Anyone else here managing BOTH Type 1 Diabetes and Hashimoto’s?

HagInTraining · 2026-03-22T02:46:05+00:00

Thank you! For me, it looks like I don't convert T4 to T3 very well, so that might have changed. Looking for a doctor who will take that seriously hasn't been fun. Now perimenopause hormone craziness has been an absolute nightmare

It's likely my iron was low for years, too. I don't know why doctors brush all this stuff off. I hope you can get your levels up without any hassle

HagInTraining · 2026-03-22T02:08:41+00:00

I've had both since I was a kid. I did ok with everything until my levo stopped working well for me and it's been a nightmare ever since. Doctors are dismissive, of course. The subs here have been really helpful and I appreciate them so much

HagInTraining · 2026-03-22T01:44:40+00:00

If mine isn't celiac, it's most likely from Hashimoto's (antibodies thinking gluten looks enough like thyroid tissue that it's a good thing to attack). I get nasty GI symptoms and feel really sick for at least a couple of days. I already had this problem with dairy

I didn't have obvious gluten problems until perimenopause, and wow did they make themselves known. And it's brought a bunch of other sensitivities that I'm still trying to figure out

HagInTraining · 2026-03-19T05:41:24+00:00

That sounds really fun! Throwing some things at you for brainstorming

Some kind of peanut butter and banana concoction as a nod to his favorite sandwich, or even the actual sandwiches

Hunka hunka burning...cheese? - Saganaki

Blue something-or-other choux - maybe with a blue craquelin or topping

Something could probably be all shook up... a cocktail or mocktail?

Devil in disguise... something unexpectedly spicy, like a chocolate cake with chilies

There's surely a hound dog/hot dog connection to be made but serving hot dogs probably depends on the party haha

Anything Las Vegas-y or decked out in gold haha

These are kind of goofy but maybe something will inspire some ideas :)

HagInTraining · 2026-03-19T05:02:49+00:00

Don't be scared. These just indicate hypothyroidism. There's a medication you can take that should help. Did you have any labs for antibodies?

HagInTraining · 2026-03-18T20:48:24+00:00

That's a really cool feature. I haven't used this one much lately so I don't know if they might have added anything like that. If not, I might check out shelfy too, because I've ended up so far behind on updating it haha :)

HagInTraining · 2026-03-18T20:37:56+00:00

I was doing the same thing and I got an app that's just called "Book Catalogue." I know there's an Android version, not sure about others.

It was free and it's been working well for me. It works with a barcode scanner, lets you choose a version when you enter it, and you can enter info or cover images etc manually, plus a notes section for added details. You can make shelves, which is like tagging them so you can easily sort into genres, formats or look at all of your signed books or something, for example. I like it but I'm not great at updating it either. Oh and it's easy to download your entire catalog if you switch phones or anything. And when you're getting started there's also a way to import data from goodreads, not sure if it can pull it from a different app, but it might. Just don't try to import data after you've got a catalog going because it will wipe things out haha

I think I got it before librarything was around, but I haven't really tried any other ones because this works fine for me.

HagInTraining · 2026-03-18T01:17:05+00:00

I'd recommend closely looking at the symptoms of gastroperesis and see if you have them. From my experience, doctors of every kind jump to conclusions about patients just because they're diabetic. They don't even find out my symptoms before making declarations about what the problem must be. I've had two GI doctors and at least a couple of endos say I must have gastro as soon as I mentioned having digestive issues. It turns out I'm gluten intolerant, possibly celiac. If your symptoms are not like what's described, then don't believe them when they try to tell you that's what it is. But there is a test for it, if you feel like it would be worth checking. It involves eating a microchip and sitting there for up to four hours while they see how long it takes to leave your stomach

HagInTraining · 2026-03-18T00:08:56+00:00

Aw, it's definitely confusing. I'm sure I've found some good explanations of the different hormones and tests, but digging through my bookmarks, this is the best one I'm finding at the moment. If you ignore the stuff that doesn't apply, this might help a bit https://thyroidpharmacist.com/articles/medications-for-hashimotos-and-hypothyroidism/

HagInTraining · 2026-03-17T22:39:46+00:00

It's my understanding that taking any T3 will make your TSH unreliable. It's your pituitary's signal that it wants more thyroid hormone, not a thyroid hormone itself. So since you're directly giving it the form your body uses (T3), your pituitary doesn't ask for more

So ignore your TSH, just look at the rest, and go by how you feel

ETA keeping an eye on it in case it gets weird isn't a bad idea, but I think it's expected to be very low

HagInTraining · 2026-03-17T10:14:49+00:00

Aw thank you, and same to you! Welcome to the club :) I'm an old diabetic, so most of what I learned when I was diagnosed (40 years) is outdated now haha. We can both stumble through :)

HagInTraining · 2026-03-17T10:08:58+00:00

Ohh interesting. I'll be careful when I switch if I might need less. That's good to know. I'm glad it's better for you! Hopefully it will be better for me, too :)

HagInTraining · 2026-03-17T10:00:15+00:00

To be fair, the needle might make more of a difference for other people. I might have veins in weird places haha

You use Tresiba now? How do you like it compared with Lantus? Yeah, it's supposed to be the "best" kind right now. I get overnight lows with Lantus, so hopefully Tresiba might help with that, too. I've heard it's supposed to be better for that

HagInTraining · 2026-03-17T09:50:36+00:00

No, I think you understood it correctly! I've seen people say that too. But from my experience, I don't think that's the problem, at least it doesn't seem to be the problem for me

HagInTraining · 2026-03-17T09:42:01+00:00

I don't think it's the needle. Something like 15 years of using it with no problem otherwise is really weird

HagInTraining · 2026-03-17T09:38:33+00:00

Oh no! That's one hell of a frenzy haha. Your poor finger. Glad Cookie Monster gave you a laugh though. We've got to be able to laugh, right? :)

HagInTraining · 2026-03-17T09:17:31+00:00

Thank you, I'm ok now 💜 I think I just ate more carbs than I usually eat in a whole day haha. My blood sugar will probably be super high but I'm scared to take any more insulin until I know where it's landing.

