Place a call to your doctors office and ask about it. This is not something that random people can tell you. Especially since your doctor told you to use this much. One of the things to ask unless you have another appointment is how long should you take this amount.

That's not a huge amount of vitamin D. He gave it once a week because your body can store vitamin D. Obviously you are not using the vitamin D you get from sunshine nor your food.
But if you are concerned....ask your Dr.

My primary care physician had my Vitamin D level and my parathyroid hormone level tested because of my "complaints." My Vitamin D level was 8 -- extremely low by any standard. I was then prescribed Vitamin D2 -- 1.25 MG (which is 50,000 IU) to be taken once weekly for four weeks, then I was retested.

Of course, in the interim I did a Google search and came up with many results that talked about taking Vitamin D3 rather than D2. When I asked my PCP about it, she said that Vitamin D2 is given for a short period of time to (try to) quickly raise the level of Vitamin D in your system, then you take Vitamin D3.

My PTH level was high, and has continued to go higher each time it has been tested. My Vitamin D level has risen, and is now at the low end of "normal."

Another blood test you should have done is calcium.

Your parathyroid glands control the amount of calcium in your system. Your serum calcium level should never be high. If it is, it pretty much means that at least one of your parathyroid glands is out of whack.

You can do a Google search on hyperparathyroidism, and one of the results you will get is for the Norman Parathyroid Center in Tampa, Florida. It has a lot of good information, but it is structured/written in such a way as to make anyone reading it think that they must go to the NPC in Tampa and that if they go anywhere else for a parathyroidectomy that they won't have a good surgeon or a good result. THIS IS NOT TRUE -- THERE ARE FANTASTIC SURGEONS ELSEWHERE!

Thanks ... I was just curious why taking so much once a week rather than daily. My PTH was 105 (high) before taking the Vit. D weekly & blood calcium was 9.3, & Vitamin D level was 25 (low) before taking the 50,000 U. Vit. D weekly.

Will see after a month now on the 50,000U what the levels will be! My thyroid years ago was super high/over-active so was treated with a drug & then the thyroid became underactive & on synthroid ever since. Since the parathyroids lay on top of the thyroid, they also may have been affected by the drug!

You should see an endocrinologist. Usually when the PTH level is high and the Vitamin D level is low, the calcium level is also high. But 9.3 is in the normal range. There definitely seems to be something going on, but you need to see an endocrinologist to properly figure out what that is.

thank you Lindsey!

It is SO confusing ...

Today the Dr. said to continue the 5,000 Vit. D3 tab.once a week & recheck the calcium, Vit. D & PTH levels in 6 weeks. I am also on probenecid for 'pseudo-' gout (that was the reason I went to a rheumatologist initially for my hands & feet!) & then he ordered the PTH level for some reason & also has me on the Vit. D. for it !.

One of the two drugs is recently is causing my head/memory to feel 'strange': not able to think, process normally as I had. Dr. said it was not/could not be the Vit. D but maybe the probenecid/colchicine... so cut to taking a tablet every other day on it.

So glad to get your info. on the parathyroid/calcium/Vit. D levels; the Dr. is not too good about my questions ... I don't think I am ?-ing his ideas but something just recently has affected my brain & he definitely said it was the probenecid-NOT the Vit. D ! Hopefully he is correct! I can try & cope with the hand ? pseudo gout!

How are you now being treated for the elevated PTH? Years ago I was hyper-thyroid & treated with propothiouricil which killed off too much of the thyroid I guess so I then became a bit hypo- & on synthroid every since. Wonder if the treatment had also affected the parathyroid gland under the thyroid?

Isn't it frustrating? And one has to be careful how one approaches a lot of doctors sometimes without seeming to question their reasoning/ability!

You have been so helpful!

Glad I can help, but I am by no means an expert. I've just been doing a lot of reading and research on primary hyperthyroidism.

