Well, I actually live with that experience and yes, it does suck. Before I got the T3, I had periods I thought I was doing pretty well. Then I got the medication and WOW, I was like "You're kidding? Real people feel *this* good? This is what *normal* is?! Egads, I've never in my whole life felt this way!" I found all my coping skills actually worked (before they kind of just kept me from killing myself). I connected to people. It was the most amazing experience.
When we decided we wanted another baby and my doctor told me there was no way I could continue on my meds and be pregnant (since thyroid function is very particular during pregnancy), I cried for a month. Every day. I bawled. We talked about it and we still wanted a baby, though he wasn't going to push for anything, it was my decision. That first week after I stopped taking the T3 was probably one of the worst weeks of my life. I could feel it converge on top of me.
And it's pretty much stayed that way the whole time. By the time the baby is born I'll be off my medication for a full year and we have to discuss how it'll affect breastfeeding too (I'm not opposed to formula for the sake of my mental health, but it's freaking expensive). I panic at times because I've reached a point where I can't remember feeling good. I had this conversation with my therapist - I was like, "Was it real?" It almost feels like a dream. I worry that I won't be able to get it back. I try to imagine decades of *this* and I can't. I really can't. Before I found this med, I was pretty much convinced I'd kill myself by 40.
What I will say though is that it takes time for you build up a tolerance, if one builds up, and that they are always coming up with meds that are in the same vein as the one your taking, but with a little bit of a different make-up. There's a boatload of medications on the market in each category, each a little different (one of the benefits to patents expiring is that Big Pharma is always trying to create "new" meds that are just a *little* different from the old ones so they can continue to charge premium prices... that's my cynical take on it anyway). Additionally, I did a bit of google searching and it sounds like it takes YEARS before you build up a resistance and some people just said they dealt without it for 6 months to a year and then went back on it again, their resistance no longer an issue. So it maybe a bumpy road in about a decade, but there are options.
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Date: 17 Mar 2013 10:37 pm (UTC)When we decided we wanted another baby and my doctor told me there was no way I could continue on my meds and be pregnant (since thyroid function is very particular during pregnancy), I cried for a month. Every day. I bawled. We talked about it and we still wanted a baby, though he wasn't going to push for anything, it was my decision. That first week after I stopped taking the T3 was probably one of the worst weeks of my life. I could feel it converge on top of me.
And it's pretty much stayed that way the whole time. By the time the baby is born I'll be off my medication for a full year and we have to discuss how it'll affect breastfeeding too (I'm not opposed to formula for the sake of my mental health, but it's freaking expensive). I panic at times because I've reached a point where I can't remember feeling good. I had this conversation with my therapist - I was like, "Was it real?" It almost feels like a dream. I worry that I won't be able to get it back. I try to imagine decades of *this* and I can't. I really can't. Before I found this med, I was pretty much convinced I'd kill myself by 40.
What I will say though is that it takes time for you build up a tolerance, if one builds up, and that they are always coming up with meds that are in the same vein as the one your taking, but with a little bit of a different make-up. There's a boatload of medications on the market in each category, each a little different (one of the benefits to patents expiring is that Big Pharma is always trying to create "new" meds that are just a *little* different from the old ones so they can continue to charge premium prices... that's my cynical take on it anyway). Additionally, I did a bit of google searching and it sounds like it takes YEARS before you build up a resistance and some people just said they dealt without it for 6 months to a year and then went back on it again, their resistance no longer an issue. So it maybe a bumpy road in about a decade, but there are options.