Re: T1 delurking

JasonJayhawk wrote:
I forgot to add.... I had a rapid heart beat for about two years
before my T1 dx. Since I had no health problems (or so I thought), I
always figured that I would go to a doctor about it after graduating
college. Whenever I went in for check-ups, the nurse taking my pulse
would comment on the high pulse, but dismiss it as "anxiety."

Turns out that I was hyperthyroid... so much so that my TSH level was
not measurable.

I read a report somewhere that mentioned that untreated hyperthyroidism
can contribute to the development of Type 1 diabetes, but I just wonder
if the correlation is because they're autoimmune, and not necessarily
cause-and-effect. After reading that, though, sometimes I wonder if I
had been treated earlier...

After about 5 months on tapazole, I became severely hypothyroid, and
since then, have been right in the middle for TSH and free T4 ever
since (it's been about two years now).

I'm glad I didn't go for the radiation to disable my thyroid. I'm sure
the thyroid will come back with problems again, but with frequent
monitoring, I'll catch it sooner -- and for the time being, only have
to deal with insulin and Flintstones vitamins. ;-)

What did you do for your thyroid treatment?

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor so take my anecdotal info for what it
is...

Man, that story sounds so familiar. My Graves' came on very suddenly -
about a month after a bout of the 'flu'. I progressed from relatively
normal health to heart failure and cardiac intensive care within weeks.
Once they knew that the source of my symptoms was hyperthyroidism they
were able to reverse the immediate heart symptoms with a beta blocker.
Ultimately I was given iodine-131 to kill off most of the thyroid
gland and as of today my T4 production is in the normal range, TSH is
normal and I have avoided needing synthroid. My endo wanted to do a
second dose of I-131 earlier this year to totally kill off T4
production, but I talked him out of it. He was concerned about the
return of atrial flutter, I was concerned about needing synthroid for
life. My last two TSH tests came out normal, so I guessed right for
now. Of course this is something else I have to check a couple times a
year.

It's a good sign that your hyperthyroidism reversed itself - that might
mean yours isn't autoimmune. Did they test for the antibodies and
confirm if it was Graves' disease?.

When I was dx'ed with T1 last summer, I had lots of questions about
multiple autoimmune diseases - two biggies so close together makes you
wonder if there's causation. From what I've read, it looks like
there's a link but no causation - whatever makes you susceptible to one
autoimmune disease increases your likelihood of developing the others.
I would guess (and would love to see the numbers) that it's as likely
that you would develop T1 then Graves' as it is to do the reverse.

.

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