I'm not at all familiar with probenecid, so I just did a Google search, and read a few things. What you described -- "not able to think, process normally..." doesn't appear to be listed as even a rare side effect, much less a common one. BUT, it is a side effect of hyperparathyroidism.

The thyroid and the parathyroids are both part of the endocrine system, and the parathyroids are located on the back side of the thyroid, but that's the extent of their relationship to each other. I don't think treatment of your thyroid would have affected your parathyroids, but I am not a physician, much less a specialist in endocrinology, so you really should consult with an endocrinologist.

What I do know is that a person's Vitamin D level and PTH level (as well as calcium level) are related. As I said in an earlier post, your parathyroid glands control the amount of calcium in your system. Vitamin D helps your system absorb the calcium. When the levels get out of whack, calcium is pulled from your bones.

I had first complained to my doctor that I had started suffering from "head sweats." I would be getting ready for work in the morning -- and it could be the middle of Winter and really, really cold -- and suddenly my head would start to sweat profusely. It would drip down my face (making it difficult to put on makeup) and into my eyes (that burns!), and was just generally frustrating and uncomfortable. I also noticed that I was losing a lot more hair than normal. So, I was doing Google searches on what could cause head sweats and hair loss, and I was reading about low Vitamin D. The low Vitamin D made sense to me because I'm not out in the sun a lot, and when I am, I have on SPF 50 sunscreen because I've had skin cancer in three places on my face.

I was also feeling "less than normal." I had decreased energy, had problems remembering things (none of my relatives has ever had Alzheimer's but I was beginning to think that I was going to be the first), had frequent headaches, etc. So, I started researching and reading. And what I came up with was that I appear to have all of the signs/symptoms of primary hyperparathyroidism. (There is also secondary hyperparathyroidism, where the calcium level is normal when Vitamin D and PTH are high, but that definitely isn't me.)

And, as I also said in an earlier post, the parathyroid.com web site (Norman Parathyroid Center in Tampa, Florida) has a wealth of good information, but I am adamantly opposed to doctors who make you feel that they are the only good doctor this side of Heaven. Dr. Norman may be (and by all accounts is) an excellent doctor and parathyroid surgeon, but he and his Center are not the only game in town. I am in northern California, and will go to UCLA to have surgery by Dr. Michael Yeh, who has excellent credentials, and does an average of 6 parathyroidectomy surgeries every day (and I think that's more than Dr. Norman does on a daily basis).

Lindsey:

Thank you again! the computer is wonderful for researching but I wonder if some doctors wish we didn't do so much research & then plague them with questions?! I want to chec past labs to see how long my labs have been out of norm & if they have been, why it wasn't brought to anyone's attention before! Strange a rheumatologist on first visit saw these results!

I'd been treated for 'osteoarthritis' with poor results so sent to a rheumatologist, only to now find I have pseudo gout (has a new name now though I think) & the Dr. ordered these new labs as well as searching m past labs done elsewhere. Hoping new labs in 6 weeks after the high doses of vitamin D3 will show something,

Hoping our visit to those Drs. & the surgery will go well now; you surely have done your research & have been SO helpful for me! Please now keep me posted on your surgery & will have you in my prayers for a successful recovery & 'new' life!

Vieja, it is easy for me to check my past lab results -- at least since 2008. That's when I first logged into something called "My Health Online" that was started by Sutter Medical here in the greater Sacramento area. Sutter Medical is "in network" for my Blue Cross PPO health insurance. All doctors that are part of the Sutter system use My Health Online. I've been seeing a cardiologist since sometime in the 1990s, and any time he had me get lab work done, he always gave me a hard copy of the results. Then, after some lab work in 2008 he told me that he didn't have to give me copies any more, because all I had to do was go into My Health Online and I could see everything. So, I created my account and can access and/or print out my test results any time I need them. You should check to see if your doctors have something like that. Many do now.

I really hope that you will see a Board-certified endocrinologist. With the problems you've had with your thyroid and now with Vitamin D, you need that expert help.

Good luck!!