Hi Sportster, yes it helps for the girl in question.
For me, I’d love to know what else can cause overactive thyroid symptoms - nearly all of them. I forget about wondering most of the time and just live with it, but occasionally it comes up and I get curious again.
According to the Stop the Thyroid Madness site, Free T4 and Free T3 are the 2 most important. The Frees tell you how much is circulating in your blood for use. TSH doesn’t really tell you anything - it is the thyroid stimulating hormone but doesn’t tell you what your thyroid is doing. Unfortunately, most doctors think that is the tell all when it comes to thyroid and it doesn’t tell you anything. TSH can vary even in the same day. It is kind of like someone having a lot of lows because they are taking too much insulin. Their BS gets tested after a rebound high & the doctor looks at that one test and tells them they need to bump up their insulin - if someone had looked at everything, they would realzie the person needs less insulin, not more.
Right before I got diagnosed with type 1 I had a similar symptom. I felt like i was getting low blood sugar in between meals if it was a long time…but there was no way I could have been low. But then when I first started using insulin, and my sugars came down from the 400’s, I was getting extreme symptoms at around 100 mg/dL. I felt like I was what I feel now in the 40’s at 100. So, maybe her body thinks shes “low” and really shes just coming into a normalish range from super high numbers. (That’s if she has type 1—let’s hope that’s not the case!)
Yes laurenc873, I hope not too, but the symptoms are too suspicious.
My question is - how’s she getting down to any level from highs? I guess we don’t know for sure what anyone’s beta-cells decide to do at any given time. I have no c-peptide when last measured, and I’ll swear for a week or two, about three weeks ago, I had a semi functioning pancreas between 2am and 5am. Nothing else would explain what I was seeing!
I just want to get at this poor girl and give her a meter and show her what to do!
Not sure! But I had the c-peptide test right after diagnosis and mine was .2 so I know that is very low…
I feel ya on the semi-functioning pancreas…sometimes it feels like barely any insulin keeps me alive…but then other times, bring on the basal rates!
Best of luck to her…
Graves Disease here too Sportster! Seems like there are more hypothyroids than hyperthyroids on here. I was diagnosed with Graves long before diabetes (1994 and 2007). I’m not sure what “PTU” treatments are, but I’m glad you got your thyroid normalized. They tried to supress my overactive thyroid with meds but were unable to do so, so they destroyed it with radiation and I now take thyroid replacement meds. When I got diagnosed with type 1 my thyroid levels which had been stable for years, got wonky and we had to play with my synthroid dose a bit, but now they are stable again.
I’m sure if she is diagnosed, Susi, she will definitely appreciate you helping her out learning the basics at least (and, of course signing up for TuD!)
Hi Zoe,
I guess I had Graves long before Diabetes, also. I just found out or should I say, I was diagnosed at the same time that I had Graves and Type I. According to my Endo, he said my thyroid was overactive for a long time. I’m not too sure how he can tell how long but, that’s what he told me. Looking back, I can remember having the symptoms for a long time but, I had no clue something was wrong! I just thought that was normal…lol.
Propylthiouracil (PTU) is an anti-thyroid medication used to treat graves. I remember having to go in for blood work every month to make sure my liver was ok. I can’t remember right off but, something about white blood cells. It was horrible to take. It made my muscles feel like rubber. I pray that I never have to go back on it. I’m seriously thinking about killing it if ever it comes back.
Yes, I think mine was around awhile before diagnosis too as once I learned all the symptoms I realized I’d been experiencing some of them for years. It amazed me to realize that thyroid affected so many things both physical and emotional. They finally have started having clients with Mood Disorders checked for thyroid function. I don’t remember what meds I took to suppress my thyroid, and if they had side effects, just that they didn’t work. The only down side to having no thyroid now is that I can never ever go off thyroid meds, but hey, what’s one more!
I believe taking PTU had only a small % chance of working. My Ex-Endo says he told me about the chances but, to this day I don’t remeber him telling me. That could be because I coudn’t understand a thing he was saying LOL.
Oh, and one good thing about having a hyper thyroid is that it gives you LOTS of energy!
Wow Aimee, so this does seem to happen, even when you’d expect blood glucose to be chronically high. I’m learning… thanks!!
Most NDSS chemists in my district (Tweed) will test any person who asks.
Just because she is normal weight does not mean she cannot be T2; however I agree that T1 or LADA is more likely. If that is the case she may be still in the honeymoon phase. In either case, if she is still producing insulin it is also possible she is getting reactive hypos.
Has she got the results of that blood test yet?
Cheers, Alan, T2, Australia
Everything in Moderation - Except laughter
Hi Alan,
Thanks for the info. We’re up on the central Gold Coast now, and before I was in Byron. From my experience, they charge $10 per test, and often no one knows what they’re doing (that’s my experience over the years).
I asked yesterday and no, no results yet. I did send her a message that if anything gets bad, to go straight to her nearest hospital and explain what we all suspect. She’s doing lots of little meals, easy on the simple carbs and I’m told it’s much better that way - she doesn’t seem to be having the extremes so much.
If she’s getting reactive hypos, then a fasting blood test may show nothing or a lower BG. Not sure it’s going to be all that helpful at this stage. The same thing happened to me many years ago and I had to buy a meter to convince my doc. My fasting BGs were reasonable, my post meal ones were horrid. That’s when I still had semi functioning beta cells (LADA).
I hope her doc has the sense to send her for a GTT.
So, here’s an interesting and bizarre update.
Apparently bloodwork ok, including thyroid. Doctor decided she’s having panic attacks and gave her an antidepressant, which she threw in the bin on the way out. She’s going to get a second opinion. She is neither depressed nor anxious and does not have panic attacks. If she does then she’s found a cure!
Gawd, if only panic attacks could be cured with jelly beans and staved off by having lots of small meals!
She needs a GTT and a BG meter, I think! Oh, and a better doctor.