Re: what happens now?

[Guest guest]

Hi .

The most important thing to do is what you're doing now: get information.

It took me a really long time for everything to sink in. So just keep

reading. The homepage has great information. Here are a few books to read

that may be available at your local library or through Amazon: Graves

Disease: a Practical Guide by Elaine (who's a member of this list)

and The Thyroid Solution by Dr. Ridha Arem (many members of this group

don't agree with all his recommendations for GD but it may clarify some

basics for you).

Here are some basic good ideas for dealing with this:

- Get a 3 ring binder and keep all your records. Always get the results

of any bloodwork.

- Share your results with the group. The bloodwork you should be getting

on a regular basis are the TSH (which you will learn is not so important

at this point) and FREET4. Also, send the ranges your lab considers

normal for those tests; it should be right next to the number.

- Again, keep reading.

I have a few questions for you. The pros on the group will be able to

interpret the answers for you.

- What are your TSH and Free T4?

- What medication are you on, at what dose, and how many times a day are

you supposed to take it?

- Are you seeing an endocrinologist?

Your doctor may not be clear because you don't yet know what questions to

ask. That he put you on medication instead of rushing you into RAI is

good. This will give you time to be fully informed, and with a young

baby, no matter how supportive your family, you don't want to be apart

from her for 10 days except as a last resort. And you still have a lot of

other treatment options.

Take care, Fay

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[Guest guest]

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Kirkwood wrote:

>

> i went to the

> doctors, and finally, he did some blood tests, and

> found out i have hyperthyroidism, and an ultrasound on

> my neck found i have graves disease

Hi ,

welcome to the group. There are a lot of resources at the Graves Support

web page (which everyone always skips passed whilst looking for the

" subscribe me to the mailing list " setting), and plenty of general

information on Graves disease.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/graves_support/

There are three main treatments, drugs, surgery, and RAI, but the last

two can be further subdivided into treatments aimed at leaving a working

thyroid remanant, and those aimed at leaving you with lower than normal

thyroid function (when the deficit is made up with pills).

There is a moderate chance you will go into remission on drugs, so take

the pills for a few month with regular blood tests, and see how you do.

By then if you've followed the list you'll be knowledgable enough to

make a further decision. It is not uncommon to try drugs for 18 months

in Europe, and sometimes people are weened off then several times before

opting for a more permanent treatment.

If the pills control the hyperthyroidism well and you are happy with

them current opinion is that you can stick with them, although a lot of

people prefer to try something more permanent.

Sounds like your doctor is doing okay since making the diagnosis. Is he

an endocrinologist, or specialist in thyroids? It is usually recommended

you see a specialist with Graves disease at least once to agree a

treatment plan, although for some " simpler " cases a GP is perfectly

adequate. I vote experience and knowledge over qualifications any day.

I'm not aware of any specific issues with " anger " and choice of

treatment, some people get angry, or even psychotic when their hormone

levels change suddenly. Which sounds like what you experienced, but I'm

not aware of anyone having looked at how this affects the treatment

choice. Me I think I'm jut inherently grumpy ;-)

Take care,

Simon

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[Guest guest]

Hi :

It sounds like you had a nightmare of a time to get to a diagnosis.

My heart goes out to you.

Uncontrollable anger is part of Graves, many call it Graves' Rage. I

don't have children but I felt the same way about my poor animals, I

once threw one of the cats out the window (ok, we were on the ground

floor). I would stomp around the house screaming, and they would all

look at each other and go to another room.

It's really amazing what an imbalance of hormones can do to a

person emotionally. I'm happy to hear that your family is very

understanding. Once you settle into your meds, you will see the anger

slowly abate, however, if it is really bad for you right now, you

might consider talking to your doctor about a beta blocker or an

anti-anxiety medication such as Adivan. I really do not like taking

meds like that, but when you are just crazy with rage, especially when

you have kids to take care of, it might help short term.

I'm wondering why your doctor lowered your dosage of ATD, was it after

you had more blood tests? I hope it was not in an effort to deal with

the anger, because the more hyper you are, the more emotional you can

be. When you post your lab results, can you also post the dosage you

are on?

Finally, once I caught on, it helped a lot to remind myself that the

things I felt and the things I did were generated by the excessive

hormones and the fact that everything in my body was revved up. The

exhaustion, the rage, the pains, were all part of Graves. Once I knew

that, it was easier to catch things before they got too rough, for

example, when the rage started swelling up from inside, I would try to

step away, if I was exhausted, I took myself to bed. Until you are

stabilized, please take good care of yourself and be gentle, don't

judge yourself, if you do this, it will be easier for you to take care

of everyone else.

Good luck, I'm glad you're on this board, it will help a lot.

