graves Disease

[Bathsheba]

Thanks girls... yep I think I must have Graves then. Pretty sure doctor did a test for anti-bodies and they were present. He does seem very perplexed by it all though. I agree, once I wean I'm confident that all will be well. My toddler is 2yo old now and I think it might be time to slow down on the BFing although it's really helped over winter keeping him healthy... and geeze... what on Earth am I going to do every night in the wee hours when he wakes up... wants to be brought into my bed and have a 2 minute BF before going straight back to sleep??? I guess I'll have to be more firm about it. Maybe stop all BFing during the day and hope that I dry up? If I refused him feeds at night i'd be up for hours

Also... just to clarify: when i was first diagnosed last December I resisted any thyroid medication for several months... only took beta blockers for my heart rate. Finally my GP convinced me to see an Endo. And finally, during autumn sometime, he convinced me that i could still BF and take PTU. He was going to put me on 4 tablets a day but i talked him down to 3. Within 6 weeks i was euthyroid (got that normal blood level of 13). Now i'm back on 1 tablet a day. I really do think I must have a very mild case of it... it sounds like an awful thing to have for the rest of my life though... I'm usually such a healthy person... this has quite thrown me

But thanks again girls.

[paradise lost]

I'm usually such a healthy person... this has quite thrown me

Aw hun i SO know what you mean! What was worst for me is that in the UK if you have an illness that needs meds to sustain life your prescriptions become free, and i felt i'd gone from completely healthy to being someone who had an illness that meant i need meds to live. Yeah, it's great my meds are free (i'd be out 30GBP/year just on thyroxine) but having to take pills FOREVER...awful. But then i got to thinking i just have to take one pill, today, and that's it. At first i was thinking of this mountain of meds i'd get through in my life. Now i don't think about it. It's a supplementary hormone my body doesn't make, just like my EPO is a supplementary fat my body appreciates.

Hang in there, once you get used to the idea everything begins to look like it did before..

Bx

[HellRazeD]

Chin up Bath...
Its an awful disease, but it IS manageable. I understand entirely what you mean. When my DD was 6mo, I went from 71kg and healthy, to 93 kg and unhealthy in the space of a few weeks. I was diagnosed with Diabetes (lovely, Dr's didnt even look at the fact that the weight gain was sudden, just assumed that because I was obese at the time that it was T2, found out last week its T1). Then this year, similar, but in reverse. Went from 117kg and able to work, run and exercise (yet the weight stayed on...), to 87kg and unable to do anything. Hello Graves!

The point is, it is a struggle to accept a change in health, especially when it is so dramatic. I used to be on a state waterpolo team, do Gymnastics and sprint swimming, and I was learning Tae Kwon Do too! But that all changed when I put that weight on for no apparent reason. It is even harder now because I have lost so much weight that I am weak if I try to do much....

It is normal to be frustrated and frightened by it, the trick is to tell yourself you can cope, and if you can't, you have us here. Hoobley told me that . The thing right now, is that you are not in control. But, you CAN be. That's what the GP and the endo are aiming for... they are there to work with you to gain control of the disease. They (generally speaking) are genuinely concerned about it. Their goal is to enable you to CONTROL it, instead of It controlling YOU!

Weaning would probably help... and it will help the endo make a more accurate diagnosis too... Not that I usually encourage people to stop BFing, but in this case, it will probably be beneficial.

Keep us up to date

Serene