Faith63 posted a very worrying question on my last post. I think it deserves a post on its own.
What happens if you are self medicating on T3, you have an accident, you are taken to hospital unconscious, coma, whatever.....how will they know that you are taking T3 medication? How will they care for you? This is serious!
I think some people wear medic alert bracelets and/or pendants.
You can tell your next of kin too, even carry a note with you of medical details if you don't want to wear a bracelet.
All the more reason to tell the GP so it goes on record.
Unfortunately some people don't trust their GP due to how they have been treated. If you have ever been shouted at by a doctor and then found out later you were actually ill you would understand why.
I had to fight quite hard for a diagnosis for a different condition but that is irrelevant, I would never withold info that might affect my care. There is much talk on forums about doctors being dishonest, withholding information and so on but surely that is potentially what many patients are doing as well.
You can purchase one of these and it will be kept in your bag/wallet and you can also copy to put a couple elsewhere:-
Tigreg,
Until thyroid tests are done they won't know. Thyroidless patients manage 4-6 weeks off thyroid meds so there is no immediate danger. When a patient is in a myxoedema coma intravenous Liothyronine (T3) is given and when the patient responds oral Levothyroxine is given.
For euthyroid patients, free T3 and T4 drop during illnesses and when recovering from injuries, with reverse T3 increasing. The body, in its wisdom, puts the brakes on. While being a worry for loved ones and medics, being in a coma may be the best option (at the time) for the patient.
I was hospitalized for three weeks with an injury. After about a fortnight, I became heat intolerant and when I was back on my feet there was orthostatic hypotension. Looking back, I think I'd gone hyper. Fast forward 25 years and I was hospitalized again (just for tests, but unexpected and at very short notice), and I think it triggered a release of T3 -- I was undiagnosed hypo with TSH of 14.5 when I went in which dropped right down with rapid loss of oedema, only to increase back again over the next few months.
My medication and dose is in my phone as a note against my "ICE" contact details.
I always carry the information with me and so does my daughter so I've never thought of it as a problem.
If you happen to have an iPhone, at least one that runs the current release of IOS, you have Medical ID which might be of use.
support.apple.com/en-gb/HT2...
Important points:
🔷 Always keep your phone well charged so that in an emergency someone can access the medical information and not just find a flat phone.
🔷 Always keep the information up to date. No point it saying you are hyperthyroid and taking carbimazole if you no longer have any thyroid function (e.g. thyroidectomy) and take desiccated thyroid!
🔷 Spell out the details. If you are taking desiccated thyroid, state the dose in terms of T4 and T3. Write "micrograms" in full.
Other phones (I'd expect mostly variations of Android) might have similar features or apps available.
The only hope we have is a living will or something in writing and signed, the medical id and a person with us, who knows what we are taking, but that is all we can do.. pituitary damage, might get them to not look at a TSH reading, but even that doesn't work sometimes. I had an Endo, that said i was over medicated, based solely on that , with low free's and known pituitary damage and she still said the most important result was TSH.
A person will not get t3 or proper treatment for a couple of reasons. First, they have no prescription by a doctor. Second, when on t3 only, the TSH is suppressed, which makes doctors think you are over medicated or Hyper. Remember, to them TSH is the Gold Standard and i have not met 1 Endo or Emergency Room doctor, who thought differently. They also think T4 is the Gold Standard. Most, do not survive a Myxedema Coma and often, t3 is not used, only t4. Medic Alert Bracelet or not, they will not give t3 without a doctor on board with that. 9 times out of 10, they will give you high doses of t4, which, if you don't convert, will block the action of any t3 they might give you anyway. I have not ever been able to get a doctor to allow me to do t3 only. The only one was so expensive, i could not afford a second appointment and he would not accept phone calls. I have been to 4 endocrinologists, 3 GP's and about 15 Emergency Room visits since i got ill with Hashimoto's. Most times, they didn't even check my thyroid levels but they did not agree with my t3 only approach at all, in 2014.
I totally believe that no matter what form of id we carry about the t3, if no doctor prescribed it, you will not get it. It is not the standard way of treating low thyroid, anywhere.
Faith63
I think this is a very important point that you have made. Members seem to have missed how all this affects those "SELF MEDICATING". I think you should publish this in a new post. Everything you have written above makes good sense to me! Cheers.
thank you for supporting my opinion. I don't feel my posts get very much attention, so i rarely post . It is an unfortunate situation to be in. Since self medicating, i have been told by my last endo and the hospital to get back on t4 and cut back on t3 or stop. i will consider posting, but as you can see, most think this issue is no big deal.
Self medicating T3 dosage
T3 self medicating 
Self medicating T3
Self medicating T3 - GPs and NHS blood tests
