I’m a Hyper Hypo
It’s been over two months since my last post. On purpose really, I needed a break to recoup and have been pretty busy!
So let’s start with my thyroid. Last mention, my TSH level was sub clinical at .02. I asked the Dr. to test for Grave’s Disease antibodies and it was confirmed I have them. So weird, “I’m a hyper-hypo!” (referencing an old SNL skit if anyone gets it?!) https://youtu.be/yGPfCPoca04
I was referred back to my Endo, which it ends up that I couldn’t even get an appt until mid-July (remember, this was in late April.) So instead of attempting to go to a different health system in the area, which I don’t like anyways, I decided to reach out to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, to see if they’d see me.
I had a hunch that they’d accept my case, since I’m Diabetic also and this is such an odd occurrence-though, according to the Mayo Dr., its not altogether rare. I was able to get an appt within a couple weeks of this and got an answer within 15 mins in the appt. After reviewing my previous lab results and files, he said I have concurrent Hashimoto’s and Grave’s Disease, or can just say I have Autoimmune Thyroid Disease.
At that point, my thyroid hormone levels were at normal levels! Essentially like a normal person. He explained that the over-active Grave’s hormone actions were being squelched by the underactive Hashimoto’s hormone reaction, so I’m in stasis mode right now. And since with the thyroid, they are pretty much only treating symptoms with the Rxs available, I don’t need treatment.
He did say that I one or the other of the diseases will eventually present itself with treatable hormone levels, but at the moment, I am just supposed to get tested every 3 months to see where they’re at. I finally got an Endo appt, and she was a little hurt it seemed that I had gone to Mayo. I wasn’t even going to get into it, as it seemed she forgot that at the last 2 appts I’d been complaining about how I felt and showing signs of my TSH bombing…and she wanted to put me on Ozempic.
But, lab results last week were still all at normal levels. I feel good and even my blood pressure and pulse were down, 111/77 and 71 respectively—I’ll take that as a win!
I also don’t feel so crazy-I can focus on work, make decisions and have the mental energy to all the things I enjoy doing, like this here blog and website!
Remember I went and had a blood panel done by the functional medicine Dr? Well, that was at the same time as all the Thyroid issues were presenting themselves, so of course it showed crazy Thyroid results. But also that I was low in a lot of minerals, vitamin D, and had some kind of maybe infection/viral activity, and my inflammation markers were high also, which makes since if my Thyroid is going insane. She did suggest that going wheat free/gluten free has shown to be helpful for a lot of Thyroid patients, so I have been keeping to that pretty well. I noticed that my digestion is a lot better by not eating wheat and other gluten.
I quickly found my favorites for gluten free options; here’s a list of what I’m eating and where it’s from:
Whole Grain Bread: Live G Free (Aldi) -This is my go-to, as it is a normal sized loaf, so a solid piece of toast. It is pretty dry, so eating untoasted makes you want mayo/mustard and a good creamy cheese on your sandwich.
Flat Bread (for Pizza): BFree (Walmart) -These are great for making homemade pizzas, we used them in the Ooni, so they worked great in the high temp pizza oven, no burning and crisped up really well.
10 Grains & Seeds Bread: Schar (Walmart) These are a tiny loaf of brown bread with seedy things in it. Good flavor and great for avocado toast. A little cakey when eating without toasting.
Apple Pie Bars: Pure & Simple (Aldi) Yummy little apple and fig bars that taste pretty good.
Lara Bars
Rice Krispie Treats are making more appearances at our summer events with friends
Live G Free pastas: (Aldi) brown rice/quinoa-pretty good if you don’t overcook them.
Banza Pastas: (any store) bean/chickpea based-also good if cooked properly
--each pasta maker only makes certain shapes, so you do have to shop around if you’re looking for specific shapes. And really they all taste like a whole wheat pasta when comparing to regular flour pastas and don’t have the silkiness attributed to a good pasta.
Changing my eating hasn’t been too hard, I just need to plan ahead a little bit more and pay attention to what I’m ingesting.
Sadly, gluten free grocery items are a whole lot more expensive than “regular” food. Most bread is over $6 a loaf, pasta is double the price and even crackers can be over $4 for a tiny box—don’t even try the cauliflower crackers that Aldi sells. They’re disgusting, and I love cauliflower! I treat most of the specific GF items I buy as treats; I usually only have 1 piece of bread a day with avocado toast, try to reserve the snack bars for when I need to have a portable snack for work or trips. I’ve been eating more vegetables, since obviously I have a glut of delicious things coming in every day! I also keep cheese sticks and the Simms Turkey sticks (Aldi) on hand for high protein snacking. When my blood sugar is low, I’ve been eating more dried fruit like apricots and cherries for a quick shot of sugar and fiber--I save the glucose tabs for night time and traveling, and they’re sorta terrible anyways.
To make meal prep easier, I try to keep a container of brown rice and/or cooked, diced sweet potatoes available in the fridge so I have a quick base or side for meals. It’s easy enough to sauté a bunch of vegetables and grilled chicken and toss it on some rice or potatoes for a quick lunch. I’ve tried some cauliflower crust pizzas, those are pretty decent for flavor, but not worth the $$ since I’m the only one eating them and the leftovers do not reheat well, so you waste most of the pizza.
I’ve found it’s harder to go out to eat…my son loves McDonald’s for a fast food treat, but really there’s nothing I can eat there. The fries have a wheat ingredient in the flavoring they add to them. So sad. It’s not really worth paying the cost for a bun-less burger if you can’t eat the fries! I stick to corn chips and salsa and such for apps, so that’s always a good option in my book when going out.
On to the garden…
I recently did a late-July garden tour on Youtube, check it out! It’s been a great year for green beans, tomatoes, peppers and onions. Pretty much everything I planted is growing well. We’ve had minimal Japanese beetle presence, so that’s always nice. They really make things ugly.
We’re also working on adding on to the landscaping around the garden and cherry tree. I gave a little peek at the ugly, cardboard-covered area in the video, but I think it’ll be quite nice when we get it finished.
Hopefully this week I’m also going to give a tour of my medicinal herbs I grow and forage from my property. My son is my official editor, so please enjoy the fun intros and outros he creates!
Well that’s that! Hope everyone has a great week!