good news!

Have you ever heard of the "white coat" phenomenon?  It is when people's blood pressure measures higher at the doctor's office just because of the anxiety induced by having to be at the doctor's office. 

I went to see my endocrinologist on Monday for a regular appointment for my Type I diabetes but also to "discuss" my thyroid level.  I had my blood work done Friday and by the time Monday at 2:30 rolled around I had myself in a bit of a panic. I was really freaked out that it was going to be too high and she was going to talk about removing it.  It didn't help that I had a friend having hers removed yesterday.

You can see where this is going.  My blood pressure and my pulse were elevated (the coffee I'd been chugging didn't help) and my palms were sweating. 

We had to go in order.  Blood sugars, trends and patterns, pump basal rates and tweaking first.  I was all but begging her to tell me my thyroid level.

When I was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism last February, my Free T3 (which is supposed to be 1.7 or lower) was 2.8. Because this level was so high, my TSH was non-existent (suppressed).  Over the course of 10 months, the Free T3 has fluctuated from high to normal to high.  We have adjusted the medication to accommodate the changes, always trying to have me take less since it isn't a super safe medication (which ones are?) and ideally, I shouldn't take it for more than 1-2 years. 

The last time we had to increase the dose because of my creeping level, she had started talking about more "permanent" solutions.  Yikes.

But, my hard work (I like to believe) paid off!  My Free T3 was 2.0 a month ago and now it is 1.0.  It is squarely in the normal range.  My TSH is still non-existent but that takes a while to rebound when the other level is high. 

The juice fasting (13 out of 21 days) the meditating, the visualizing and the internal work to be on board with a stable thyroid (instead of relishing the benefits of having a high thyroid which are plentiful) are the things that I believe have helped.  We have decreased my dose in hopes that I can maintain a stable level.  Ideally this would continue and we can work our way to tapering it completely.

I say yay!