Foggity fog, damn creeping fog.....

I have been quiet on here again, did you notice? I didn't! Ha ha. No really, I didn't notice what was happening to me. I was slowly getting a bit hypothyroid again the last few months. It crept up on me. Slowly like a snake. it wound it's way around me and squeezed and I didn't notice I was fading away.....

This illness is nuts. Seriously. I think I've cracked it then it's like I've fallen through another trap door and there's a whole new set of lessons to be learned, assumptions to be adjusted, new stuff to be taken on board. And I just pick myself up and carry on.

So, to update you all...... Remember I told you I had my meds reduced in September last year? After going gluten free I was feeling so much better. I'd been able to come off T3 meds and was taking thyroxine only and feeling good and then became concerned I was actually becoming over active so was actually able to reduce the thyroxine dose slightly. And I was SO PLEASED!! It was like, hurrah, hallelujah I am on the mend. I have cracked this thing.

Well I carried on feeling pretty good for a few months. Over Christmas I abandoned my gluten free diet and I felt a bit rubbish again but I was relaxed about that. I just though, hey ho, festive season is here, I shall eat what I like and put on a couple of pounds and then go back on the straight and narrow afterwards and it will be fine.

cakes and mulled wine at Christmas

Then after Christmas we had a death in the family and I had to go overseas for the funeral and obviously while I was there I just ate whatever came my way because I wasn't going to be fussing about my diet when my family were grieving. And we all got into comfort eating a bit. Why not, right? Hard times call for desperate measures. Cake and chocolate is good medicine sometimes.

I got home towards the end of Jan and I just put the fact that I felt brainfoggy and tired down to the poor diet over a few weeks and I assumed it would sort itself out as I got back on track with eating well again.

It was mid March before I realised that something was wrong. I had been tired for weeks. It was getting worse not better. I was becoming forgetful and a bit clumsy. I would be walking up the hill to our house and feel like gravity was pulling me back down it. Ooh, err, better get my thyroid checked.

I'd had it checked before my trip abroad. It, (my TSH, I won't bore you with my other numbers), was 1.7. Up from 0.9 the previous September. Up from the very suppressed 0.01 or thereabouts it had been for the previous 18 months. I thought 1.7 was a pretty good number. If I felt good at 1.7 then  hurrah. My endocrinologist reckons being between 1 and 2 is probably optimal and that makes sense to me. I'd been too suppressed when I was taking T3 and it looked like it was slowly adjusting to a more sensible level.

But in March it had jumped to 3.4. And I felt awful. So now my dose has been ever so slightly increased again. And I am slowly starting to feel better. Phewwew.  Hopefully it won't take long before I am properly back on track.

Lessons learned:

1. Meds adjustments can take a long time to reveal their full effect on the body. That's why it makes sense not to make lots of changes in a short space of time. We  need time to adjust. 
2. Small adjustments can make a big difference. I was taking alternate doses of 100 and 125 micrograms back in September and we dropped down to 100mcg every day. That was, in hindsight too big a drop for me. My endocrinologist has now suggested I take 100mcg 5 days a week and 125 at the weekend. I am hearing more and more about people on very finely balanced doses. We really need thyroxine to be available in smaller doses.  (this is something the BTF is talking to drug companies about and can hopefully influence) 
3. I need to listen to my body more and take action more quickly if I think I might be going hypo. My husband actually said to me in January he thought I might be getting ill again, but I poo pooed  him. I was so focussed on a positive view of the situation "I'm fine, I'm fine, I know what's going on here, I just need to eat less cake/ get over this lingering virus"  (oh fool me, there probably never was a virus, hypothyroidism was creeping up on me again). So as well as listening to my body more I also need to listen to my nearest and dearest who knows me so well and is so sensitive to what's going on with me. I hate going to the doctor because I don't want to be seen as a sickly person. But I am a sickly person and I need to pay attention and go for help when it's neccessary as help is at hand and I am going to be fine now. I know it. :) 

Hey ho, that's what's been going on with me. What's been happening in your world? Send me some #thyroidlife love please. I feel like I need it! 

#Hope :)