My experience....

[0SAD1]

So I won't try and bore anyone with my whole life story (I think this post will be long enough lol) here and will just start by saying in April of 2009 I was at an all time high (weight) of 237lbs (I previously had not been eating meat at all and had I started back about a year or so ago (the S/O was a big meat eater and I threw myself off my "good eating habits") which was a big factor in my weight gain from about 186-237 in about 6 months flat) when I finally asked my doctor to check my thyroid and tell me what the heck was going on; since I had been eating less, working out and was not losing but gaining weight, then dropping 10 pound in a week, gaining 5 the next. It was insane.

He did the lab work and everything came back normal, and I mean everything - I was by all standards 100% healthy! So he 1st started w/ Meridia to help me out since I had already been on a 1500cal or less diet and was working-out a good hour, 4-6 days a week. I was on it for about 3 weeks when my next blood work came back showing my liver enzymes were higher than before and abnormal.

My doc switched me to Phen (which I was happy at 1st because I was paying 75% less than I had been for my 1st meds) at the 37.5 mg dose and I believe at that point I was down to about 218 (this weight loss was all from the Meridia - not Phen) and it seem to be working just fine. I did not really have any issues; I was not having insomnia (which I actually have a mild case of anyway!) or feeling jittery. Hell, I actually HAD an appetite (which I did not on Meridia - at all. I found myself forcing myself to eat maybe 1000 calories a day) and was eating about 1000-1200 calories of healthy foods! I will admit though at times I had barely eaten 800 calories (which I have read from other Phen users was not that uncommon). It was not an everyday thing but here and there. And at the time I was not taking a multi-vitamin or any vitamins for that matter. I was on the Herbalife meal shakes (2 a day mostly) which gave me some but I guess I just was not getting what I needed....or so I thought.


So, like I said I started back in April trying to find out what was wrong, on May 16th I started Meridia, and about 3 weeks later was on Phen. In late June I started taking regular vitamins and probably eating a bit more, I was working out 5+ days a week for about an hour or so. I did all types of stuff (swimming, the elliptical, Stairmaster, treadmill, weights etc.) and felt pretty damn good. I was down to about 200lbs and was happy as a clam. I had been to my doc (he was monitoring my blood because of the liver enzymes spike) for more blood work a couple of times and it seemed my triglycerides were now high....weird to me because I did not eat hardly ANY carbs or sugar. He continued to monitor me but said my weight loss was going fine and no reason to stop the Phen if it was working, but that after about another month that we can switch back to Meridia and just monitor my enzymes to make sure they don't get too high. That was about late August.

In mid September I went to have more blood work done and my doc calls me and tells me my triglycerides are now higher AND now my sugar is high.....about 119 - now when I took my last blood test I did eat about 7hrs prior to that, and told the doctor that but I noted my test (yes I get print outs of all of them before I leave) that they tested me at a "fasting" point. So maybe that was why my glucose was a bit higher than before (91 I believe was the previous results). So I cut back even more on carbs and sugar, not that I was having much of it anyhow.

About 2 weeks ago I started feeling tired, I was unable to really eat much, I cut back on working out and soon I was feeling like I was just crashing....BAD. I had about 6 pills left (I had missed a few doses, no big deal) so I just stopped taking the Phen (I had one break before for about 5 days in-between filling scripts - with no side effects mind you) because I was noticing my hair falling out big time, like 50+ strands at a time in the shower, it was freaking me out, and I was just wiped out physically; I was stumbling about my apartment, had mild bouts of memory loss, and fatigue.

So after a few days and pretty much sleeping for 14hrs a day and feeling dizzy along with the above symptoms, I went to the ER. They said I was fine, that all my blood work came back normal and diagnosed me with lethargy and hair loss and told me to eat AT LEAST 1500 calories a day of nutritious foods till I see my GP when I could (I already had an appointment 2 days later anyhow because it was time to check my blood and weight again) and stop taking the Phen (which I already did).