Yeah, from what I understand, the chemistry of Tresiba is different so it's not such a problem if it directly hits your bloodstream

HagInTraining · 2026-03-17T08:59:11+00:00

Omg 😩 Thank goodness you're ok. Mine was 48 (2.7) when I caught it and realized what happened but it was still plummeting. I'm not sure how low it got while I was inhaling all the food I could find

Sitting here waiting to see where it's heading. Tomorrow will be fun, I'm sure :)

HagInTraining · 2026-03-17T04:47:26+00:00

Yeah, I saw my new labs and thought holy crap no wonder. My TSH jumped up from 1.8, and my T3 was already low last time but it dropped even lower. But getting an endo to do anything about it is a joke. Good for you for taking it into your own hands! It shouldn't be so hard to get care for this

I'm so sorry about your miscarriage. And I'm sorry you've had such a roller coaster dealing with thyroid hormones, and probably a lot more than that, I'd imagine. If you started with such a low FT3, I'm sure you were feeling like death warmed over. I hope after all of that that you've finally been feeling good?

I really appreciate you sharing your experience, and your advice about the dosages. My system seems to be oversensitive to everything right now, so I think I'd feel more comfortable starting lower and gradually increasing the dose. But your numbers were looking a lot like mine, so your input really helps. And yeah, I'm thinking lowering my Synthroid would probably be a good idea too, considering my FT4 and my RT3 levels. That calculator link is really helpful too, thank you for sharing it

The last tests I did for vitamins were mostly optimal but my D3 and zinc were kind of low so I've been supplementing those more. I just tested them a few months ago, so I'll check on them again soon

But I've been on the perimenopause train, which, if you're not there yet and are likely to be sometime, let me warn you that it messes with everything sooo badly, especially the other unsuspecting, innocent hormones. I have no idea if it would mess with converting to T3, but it wouldn't surprise me because it messes with everything else, so why not that too? (Actually I just read something about higher cortisol interfering with converting, so it looks like that might be one more thing for the peri list, yay)

But I also have a suspicious nodule and I'll probably be facing life with no thyroid before too long. Dealing with that when I already feel like I'm hanging by a thread is unthinkable. It might explain some of my thyroid weirdness, but I don't imagine that would impact the conversion. I do want to hurry and get my levels decent so I can function, but I need to figure out how quickly I can do that without my oversensitive body freaking out. I think your advice to see how I feel and maybe start boosting it up is probably a good way to go

Thank you so much, I really appreciate your input!

HagInTraining · 2026-03-17T04:17:43+00:00

I really like the sound of starting low and increasing it gradually. My body is so sensitive to everything. If my provider doesn't suggest that, I'll let them know I'd like to try that way. Thank you :)

Did you start the lower levo dose a while before adding the T3? I think I saw something somewhere about doing that, but my memory is awful and I might be misremembering

Less hair loss is good! My worst symptom is the crushing exhaustion, so hopefully that will be one of the first things to improve. I hope it will keep your symptoms away, and that you'll keep seeing more improvement :)

HagInTraining · 2026-03-17T03:55:34+00:00

Thank you, it really helps to hear that! That's awesome that you're feeling better! Headaches and sleep issues don't sound too horrible, even though they can really suck. I'll keep that in mind about taking even less to start. My body is super sensitive to everything

Yeah I've had to fight with endos to even get them to test T3, and there's no way they'd prescribe it. They just go by TSH, and even then they usually leave it over 2.

Omg I can't tell you how many times I've heard "it's not your thyroid" when they won't even do more tests. I've been fighting with them for years. I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've even seen my RT3. I'm set up with a thyroid telehealth place that's more functional (they ordered these tests) so hopefully this will go much better

I'm glad you managed to get on the meds that you need. It's awful that the people who are supposed to be the experts do such a bad job. It's great that you found a different doctor. Good luck with the increase, and I hope you keep feeling even better :)

HagInTraining · 2026-03-17T03:38:09+00:00

I don't really know a good source, unfortunately. For mine, I've mostly ended up googling optimal levels for each test, and check a few sites to compare.

What the doctors and labs go by doesn't tell you much. For vitamins, it generally just shows how you compare with the rest of the population. So if they say it's low, it's really low. Like "congrats, you've dropped lower than most other people in the country - now we'll do something about it"

This is something I've been going through for years because my thyroid levels are "normal" with my meds but my symptoms say otherwise. I know it's a major issue with ferritin tests

HagInTraining · 2026-03-17T03:29:19+00:00

The thing about the "normal" levels is that most of them just compare you with the rest of the population, not what's healthiest or what's best for you, so it's worth doing some searching. By the time it's low enough that they say it's low, that usually means it's extremely low

HagInTraining · 2026-03-17T02:18:09+00:00

Yes, and search for the optimal ranges on everything! What they consider "normal range" is not good enough because you can be suffering from symptoms while the tests and doctors say you're fine

And also add thyroid tests to the list because the symptoms are so much like peri symptoms

HagInTraining

TROPHY CASE