graves Disease

[paradise lost]

It sounds like you've done all your homework and made the best decision for yourself and your family hun. I hope your endo is supportive and your referral is quick. I also had a goitre after DD was born but luckily mine vanished with treatment (yours is overgrowing because your body doesn't think there's enough, mine was overgrowing because it was trying to compensate for the attack - treating the deficiency cured my goitre - it's only slightly enlarged on the right now, was once the size of a large grapfruit!).

Best of luck with your surgery and recovery - you're going to feel GREAT once you're stabilised on thyroxine! Let us know how you get on.

Bx

[~mamaspice~]

Thanks Hoobley, you are such a sweetie. I started to develope a goitre when I was about 12 but it's gotten larger since the Graves decided to make itself known when I was 26.
You are very knowledgable. You work in the medical profession I take it???

Jas I am so sorry I highjacked your thread for a while there. let us know how you are going

[s361768]

Hi,

After my second son my thyroid became overactive and the doctor called it postnatal thyrotoxicosis. I didn't go onto medications or seeking specialists, I had blood tests and we kept an eye on it. It cleared up after a couple of months. After my third son I had the same problem except I had antibodies this time and my GP referred me to a specialist. I haven't been tested since my fourth even though I was supposed to. Slack I know.

After my third bub the specialist said that I had Thyrotoxicosis and I was diagnosed with Graves disease and he put me on low dose meds (PTU). He also noted that I had a small goitre. The only symptoms I had/have on and off are excessive trips to the toilet for number twos, moodiness, anxiety (I have always had that anyway), elevated heart rate, excessive sweatiness. But I felt okay otherwise and during my last two ppregnancies my bloods were good. Do I have to keep my eye on this, will I always be a sufferer? Will symtoms get worse? Reading through your posts has worried me a little because I have been quite nonchalant (sp?) about it.

I was on the meds for a couple of months and then I just went off them. I was looking forward to going on meds at the time for my thyroid because I have a terrible skin condition that other specialists were not able to tell me what it was or effective treatment for it, and the endo said that it was possible my thyroid that was causing it. Unfortunately that was not the case because the meds didn't help my skin condition.

It is great to read a thread though on thyroid conditions I guess mine started after my pregnancies, as did my skin prob. I need to have my bloods done again to see if I need to go back on medication.

Karen

[paradise lost]

Hi Karen,

Graves can be serious, though it isn't always. Mild hyperthyroidism tends to cause the symptoms you have, and the main danger is heart damage because your heart is going harder and faster all the time. This can be serious and heart failure is a common outcome of untreated hyperthyroidism as over years and decades the muscle becomes damaged and weakened.

Though the symptoms don't feel too bothersome, really they are all a reflection of your body's metabolic rate pushing all your systems hard. It's like driving with your foot down on the gas the whole time. Eventually you crash.

Like all endocrine conditions it is far better to be treated than not. Some such problems (like diabetes) can be more or less immediately fatal if untreated but others (like thyroid or many adrenal problems) more usually give sufferers long term low level symptoms which over time can result in more serious things.

If i were you i'd be re-tested and this time take your meds. If you need further treatment, like Charli'smumma, you'll be offered that.

Graves disease is incurable and can be progressive, but many people have remission and some have it permanently. I would say because you've had repeated attacks you are unlikely to be such a person, but you might respond very well to treatment, one never knows. On the whole it is better to be treated than risk the more serious possibilities. If the drugs don't control your thyroid you can always have RAI treatment or surgery.

Don't panic - thyroid conditions CAN be serious, but with treatment they rarely are.

Best of luck.

Bx

[~mamaspice~]

Hi karen,

I agree with Hoobley. Definatley make sure you get your bloods done regularly and stay on the PTU or other treatment as long as you need to. Heart failure can be a real risk if the condition is left untreated. Do you have a beta blocker (such as propanolol or inverel) to take for your rapid heart rate if the PTU doesn't quite have that under control? The other thing too is the fact that having untreated graves increases your risk of developing osteoporosis (can't spell). I had a nasty fracture to my humerus (just under the shoulder) 22 months ago and when my endo saw that in my records she said it could be an indication that the graves is already beginning to compromise my bone strength. Not sure if she was being a little too dramatic, but it did freak me out a little.

take care

Tamara

[s361768]

Thank you Hoobley and Charli's mumma (sp?) for your advice you both seem very knowledgable. I do understand the importance of getting treatment for this condition. Even though I do feel better not knowing and assuming my bloods are ok, I will get retested within the next few weeks and fingers crossed.

