Thyroid symptoms!

[Grace]

Hi all,

I've been having some not so comfortable symptoms lately, including dizziness and feeling of nausea. Saw my oncologist who's ordered a brain MRI. However, I just heard that my TSH has gone above normal. I've had a slow thyroid for about six years now, taking Levoxl, 75 mcg. In March 2006, last TSH test, it was 3.5 (a little high but normal). Now it's 5.5. A good friend, a nurse of many years, and also a thyroid expert (she has more serious problem than mine) suggested that the nauseau and dizziness are both thyroid problems. She is the one who insisted I have TSH checked.

Anyone else out there with this issue and can point to a change in thyroid as the problem. I had also taken cipro right before nausea started, so oncologist thought I might have changed the flora/fauna, thus the nausea. The nausea has lessened a good bit in the last week but still occasional. I've also noticed that my reflux is worse than ever, although I faithfully take my 20 mg. of Prilosec every day.

I will still have the brain MRI--can't hurt, but would love to hear it's thyroid related. Oh, also have high blood pressure and when most of the spells occur I use my machine to check blood pressure (Omron, recommended by cardiologist). It was very low on all those occasions with dystolic reading in 50's and low 60's. Perhaps I also need to lower the dosage of my blood pressure meds. Last March, cardiologist doubled meds.

Has anyone's blood pressure changed since taking herceptin?

Thanks for listening.

[janet11]

I don't know if it's because of the herceptin, but just before my last cycle of chemo (TCH -- included herceptin), i had the dizziness etc, and found my normally high blood pressure (controlled by meds) was very low.

I went to my primary care dr (per my onc) and we decided to simply watch my bp daily and only take a bp pill if my systolic (do I have the right term for the first number?) is over 150. As a result, since Dec 11 (when this happened), I've only taken 1 bp pill roughly every 4 weeks. And my BP has been controlled! Wierd, eh?

My last Herceptin was May 1 (and I only got a partial dose then) because of low LVEF. But even so, it's been 7 weeks since I've taken a BP pill.

So, I've found SOMETHING can hit your blood pressure.

[Grace]

Thanks Janet,

Your reply gave me a clue, so I asked today while getting my herceptin if my bp would go down if my LVEF went down, and the three nurses I asked, all said 'yes.' So on Friday when I get an echo stress I'm prepared for the worse, i.e. lower ejection fraction. But at least that would explain the dizziness. Hopefully, it hasn't gone too far down as my last was 60%. And I only have two herceptin to go, so I can always cancel those.

Thanks.

[janet11]

Actually, my BP went down months before my LVEF went down. In fact, when I got the dizziness, I was sent for an 'emergency' MUGA scan and it was perfectly fine (60%) -- only 3% lower than it had been 3 months before. So the dizziness was only the BP.

Good luck,

Janet