And now, another good news/ bad news moment

Well, I've had my second appointment with my new endocrinologist. Before the holidays, she looked over my charts, and her immediate question was "are you sure you're type 1?" I shrugged, and told her that my c-peptide was at .3 in the hospital at dx (the reference range started at 1.1). "But that was in the hospital. I'm going to send you in for a GAD-65 (and a bunch of other labs) and come see me in January. We're an aggressive clinic--if you're type 2, we're going to get you off insulin."

I smiled and shrugged again. I don't have insulin resistence. That means most oral meds aren't designed for me anyway, so I knew that getting off insulin would be a difficult proposition. Besides, I was curious about the antibody test.

Today, she comes in looking at my labs. "Well, there's no doubt, you're type 1." (I hadn't expressed any doubt) Apparently, the reference range was like 1-5 and I was over 54--I definitely have the antibodies. So, good news is, I now have the means to prove my diagnosis to any randomly skeptical doctor.

Then she says "Your TSH is elevated" (it was like 5.5--I should have grabbed a copy of my labs, but she's going to make them available over the internet) "You probably have Hashimotos."

She sent me for another TSH and a free T4, prescribed synthroid. and wants me to come back in a month.

So, in the mean time, it's time to look up hypothyroidism and see what new kinds of lifestyle changes I'm heading into. And probably work myself into hypochondria while I look up new symptoms (tired, check; greying, check; depression--nah) and don't get stressed because that won't help either.

And the semester starts tomorrow. Hooray for graduate studies!

Oh, and did I mention that lantus is now off the formulary, so I get to switch to levemir in the middle of everything else.

I have Hashimoto's & it's not a lifestyle change like diabetes, but it's hard to find the right treatment. Unfortunately, Synthroid is the drug of a choice & not usually effective. You really need free T3 & Reverse T3 testing.

www.stopthethyroidmadness.com is an awesome site for info.

If it's any consolation, I'm doing far better on Levemir. It's best taken in two doses, in case your endo didn't mention this. Some don't.

She did mention spliting the dose--I mentioned that lantus was off the formulary and levemir was on, and her immediate reaction was "it's not the same!" Which gives me hope--I liked my last endo, and I was disappointed that he closed his practice, but she is at least willing to talk to me.

Thanks for the site. After class, I'm going to head there.