Re: Hi, new member here-Betsy

[Guest guest]

Hi, Betsy,

I have a 15 year old daughter with Graves'. She'd had it for some time

(perhaps years) before it was diagnosed. She had many of the symptoms your

daughter is experiencing.

Amy, my daughter, had a reaction to the PTU and was taken off it. The first

two endos we saw wanted to do RAI immediately. By that I mean they wanted to

schedule us in 48 hours. We were quite overwhelmed to first find out our

daughter was so ill and then to comtemplate a life-changing procedure was too

much

for us. We told the top doctors in our city we would seek a second opinion.

It took calling around to every endo on our insurance list (and we would have

gone off it if necessary) to find another doctor who wouldn't urge RAI. The

new doctor was overbooked but managed to find room for Amy in two days' time

and after extensive testing and exam, put her on Tapazole, an alternative to

PTU.

After the medication (and some dietary changes as well as lifestyle

alterations) began to take place, we saw rapid improvement in our daughter's

health.

We still have her on Tapazole, as well as Levoxyl (known as BRT-block and

replace therapy) and she is doing very well. We are hopeful for PERMANENT

remission in the next year, perhaps sooner.

If your daughter hasn't already done RAI, please, please have her look into

this support group, and other options. She will NOT feel immediately better

from RAI, and needs to know the full impact of this type of procedure. She will

be on medication for the rest of her life, for starters.

Hope this helps. Keep asking questions. You're a good mother to try to help

your adult daughter.

Amy's Pam

In a message dated 8/5/2003 10:36:45 AM Central Daylight Time,

topgamma48@... writes:

> Hi. My name is Betsy Marriner and I joined because I have a 32 year old

> daughter just diagnosed with Graves Disease. She was put on PTU(?) with no

> success. They are doing the RAI tomorrow and Thursday so she has been off her

> PTU for 10 days now and is in really bad shape. On top of the graves disease

> she has been clinically depressed for years and has anxiety attacks. She

> feels really terrible right now, aching, agitated, sore throat, coughing, etc.

> She has me very worried because of her depression. Is there anything I can

> say to her to help her. Also, after the RAI, how long will it be before she

> sees any results. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks so much. Betsy from

> NC.

>