In past posts, I detailed what happened after I got Covid last July followed by the bivalent Moderna vaccine on September 23. I have perpetual thyroiditis caused by autoimmunity, which means that my thyroid is always slightly swollen and never works at a normal level.
The combination of Covid and the bivalent vaccine caused a significant flare in my thyroiditis. Last fall, I found an article on the CDC's website about how some people experience a six-month flare of thyroiditis after getting a Covid vaccine. For that reason, I knew that the flare would likely settle down at some point. That didn't help me in the short term.
We had to increase my medication twice, in early December and again in late January. I could barely function. In early March, I still didn't feel that well, but my provider said that we needed to wait until early June to give enough time for my T3 level to recover before making further adjustments. I'm glad that we didn't increase in early March, considering what then happened.
In late March, I began to feel better. Around April 1, I felt optimal. That was when I realized that I had just passed the six-month threshold after having received the bivalent vaccine. That then meant that the thyroiditis caused by the vaccine was resolving. And so it did...
As April progressed, I began to feel more and more overmedicated. By April 28, I couldn't stand it anymore. I was losing weight and had excess energy, tremors, heart palpitations, and insomnia. I don't like wasting medication, so I decided to titrate down myself with what I had instead of getting tested and asking for a new prescription.
I decided to skip one dose each week, which would gradually lower my dose to the next level down from where I was. Thyroid medication has a half-life of one week, so it's okay to skip a dose once per week to titrate down. How I feel at any given time is based on the previous six weeks' average medication level, since it takes around six weeks for each dose to completely clear the body.
Being undermedicated is truly awful with very low energy levels, but being overmedicated is also just as bad but in a different way. It's terrible having too much thyroid hormone circulating. I feel this weird pressure behind my eyes that is extremely unpleasant when I'm taking too much medication. I also feel jittery and feverish.
In April and early May, I only slept around three hours each night. One night I was so wired that I didn't sleep at all and ended up being awake for close to 40 hours before I was able to sleep, and even then not for long.
I've been so hyperactive and distracted that I have had just as poor of motivation (maybe even worse) than when I'm undermedicated. It really messes with the mind to be so wired that it's like I've taken speed. Right now I'm sleeping around four hours each night. That is somewhat of an improvement.
Despite skipping one dose per week, I still felt overmedicated until about when school let out on May 19. I have felt off in a nonspecific fashion since then, probably because of starting summer break which likely improved my thyroid function even more since I now have no stress. I have just started a new prescription at the next dosage down, which is what I was on prior to the second dose increase from late January. I feel like I've been on a roller coaster since early April. It's crazy.
I seem to be alternating between feeling overmedicated and undermedicated, and the instability will likely continue for another week or so. Perhaps then I'll have an idea of whether I'm on the right dose.
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