slightly wacky question whaz up with me & my labs

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Hi Everybody,

I know this may sound just a wee bit nuts, but here I go anyway. :-)

My husband and I are about to celebrate our 45th birthdays together

in the middle of November, as well as our 25th wedding anniversary

in December. As a gift to myself and to him ('cause he thinks

they're sexy) I'm planning on getting a little tattoo in a discreet

area sometime in the next week or so.

Is there anything about getting a tattoo that would be counter-

indicated by having Graves Disease? Wanted to know before I go

blithely on my way down to the tattoo parlour. I've got a pretty

high tolerance for pain, so I don't think I'll stress out and

trigger my numbers going bad from any discomfort of the actual

process.....but I wanted to run it past the group and see what pops

up!

The laughing and shaking of heads may know commence! LOL My kids

don't even know I'm doing this, and if I'm smart I should probably

never tell them...it might disturb the poor lil' dears.

Apart from my no doubt middle aged crazies.....I'm doing pretty

good. We are in the fire zone here in So Ca (I live in Simi Valley)

and had a scary early morning on Sunday where the flames took out a

hill right up our street. It singed a few garages and partially

burnt one home, but thank the Lord, the winds had died down and the

embers didn't fly all around, or it would no doubt have been much,

much worse. My heart is breaking as I see the devestation that this

is causing so many families. Keep our region in your prayers please.

I've been trying to stay indoors as much as possible, since I feel

if cigarette smoking is bad for the Graves....how much worse would

be living in a fire pit? Probably not good! The ash continues to

fall like snow at times, from the fire that is still going strong as

it moved to the next city over. I've got a sexy growl for a voice

when I wake up in the morning. Even though the house is sealed up

pretty tight, it's next to impossible to avoid breathing the smokey

air.

I had my lastest visit with the Endo earlier this month, and my

numbers had actually shifted a teensy bit up, which is good since I

still feel a bit hypo. (Ear ringing slightly worse, still tired by

about 7-9pm which is so not like me, hair coming out a bit more,

constipated again - although that could be the naughtiness of eating

some junk food - BAD !) I'm debating right now whether or not I

should continue on the 5 mg. dosage for the next 2 months as he

wanted till I see him in early December and get my labs done again,

or if I should cut it down to 2.5 on my own and see how I do. Since

my numbers moved on their own back up on this dose, could my body be

readjusting itself and taking care of business on it's own, or do I

need to nudge it some more in the right direction? Decisions,

decisions....... since I'm in the " normal " range on it all, my Endo

thought everything looked great and thus the 2 months between

visits. Here's the numbers so you can see:

10/9/03 9/8/03

T3, Total 110 (range 60-181) T3, Total 75 (range 60-181)

T-3 uptake 32 (range 22-35) Same

T3 Free 305 (range 230-420) T3 Free 276 (range 230-420)

T-4 Free 1.1 (range 0.8-1.8) T-4 Free 1.0 (range 0.8-1.8)

TSH 0.63(range>20 years .40-5.50) TSH 0.04 (range>20 yrs .40-5.50)

Let me know what you think! And thanks so much for the caring and

sharing that is demonstrated on this board.

the other

still working up a tag line with pertinent info