My son is only 4 months and I don't need doctors hassling me at the moment about surgery, radioactive iodine, or even meds. I have a fear of surgeons (prev bad experience)

Seeing a specialist was overwhelming last time because it was just after my third and I was breastfeeding, but luckily the dr. said I only needed low dose meds to get it under control and it was ok for me to take and to continue feeding my son at the same time.
He did want me to be monitored though.

My Late Grandmother had Graves and my sister has Hashimotos (her thyroid is underactive) she is on meds all the time now.

Seems to run in both DP and my family, my partners twin sister has Hashimoto's and she has to have b12 (either b12 or b6) injections frequently. I know this sounds terrible but I would rather be underactive than overactive (if I have to have thyroid probs at all ) because at least an underactive thyroid doesn't involve surgery or radiocative iodine treatment to rectify it, then only to be on thyroxine for the rest of your life anyway because they have killed it.

I got told that some people with overactive thyroids become underactive by themselves.
Do you ladies know much about this?

Thank you so much
Karen xx

[paradise lost]

Charli'smumma, no i'm a single SAHM, i just read a lot! LOL. I know about thyroid things because i suffer myself and i always want to get a fuller picture than the doctor gives. He'll say "Oh, you're body doesn't like your thyroid, so it attacks it and stops it working" whereas in fact my immune system thinks i have an overactive thyroid and attacks it for that reason - it's almost like being allergic to my own thyroxine! Anyway, i know alot about birth and babies for the same reason - always been fascinated. I have an enquiring mind. LOL.

Karen, getting your bloods done is the first step. They will not re-diagnose active Graves until you are 6 months post partum as it can often take the body that long to overcome post-partum thyroiditis. In PP thyroiditis you OFTEN see a woman become hyperthyroid and then as the body takes control, hypothyroid, from which she usually slowly returns to normal - the answer in those cases is to test the blood every 1-3 months to check levels. Repeated attacks of THAT can lead to someone remaining permanently hypothyroid, depending on how aggresively the body reacts to the hyperthyroid phase of the illness.

With non-PG-related hyperthyroidism, like Graves, the problem is that your body is actively killing off the cells in your blood which read thyroxine levels. In my (Hashi's) body it is the thyroxine-producing cells that are attacked, so they can't make enough thyroxine, because my body thinks my thyroxine is a foreign invader, like a virus or infection, and kills it at source. With your body it's the thyroxine-detectors that are attacked, meaning your brain can't check it's own thyroxine levels (again, because it thinks they are foreign cells) - imagine a dip-stick snapped off just inside the oil tank - your brain NEVER sees how much there is so it tells your thyroid to make more and more. Because of that it's unlikely that your body will naturally slow your thyroid.

I know it's annoying being hyper, and i've only been hypo, unless you count my pregnancy (when i wasn't hyper but i was in remission from Hashi's (which was undiagnosed at that time, i just assumed i was lazy/greedy) so i was "normal" for the first time in years - i gained 6kg all-up, all after the 34th week, and lost it all the day she was born, within 4 months of her birth, because of BFing and my continued remission, i'd lost a further 18kg! Of course then i crashed badly as it returned with avengence and i was really ill for a few months, lost my milk, had bad joint pain etc., and was generally an UNHAPPY bunny until i got medicated). Try to look at it like this - if you are hyper now they will give you some drugs to control it. If you are still hyper in a few more months they will give you surgery or RAI treatment and then you WON'T be hyper anymore, but hypo. It's not incurable, it's just annoying. And hypo is incurable, but not nearly so annoying.

Hang in there hun, you'll be ok.

Bx