Guest guest Posted September 4, 2003 Report Share Posted September 4, 2003 On Wed, 3 Sep 2003 22:40:47 EDT allecatz1970@... writes: > Sandy....In March 2003 was i was diagnosed with Graves Disease. My > enodcrinoligist had put me on PTU right away at 600mg/day...and also > on Atenonol > 50mg...to ease the tremors and lower my heart rate.... > > June 16/03 > Free Triiodthyronine 27.1..should be 8.5-6.5 > Thyrotropin( sensitive TSH) .05...should be 35-5.00 > Free Thyrotropin( Free T4) 46..should be 9-23 > > July 30/03 > TSH .05..should be .30-4.70 > T4 Free 24.3..should be 9.1-23.8 > free T3 16.8..should be 2.5-5.7 > > August 29 > TSH .05 should be .30-4.70 > T4 Free 24.1 > T3 Free 18.4 > > When first seen by Endo....blood pressure was rangin between 170/98 > and > 150/89... > By August I was sittin at 126/70 > Blood preesure as of tonight September 3 2003 (chiropractor read it > ) was > 150/80 > > Currently on 900mg of PTU > 100mg of BB > 25mg of Vioxx Hi Alle. I guess I didn't read your numbers properly last week because I thought the ATDs weren't having any effect at all when this isn't so. You really made progress between your first 2 rounds of bloodwork. Here are my thoughts: 1. Does your doctor routinely start patients at 600? This is not standard and sets off the alarms, IMHO. 300, occasionally 450, is a typical starting dose even for very active Graves. 2. Ideally, one starts at a high dose and gradually decreases. Increasing medication after the first round of bloodwork once on medication also gets me nervous. You know, I'm all for frequent bloodwork but if you were fairly stable from the end of June to just 4 weeks later then I as a doctor would have kept you on that dose and checked you another 4-6 weeks later. If I would have still felt a dose increase was in order I wouldn't have increased by more than 100 mg. 3.Your side effects - weight gain, confusion, etc. - are not typical in that they're too dramatic. Yes, it's easy to gain the weight we lose when hyper back, and ocassionally, even with a competent endo we can go a little hypo which messes our heads a bit, but this is tremendously scary. Most of us saw tremendous progress starting at 300 or a bit more (or 30 for methimazole) and were able to reduce from there. Many incompetent endos then keep their patients at 200 (or 20) for much longer than warranted because they rely on TSH, so beware of that happening too. I believe that you will be able to decrease your dose to more normal numbers and that you have to for your health. Here's a question for other members: How should Alle best reduce her medication? (Alle, sorry to be talking about you as if you're not in the room.) I'm thinking of this analogy - the need to decompress to avoid the bends. Reduce by 50 a day every two days, and till what point? Obviously she needs to get her doctor in on this but also obviously he (she?) doesn't seem competent or trustworthy, so Alle will have to come in with some kind of a game plan to get the dr.'s rubber stamp. Keep us posted Alle. Also, try to be philosophical about any weight gain you may have IF we're talking about it slowly creeping up - try to eat healthily and move a bit (something gentle like walking, especially outdoors for your mental health). BUT, this is not normal! Even if it's due to the BB and Vioxx (which I'm not at all familiar with) it's still dangerous!! Take care, Fay ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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