Re: Update - Jemima

October 10, 2003

Hi Jemima, I'm sorry this has to be so hard on you. I am so thankful for the

support my husband gave me throughout the worst of Graves - it really made a

huge difference for me - I don't know how I would have done it without him..

well ok, I could have done it without him, but he did make it easier in

many ways. I hope that when the worst of this is over your husband will look

back and see what you've done (and tried to to) and be thankful for you too.

Now on to the PTU - Thyroxin issue. While I will agree that your dr. visit

was frustrating and not very enlightening, something great that many of us

only wish our docs would do for us happened - they basically put him on

block and replace! Which means he's still on a high dose of PTU to help

fight the antibodies that are hurting his eyes, and he's taking thyroid

hormone to counter the high dose of PTU to help him feel more normal. The

Thyroxin will bring his numbers up and that should help him to feel better.

Yes, 8 weeks is a long time to go to find out if this is going to be the

right combination of PTU-Thyroxin, so you are going to have to work through

that some how - maybe get him some blood tests in the mean time and post

them here so some of us can comment and help you figure out what to do next.

.. or maybe he will perk right up and you will have your old husband back.

I have not been following this list well lately, but do check in

occasionally - so wanted to make a few more suggestions that might help your

husband - see if you can get him to take some flaxseed oil or some iodine

free fish oil - this may help with the swelling in his eyes. A good

multi-vitamin without iodine but with copper will be helpful as well as

graves leaves us with nutritional deficiencies. Switching to a natural sea

salt rather than iodized salt would be a good thing, and trying to avoid

iodine rich foods (yet making sure the rest of your family gets some iodine

- you don't want to make everyone else go hypo while trying not to aggravate

your husband's thyroid).

And as for you - I hope you can find some ways to take care and maybe even

pamper yourself - to keep you healthy and whole as well - yoga, tai chi or

meditation might be helful, a massage or pedicure perhaps? A regular walk

around the neihborhood or a park... A nice evening out with the girls to get

away maybe? Whatever it takes to get away from it for a little bit and

re-juvinate yourself.

Hope this helps, and hope your husband does well with the thyroxin.

Pam B.

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