April 21, 2026 note: This post was written on September 9, 2025, and I backdated it to fit in the proper chronology. I teach at the high school level. This school year has been massively stressful, and I am just now beginning to write posts on what has transpired. This post is the beginning of the story, so here it is.
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Each year when school starts, I have an autoimmune flare. I used to call it a "thyroid flare," since the symptoms were what I would expect from thyroid disease. Unbeknownst to me, I also had Sjögren's disease, and I now know that some of my symptoms were caused by it, not just my thyroid.
I was diagnosed with thyroid disease in 2014 and with Sjögren's disease earlier this year. However, I know that I had symptoms of both beginning at least 30 years ago.
My back-to-school flare typically consists of deep fatigue, aches and pains, and brain fog. It becomes quite noticeable in the two to three weeks after I go back to work each August, and it lessens around the middle of October.
In the last few years, my thyroid hasn't flared as much. My symptoms are now primarily that of Sjögren's disease.
Indeed, I believe that my thyroid is now completely stable. I have been on the same dose of Tirosint for over two years. The last time my thyroid autoantibodies were checked, they were much lower. The autoantibodies are still out of range, so I still have active Hashimoto's. However, my thyroid seldom swells up so it appears to be stable.
It is now my Sjögren's disease that flares, and it flares constantly just like my thyroid used to do.
I went back to work on August 7. I did pretty well at first, but two weeks later, like clockwork, I started having flares. I had a bad one on August 23 that lasted for around a week. I am in another bad flare that just started on Sunday.
My lips are burning, and my sense of taste is more distorted. My eyes are more dry. I wake up each morning massively dehydrated with dry eyes and burning lips. It's miserable.
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April 21, 2026 additional note: I will detail later events in another post. Here, I will just say that I did end up having a thyroid flare beginning in October and that the flare worsened throughout the winter months, caused by several escalating events. My thyroid medication dosage has now been increased for the first time in nearly three years.
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