wfc - you must have misunderstood your doc. I have never heard of a head and neck cancer patient that went hyper and not hypo. You have typical symptoms of low thyroid output. Low energy, and inability to stay warm are the most common.

I posted this before, but just to hit the point again the pituitary gland is the master and commander of all your glands, and it is near the field of radiation and definitely gets some damaging scatter radiation. This can be immediate or years after treatment at onset depending on the amount of damage and its proximity to the field hit. An endocrinologist will look at all your hormone functions, and I had none that were not out of whack by year 4. Getting things right again takes a lot of time, and it is like shooting at a moving target as they continue to vary as time elapses, and when you adjust one it can impact the others. Lots of blood work, dose changes, and when you think you have it right, retesting shows something else is off. Pain in the ass, but necessary to get some normalcy back into your world.

Eric- even with no baseline for you to go from ( I didn't have one either) and your relationship with your docs, you should be able to get synthroid or the generic. The downsides to taking it are minimal and the impact of raising it is profound. I got energy from that and the ability to add lean body mass from the Androderm. At my high milage, the impact is not profound, but with three days at the club per week ( 1.5 hour each), one boxing and 2 with free weights, I have abs again, and arms that I am not completely embarrassed by like a couple of years ago. My biggest issue is lack of ability to do aerobics since the top third of both my lungs is fibrotic from the radiation, and lots of mouth breathing really irritates my xerostomia. Add to that the carotid occluding from the radiation scar tissue, and I get faint if I keep my heart rate too high for too long. So I am waiting to hear how David does the long bike rides....