I seem to have have hit bottom with respect to my thyroid on Tuesday. As I mentioned in my last thyroid update, I wasn’t doing well. Many of my hypothyroid symptoms were returning — and getting worse.

Tuesday was the worst of it. I had an utterly miserable CrossFit session that day. I wasn’t tired in any ordinary sense, but rather in the “I just want to lay down and stop moving” hypothyroid way. Even my mind kept zoning out: I couldn’t stay focused on what I was doing for 30 seconds at a time. (That never happens at CrossFit!)

Happily, I seem to have turned a corner in the past few days. My carpal tunnel pain has diminished; the skin on my hands isn’t quite so horribly dry; and my digestion is better. And I had a great CrossFit workout yesterday.

So what happened? On August 27th, I increased from 1 grain to 1.25 grains of desiccated thyroid due to my symptoms, plus labs showing my remarkably low Free T4. Since T4 is the thyroid storage hormone (as opposed to T3, which is the active thyroid hormone), I suspect that my body just required about 2.5 weeks to put the additional T4 to active use. I wonder how much I’ll improve — and whether I need to go back to 1.5 grains, if not more.

That lag is part of what makes treating hypothyroidism so darn difficult. You just can’t tinker with your meds, except on the scale of weeks or months.

Also, as another bit of good news… One element in Friday’s CrossFit workout involved alternating tractor tire flips with burpees. (Yes, it was the killer of the day.) I was outside flipping the tire, and I didn’t want to put my knees on the asphalt in doing the burpees. So I tried doing real push-ups, rather than the girly push-ups from the knees that are all that I’ve ever been able to do. Much to my amazement, I could do them! And I did all of them that way. I still need to work on them, as I should be able to get further down. However, I’m so excited to be able to do them at all — as that’s really something wholly new for me.

Overall, I’m so happy with my training at CIA FIT Gym. Despite my ongoing struggles with my thyroid and despite my limited training schedule, I’m seeing real progress!