Hi Justy, the reaction to taking thyroid medication that you had sounds a lot like what Dr Mirza is saying, that doses that are too high in people who dont have complete thyroid failure will make the patient very sick. So it might be worth checking what doses you were given. Because the thyroid medication might be very good for you but at a lot lower doses.
Dr Mirza says in Unveiling the mysteries of the Thyroid found on this page
http://www.bmj.com/content/337/bmj.a801?tab=responses
3. The authors recommend a full-dose levothyroxine replacement for
almost every one without coronary artery disease. This relies on the
assumption that by the time a person develops hypothyroidism, the whole
thyroid gland has failed. In our clinical experience, most people with
thyroid failure present with partial thyroid failure and they lose thyroid
function slowly over months or even years. Prescribing 100 mcg of
levothyroxine to a person with a TSH of 10 for example is a recipe for
suppressed TSH and symptoms of palpitations, tremors, anxiety, and other
symptoms of overtreated thyroid failure. Hashimoto's thyroiditis, which is
the precursor for thyroid failure, does not evolve into hypothyroidism
over night. Since the hypothyroidism is evolving, the treatment should
also be titrated gradually. This is even more cost effective, since it
saves many unnecessary phone calls, visits (including visits to the
Emergency department), and blood tests.
In our experience, a levothyroxine dose of 12.5 mcg a day would reduce TSH
by 2 digits. This simple math will allow you to have a rough estimate of
levothyroxine dose. The goal is to reach a TSH of 1-1.5 mU/L.
All the best