> Hi guys, my name is tanya, and im 22 yrs old, about 4

> years ago i started feeling really tired, and i went

> to the doctors countless time.

[Guest guest]

maria, thank-you, thank-you thank-you, your words have

helped alot, its comforting to know, i am not the only

person on this planet going through this, i mean, my

family understand, but they dont UNDERSTAND, Only some

one who is going through the same thing really

understands. And in answer to your question, they

lowered the dose, because of the blood test results,

but since my dose has been lowered, i nolonger get the

rage. hope to keep in touch......tanya --- hlymacro

wrote:

---------------------------------

Hi :

It sounds like you had a nightmare of a time to get to

a diagnosis.

My heart goes out to you.

Uncontrollable anger is part of Graves, many call it

Graves' Rage. I

don't have children but I felt the same way about my

poor animals, I

once threw one of the cats out the window (ok, we were

on the ground

floor). I would stomp around the house screaming, and

they would all

look at each other and go to another room.

It's really amazing what an imbalance of hormones can

do to a

person emotionally. I'm happy to hear that your

family is very

understanding. Once you settle into your meds, you

will see the anger

slowly abate, however, if it is really bad for you

right now, you

might consider talking to your doctor about a beta

blocker or an

anti-anxiety medication such as Adivan. I really do

not like taking

meds like that, but when you are just crazy with rage,

especially when

you have kids to take care of, it might help short

term.

I'm wondering why your doctor lowered your dosage of

ATD, was it after

you had more blood tests? I hope it was not in an

effort to deal with

the anger, because the more hyper you are, the more

emotional you can

be. When you post your lab results, can you also post

the dosage you

are on?

Finally, once I caught on, it helped a lot to remind

myself that the

things I felt and the things I did were generated by

the excessive

hormones and the fact that everything in my body was

revved up. The

exhaustion, the rage, the pains, were all part of

Graves. Once I knew

that, it was easier to catch things before they got

too rough, for

example, when the rage started swelling up from

inside, I would try to

step away, if I was exhausted, I took myself to bed.

Until you are

stabilized, please take good care of yourself and be

gentle, don't

judge yourself, if you do this, it will be easier for

you to take care

of everyone else.

Good luck, I'm glad you're on this board, it will help

a lot.

> Hi guys, my name is tanya, and im 22 yrs old, about

4

> years ago i started feeling really tired, and i went

> to the doctors countless time.

[Guest guest]

thanks guys for all your responses, to answer some of

your questions, i don't know what my ths and free t4

are, the doctor hasn't given me that information, the

medication i am on is neo-mercaxzole/carbimazole i

started out taking 4 tablets a day, but after a blood

test the doctor dropped the dosage to one a day, which

obviously means things are looking good, and i haven't

been referred to an endocrinologist, my doctor is

dealing with it all. thank you everyone for the

support,i really appreciate it. tanya

http://mobile.yahoo.com.au - Yahoo! Mobile

- Check & compose your email via SMS on your Telstra or Vodafone mobile.

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

I would do a couple things if I were you: 1) get copies of ALL your blood

tests to date and share them here. 2) be very very careful about reducing

your dose that quickly. You may be in for a bounce back to hyper. Certainly,

you need to understand the results of your blood tests rather than fly

blind. You don't mention the dosage of your pills, but they usually are 5 or

10 mgs. each, so you've been dropped precipitously. We have found, here,

that slow reductions work the best most of the time. The thyroid doesn't

seem to respond well otherwise, although if you have gone very hypo, it may

be necessary to do a fairly big drop initially.

Anyway, being informed about your test numbers and understanding what they

mean, and learning to correlate them to your current and past symptoms and

figure out how your body is reacting, is the beginning of your education

about a disease you've got a long-term commitment to understanding, since it

doesn't, generally, just go away.

Terry

>

> Reply-To: graves_support

> Date: Sat, 31 May 2003 09:32:42 +1000 (EST)

> To: graves_support

> Subject: Re: what happens now?

>

> thanks guys for all your responses, to answer some of

> your questions, i don't know what my ths and free t4

> are, the doctor hasn't given me that information, the

> medication i am on is neo-mercaxzole/carbimazole i

> started out taking 4 tablets a day, but after a blood

> test the doctor dropped the dosage to one a day, which

> obviously means things are looking good, and i haven't

> been referred to an endocrinologist, my doctor is

> dealing with it all. thank you everyone for the

> support,i really appreciate it. tanya

>

> http://mobile.yahoo.com.au - Yahoo! Mobile

> - Check & compose your email via SMS on your Telstra or Vodafone mobile.

>

>

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> Please consult your doctor before changing or trying new treatments.

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