Well, I want to thank everyone for their advice. I think I owe everybody an update on my “adventure.” In summary, it appears that I don’t have any obvious thyroid issue, but my problems continue. So I need to visit an endo and I am not seeing my last endo.
So I visited the new general practice I started seeing, and made an appointment with a staff doctor (rather than my 2nd year resident). He generally agreed to the tests, TSH, Free T4, Hashimoto’s titers, B12, Lyme disease, and a bunch of other stuff. He took the T3 uptake, but not the Free T3. All the thyroid came back normal. Everything else is fine. I’ve kept up the morning temperature tests and I continue to run low, even record a bunch of readings under 95 deg F (legally hypothermia). I continue to have fatigue and my wife noticed some hair loss the other night.
So it must be something else. The doctor was basically at his limits. I asked about T3 problems, he didn’t think tht was. I asked about adrenal problems, he didn’t feel competent to diagnose. I asked about malnutrition, after all I have been following a very strict diet and suffering through metformin for years. He didn’t think so citing my B12. But I augment B-12 with a super complex with like 2000% and I eat lots of meat. So I don’t know.
So, my adventure continues. He suggested seeing an endo and a GI guy and perhaps a colonoscopy. I’ll get referrals and make some appointments. Getting into a new endo will take a while. This will take weeks/months. So in the meantime, I think it is time to stop my beloved metformin. I am now using insulin so it plays basically no role in my control. I may have some increased insulin resistance, but stopping and restarting metformin before never changed my A1c. And I’m going to back off the diet a bit, not more intermittent fasting. Maybe that will help.
Thanks to everyone for their suggestions.
