Venting- To Fay

[Guest guest]

Hi Fay-

By the time I was a year post-RAI, they had me coming in once/year. Before

that, it was every 3 months. Except the 1st time which was 6 weeks after

(hard to remember it's been so long). After RAI and the 1st lab test

afterwards, I was released and monitored by my GP for years.

It was once/year testing until I finally got pregnant (after treatment for

infertility) 8 years later (so once the patient is relatively stable, they

get you on a once/year schedule ASAP). Then it was every trimester during

pregnancy. Despite the fact that I lactated for 2 years and was exhausted,

as soon as I had my baby it was back to once/year testing.

Now that I've been diagnosed with a conversion problem, I have lab tests

every 3 to 6 months when I'm not pregnant and every 4-6 weeks while

pregnant. These are monitored closely and when I'm seen it's by the endo.

Before this, it had been over 11 years since I'd been seen by an endo.

I will never go back to being seen by a family practitioner for this. And

if my endo gets too busy to see me and insists that I see his NP instead,

I'll stop going to him and pay out-of-pocket for any lab tests I might need

and monitor myself (my husband can order the tests and I tend to be

conservative about any changes if I make them). I just won't have the

hassle of another step before I can talk to an endo.

After trusting the system for 11 years and being grossly mismanaged, I'm not

about to risk ever having the same thing happen again.

Take care,

dx & RAI 1987 (at age 24)

> Then they put us on generic levothyroxine

> > and only

> > test us once/year (a patient in remission requires more frequent

> > life-long

> > testing).

>

> Once a year? How long does it take to get to that point? I would think

> that the first few years requuire more intensive testing to get to a good

> maintenance dose, and then there might be need for fine tuning at other

> points in life, e.g. pregnancy, menopause, etc. Or is this just what it

> would be like in an ideal world/

>

> Take care, Fay