thyroid although I know some who have had radiation in the area have had thyroid damage.
I had what I call a low thyroid reading and it needed to be bumped up.
This was well before I ever had cancer and treatment.
I felt really tired and I thought I just needed to catch up on sleep.
I went to bed at 7:30 pm and 8:30 pm for several days and it didn't make a bit of difference how much I slept.
So I went to the docs and that's the first thing he tested and my reading was low.
So I was put on Levothyroxine and the level was checked after a couple of weeks or a month and they may have adjusted it a bit I can't remember.
It takes a bit to work I guess it builds a level up in your system.
Anyway, my tiredness went away and that was why I was so tired.
ozy is right it affects a lot of things in your body.
The unusual thing is with all my treatments, etc it changed but not a lot but I have had to increase dosage a bit.
I am now taking 100mcg Sun., Tues., Wed., Thurs., and Sat. and Mon. and Fri. 50mcg.
So it is important to keep at the proper level and monitor it especially H&N folks.
Take Care-God Bless-Russ

My thyroid got fried from the git-go by rads.  Spent the first summer after treatments wearing gloves in A/C'd rooms and cars.  Even outdoors on some summer days, in Atlanta!  Been taking levothyroxine since fall of 2009.  It helps with keeping me warm, but not entirely.  I wear a hat and gloves when the outdoor temps get below 50.  I have tolerated the med well, and can't detect any side effects.  There are some natural healing remedies for Hypo T, so maybe check those out first.

I started taking Levothyroxine last year and I think it's been to my detriment.  I put on 5 lbs right away and my digestive system doesn't seem to be firing on all cylinders like it was.  I need to have a word with my docs.

I didn't like levothyroxine either.  Synthetic thyroid hormone doesn't work well for me, but some people love it. I didn't start feeling really good until I'd been on desiccated porcine thyroid hormone for a while-Armour to start with.  Because of supply issues had to switch around several times throughout the years.  I am now on NP thyroid made by Acella?  2.5 grains(150 mg) a day in divided doses one in the AM and one in the afternoon.  

I returned to work a month after my last Rad session, or the first week in May of '09. All summer I wore long sleeved shirts in a hot factory, and sometimes also with a light jacket. The Rad Dr. had my blood tested, and was put on the lowest does of Levo. A couple years passed, still not feeling any improvement and my normal body temp was 96.4*. Just happened to notice my Dad was also on Levo., and his pills were twice the dosage as mine! Shortly thereafter I said to heck with it and took myself off the med. Maybe a year later I noticed my typical body temp had risen a degree to 97.4*. Did have a whole bunch of wild body temperature extremes in the years that have followed (96.8-100.3), but that's just the new norm for me.

PCP Dr. has asked me a couple times why I took myself off it. Told him about Dad's dosage, my symptoms, and if the Dr.s were not gonna deal with the issue like they should, then to heck with it and I'll just deal with it, to which the PCP has had no response. Figure they put me on the lowest dosage to start and see how things went, but I got ticked when they did not increase the dosage with the continued symptoms. Another instance where I thought to myself: hey, that's life. get used to it. 

Fried - Radiation the gift...

We were slowly increasing my dosage, until my last test - 30. Like.. owch!

Explains the exhaustion, the totally screwy blood work, and a bunch of other stuff.

One thing I think I am the only one to write about, is your Baroreceptor. Everyone has them, they live on your carotid, and they tell your body when you need more blood up top. This is usually an automatic thing, but, thank you rads, not now. It can also cause your BP to drop low. - little known fact, if you run low BP, and get light headed, drink a bottle of ice cold liquid. it'll push your BP up 10mm mcg

That almost all H&N radiation patients will end up with hypothyroidism at some point.  Mine showed up at around the year and a half out or two year out mark.

On the one hand, it's super easy to treat...being a $4/month pill.  On the other, it's hard to get perfect...as others have suggested.  Your ideal dosage can change quite often.  A good physician will negotiate with you and balance the #'s that the tests show with how you are feeling.  You may be in range as far as the lab tests go but still might not be feeling quite right.  Ideally they'd play with your dosage a bit to find the sweet spot.

Brandon

I don't know if this would apply to your neuropathy or not.

My arms used to get numb and fall asleep every night until I started taking B6 and B12.

My thyroid gave out about 18 months after my tonsil / lymph node cancer treatment finished. My GP put me on medication and my numbers have been in the acceptable range ever since. I got lucky and they have not needed to adjust the medication yet.

Rick