So I go to my GP last week and this time I made sure I had fasted - 14 hours. Which was rough because I had increased my food intake for the last 2 days, was not on any pills for about 5 days at that point and was not working out either (I had no energy) for the last week + AND was super stressed out in general. I also had just been to the ER two days before, had about 8 vials of blood taken, and here I am now seeing my doc who was happy with my weight loss, till I told him about all the horror I had been going through the last 2 weeks. So he said ok, no more Phen, maybe I lost too much too fast and my hormones were off and to just eat about 1500-1800 cals a day, get this blood work done and see what comes back, then maybe he will refer me to an endocrinologist (my suggestion actually) to do further testing and see what is going on, if it is not obvious from his lab.

I get my blood taken, plus I got Hep A&B vaccine and my flu shot (all in the same day - maybe not a great idea because I was sweating and felt like I was going to pass out within 2min after it all - lucky I had an energy bar which I forced myself to eat while I waited the 10min after the vaccines) and just today my doc calls me to say "So I went over your test results and you have hypothyroidism, but your sugar is totally normal which is great, but you need to come in right away so we can start you on meds for the hypothyroidism" I asked if that was why my hair was falling out so much (my gf has hypothyroidism and her doc took like 6months longer to start her on meds and she is really sick now and had about 60-70% less hair than she started out with) and he said it is most likely the issue but the lack of nutrition in my first month or two of taking these pills could also be the culprit or some other issue, to just come in and we can talk more.

Now I am going in on Friday to talk about this more, get a referral to an endocrinologist (which I hear is key when you have hypothyroidism, that you should have one working with your GP since they are not specialists in thyroid disorders) and get my prescription for meds. I am pretty depressed (another side effect of hypothyroidism and from what I hear also from Phen!) in general, or maybe just really concerned is probably a better way to put it. I honestly feel like maybe going on all these meds from the get go was pointless. I mean I was fat but I was healthy. Now I am 50 pounds lighter but my health is going down the tubes.

[Suzy-Q]

Keeping this short:

You don't really need to go to an endocrinologist for your hypothyroidism. Your GP can take care of all that, unless you just feel more comfortable with the endocrinologist monitoring your levels and prescribing the thyroid medication.

Once you mentioned weight gain, hair loss and fatigue, I knew what it was. Those are very common symptoms of hypothyroidism, along with headache, depression, and your "cycle" being out of whack (if you're female). When you get on your thyroid medication, you'll be surprised how much better you feel, all around. It makes that big of a difference! Your thyroid affects so many functions of your body, but we just really don't realize it. When it's out of whack, it can really disrupt your whole life.

Best of luck to you!

[rokprincess]

Hun... I feel your pain. I am the same exact way. I actually started taking the HCG shots two days ago. I'm not sure if it's the shots or cutting out all my starches, sugars, and processed foods, but I feel 10x better than I did last week. Try cutting out these foods, you maybe already. Also, look for a low-glycemic diet to balance out your blood sugar.

[0SAD1]

Keeping this short:

You don't really need to go to an endocrinologist for your hypothyroidism. Your GP can take care of all that, unless you just feel more comfortable with the endocrinologist monitoring your levels and prescribing they thyroid medication.

Once you mentioned weight gain, hair loss and fatigue, I knew what it was. Those are very common symptoms of hypothyroidism, along with headache, depression, and your "cycle" being out of whack (if you're female). When you get on your thyroid medication, you'll be surprised how much better you feel, all around. It makes that big of a difference! Your thyroid affects so many functions of your body, but we just really don't realize it. When it's out of whack, it can really disrupt your whole life.

Best of luck to you!

Well I am going to have my GP give me a prescription (since it will take about 2 weeks for me to be approved for an endocrinologist) but I think in general I would feel much better having a specialist monitor this situation along with my GP.

