Children with Graves' Disease

[Guest guest]

Hi Carole,

I expect Amy's mom, Pam, will have some useful advice when she sees your

message. In addition, on the Mediboard.com Graves' group you can find

(goes by Boatkitten), whose 9 year-old-son Austin was diagnosed this year. If

you post over there I'm pretty sure you'll hear from her.

I checked Elaine 's book, Graves' Disease: A Practical Guide. Among

" special considerations for children " the main point seems to be to avoid the

radioactive iodine treatment and use an anti-thyroid drug, as you're doing, so

there's no risk to your daughter's later development or child-bearing ability

from the radiation.

Best wishes,

[Guest guest]

Hi

Thank you for replying. I will try the mediboard. I haven't looked at Elaine's

book yet but I have ordered a copy.

My doctor has advised against radio active iodine for my daughter. He said if

the tablets don't work he recommended surgery.

Once you get the right dose of anti-thyroid drug does everything return to

normal eg mood swings, loss of energy

My daughters medication isn't quite right yet and I was wondering if when the

medication became right does everything return to normal?

Regards Carole

Children with Graves' Disease

Hi Carole,

I expect Amy's mom, Pam, will have some useful advice when she sees your

message. In addition, on the Mediboard.com Graves' group you can find

(goes by Boatkitten), whose 9 year-old-son Austin was diagnosed this year. If

you post over there I'm pretty sure you'll hear from her.

I checked Elaine 's book, Graves' Disease: A Practical Guide. Among

" special considerations for children " the main point seems to be to avoid the

radioactive iodine treatment and use an anti-thyroid drug, as you're doing, so

there's no risk to your daughter's later development or child-bearing ability

from the radiation.

Best wishes,

[Guest guest]

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Family wrote:

>

> Once you get the right dose of anti-thyroid drug does everything

> return to normal eg mood swings, loss of energy My daughters

> medication isn't quite right yet and I was wondering if when the

> medication became right does everything return to normal?

It varies widely, some patients, indeed the majority of women,

experience periods of remission through antithyroid drugs, where they

are entirely drug free and the body returns to regulating it's own

thyroid levels.

I was very well regulated the first time on drugs, but having relapsed

after surgery it is less well regulated now. I gather from my

endocrinologist that the better outcomes predominant i.e. I'm difficult

but they know that aroud here

With the methimazole based drugs is that if they don't work well you can

always try surgery (or RAI for the older patient), but you generally

can't try it the other way around.

Good luck

Simon

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[Guest guest]

In a message dated 5/13/2003 1:34:48 AM Central Daylight Time,

Toolman.@... writes:

> Once you get the right dose of anti-thyroid drug does everything return to

> normal eg mood swings, loss of energy

> My daughters medication isn't quite right yet and I was wondering if when

> the medication became right does everything return to normal?

>

Carole,

Don't expect immediate changes; our situation has been that while Amy

responded quickly to the medication, she has been a long time in recovering

her energy and strength. Our doctor didn't even want her to exercise at

first since her heart rate was so high. She is able to do just about

everything she did before, but that has been over a year in the making. The

mood swings have much improved, but stress can cause her to " melt down " all

over again. We do work on self control, not allowing the disease to control

Amy.

Good for you that the doctor doesn't want to do RAI. Does the doctor have

any idea how long your daughter may have had Graves' before the diagnosis?

You may be able to make more of a determination here. We went back to at

least two years prior to Amy's diagnosis after putting some pieces of a

puzzle together. The point is, if she has been ill a while, you can expect

it to take a while for her to feel better.

Amy's Pam

P. S. Has anyone mentioned getting copies of all labs as they are done?

This will help you to be more informed as to what is going on. After some

months of monitoring Amy's labs, I was convinced she needed a slight

adjustment in her medication. I patiently waited for our doctor visit, but

when he saw her, he didn't change anything. I called a few days later,

pressed my case, and he did make the change. We saw immediate improvement.

Just food for thought.