Life With Jenny: Type 1 Diabetes, Hashimoto's Disease & Burnout

About 2 months after Erica was born, I was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, which quickly turned to hypothyroidism. For 10 years, I was stable on the same dose of Synthroid and had no problems. I honestly didn't feel like I had a thyroid problem because I felt fine if I took the meds or if I didn't. Then in 2019 - before the Covid pandemic - it all hit the fan and I was not okay.

Steven deployed to Kosovo in May of 2019. Right before he left, I was noticing my hair had been falling out in clumps when I'd brush it or would wash my hair. My hair got so thin that you could see my scalp very easily. I was tired all the time, I was gaining weight despite working out daily, my ankles and feet were swelling. At first, I didn't want to acknowledge these things and just kept thinking it would get better and go away.

I finally got in to see the doctor and we did some blood work. My labs for my thyroid came back highly elevated at 18.7! Normal TSH levels are between 0.4 - 4.5, so mine was incredibly high-no wonder I didn't feel good!! It took longer than it should have to get to the bottom of what was wrong with me, but finally we did. More blood work showed that I have Hashimoto's disease, which is an autoimmune thyroid condition. It is believed that when you have one autoimmune condition, you're more likely to get diagnosed with others.

Hashimoto's and thyroid disorders aren't usually hard to treat; I just have to take one small pill every day-but, because mine is an autoimmune disease, I have to constantly be on the lookout for changes like sudden increased hair loss or sudden ankle swelling. Those seem to be the two big things that indicate something is off and I probably have to change my medication dosage.

Thyroid conditions and diabetes are both diseases of the endocrine system so, you guessed it, my thyroid can affect my blood sugars and vise versa. It took a long time to get my blood sugars in control again while working to get my thyroid in control as well. It was an exhausting battle that I was exhausted from fighting. It was definitely a trying time of my life!

Diabetes burnout is a real thing and honestly I didn't know about it until very recently. It makes sense though; it makes sense that you'd get burnt out from dealing with this disease day in and day out. Every decision you make revolves around food and insulin and carb ratio's. It's exhausting. It makes sense that you'd just want a break from it. Kind of how you take a day off of work because you just need a break, but you can't do that with diabetes. There are no breaks from diabetes. You can have good days and those might kind of feel like a break, but really, you don't get breaks. I think I get burnt out the most when for whatever reason, I just have 24 hours of bad blood sugars, whether high or low. Sometimes you spend all day correcting high blood sugars only to finally be back in range before bed and then all night long your pump and Dexcom are alarming because your sugar is low. So then you don't sleep well and you're tired and have no choice but to start over the next day.

Diabetes and thyroid disease are invisible illnesses, but that doesn't make them less important, or scary, or exhausting. These conditions make it hard to get up and keep going some days, but we have to and we do. I wanted to share about diabetes burnout because I've had diabetes for 30 years and literally just found out that was a thing about 5 months ago! We need to talk about these things and help each other! I want there to be more awareness about type 1 diabetes because there is a lot out there people don't know and end up saying hurtful things to those of us with chronic conditions that are no fault of our own. Type 1 diabetes is not something that can be fixed or cured with exercise and changing your diet. Type 1 diabetes is autoimmune which means your body is attacking itself (hey, thanks for that!).

While these conditions are hard and exhausting, I know that God knew I could handle them and use them for good. I spent so many years essentially hiding my diabetes. Sneaking off to bathrooms to check my blood sugar or do shots, or trying to hide my pump, not telling anyone that I have this disease. I'm getting better about being more open in public about it. When I was first diagnosed, my mom got me one of those medic alert bracelets - I hated that thing. I hated that people would see it and ask me about it. I felt like people were judging me all the time. I haven't worn one in years...I probably should! I never used to tell employers I was diabetic and would hide it the best I could if I experienced a high or low blood sugar. I'm not as afraid to ask for help anymore and I always have the appropriate supplies with me in case of an emergency.

Diabetics fight for their life daily so to help bring awareness, what things do you think would be helpful for more people to know about diabetes? There's so much I can tell you about this disease - 3 decades is a long time to live with something - I feel like I'm pretty knowledgeable in the area 😏 So ask me questions, tell me what you want to know!

Thank you for being here. Thank you for reading and supporting me as I put my life out there and try to educate the world about type 1 diabetes, thyroid disease, mental health conditions, and all the things in between! ❤❤

Until Tuesday...

xoxo - Jenny