As to the weight gain, that was BEFORE any meds were ever started and my thyroid was normal then! My weight gain was from years ago and gradual, and I normally was at about 180 (from about age 20), then I got a bf a couple years back that liked me as I was (or a bit bigger....) and over about a year or so; I stopped working out; started back eating meat and more carbs (he loved to eat that way, and before that I was pretty much a vegetarian) and gained 30 pounds in about a yr and another 25+ in about 6 months which made me go back to working out and eating MUCH better (and less) but when I could not drop the weight and had the fluctuation, I went to my doc and he said my health was 100% even with being overweight! That even my BMI was too low to have any type of sugery, that I was healthy enough to do a diet and that meds could help.

It was only after taking the meds, losing about 50 pounds that all of a sudden I had these health issues. I mean in April my thyroid (along with everything else) was normal, now my doc said something like it was 6.4 or something like that (like I said I have to go in and talk more about it, he just gave me a quick call yesterday). So it was never an issue before - just want to make that point clear.

Thanks for the info and support though hon, I appreciate it

[0SAD1]

Hun... I feel your pain. I am the same exact way. I actually started taking the HCG shots two days ago. I'm not sure if it's the shots or cutting out all my starches, sugars, and processed foods, but I feel 10x better than I did last week. Try cutting out these foods, you maybe already. Also, look for a low-glycemic diet to balance out your blood sugar.

Well my glucose is normal, so that is not an issue (thankfully) - my doc just had my blood tested as "fasting" when in fact I had not fasted for enough hours for it to be regulated as it was. Even at the ER the doc was like "your blood sugar is totally normal, so I would not worry about that at all!" and yes I have cut out about 80% of carbs and sugar. Infact it got to a point I had to eat more of them to avoid being ketonic. I try hard not to do processed foods either. I try and avoid ALL junk food, I think the only thing I have had that is "bad" and processed lately are those Yoplait Parfaits and sometimes eat mozzarella sticks....bad I know, but I can not deprive myself forever. lol

[1MoreTime]

Hi OSAD, Very interesting story -- thank you for sharing your experience with us.
After reading it, it made me wonder though: Based on your symptoms BEFORE you started taking any of the diet meds (you said you gained weight/couldn't lose even when you ate little and worked out, etc.), I'm left thinking that you had hypothyroidism already --- it just didn't show up on your blood tests, which is actually fairly normal. That's one of the reasons why so many women who ARE hypothyroid don't know it.
Regardless, it's good they finally caught it and can start treating you for it.
Best of luck!

[sexytee]

hello, my name is sexytee, although these days sexy is far as hell from the truth as to how i look or feel!! anyway i started phen 1/12/09 at 225.lbs and to this day i am at 210.lbs i have tried all the tricks and everything but i stalled at 203. then gained back 10 to 12 lbs.i have always been 140-150lbs all my life btw im 361/2--lol---bu after i got w/my s/o and took on his bad eating habits it was over... anyway long story short sexdrive left, mood swings ,constant yeast infect. anxziety palpatations,thinning hair ,longer periods, acne,craving sugar, (carbs), constant fighting w my man,depression , and all this started at once, i went to md well seen np and she said everything was ok did fasting bloodsugsr and it was100 everything checked out ok.but istopped taking the phen and just decided to try this on my own w/o any pills,because i feel like **** all the time for unknown reasons,iknew my diet needed to changed ijust didnt know to what kind, anyway iwas on line at work stumbled on something about weightloss, and te lady said she couldnt lose weight because she didnt know she had polyctstic ovarian syndrome (pcos) which means your hormones are out of wack and thats how i feel!!!any way it wasnt until she changed her diet that she started losing weight, ? is do ineed to see a endocrinoligist for this and as far as sugar/carbs what can i eat /cant eat??? pls write back iam excited to finally know whats wrong wiyh me!!! and i want to try some herbs supplements to see if they will work instesd of that doc. stuff, does any body know of something that might help me so i can finally be in wonderland ??? please help very anxious!!!!

[xblackbettyx]

Osad - I think you are right on with possibly seeking out an endocrinologist. While a GP can handle monitoring you, why do you think we have doctors that choose special fields? I think going to an endocrinologist would give you the best resources, choices, etc.